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Post by klep on Nov 16, 2015 7:47:32 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Ed Wood Ed Wood is not an accurate biopic of Ed Wood. It's a glossier biopic about someone much like Ed Wood, but with some of the rougher aspects smoothed out. Gone is the alcoholism and the brief second marriage, and there is no mention of his later years resorting to filming pornography. His cross-dressing may have been scandal enough 20 years ago, but these days it's not much to write home about.
But that's ok. Ed Wood doesn't have to be an accurate retelling of Ed Wood's life, because it's not really about him. It's about how great it is to make movies. The one thing that absolutely, unambiguously comes through in this film is Ed's exuberance for film and his desire to share his ideas with the world. Most of the time people like Ed Wood are forced to create their own little films with handheld cameras in their homes or backyards, but by hook or crook Ed got to make them in Hollywood with real equipment and real actors (and sometimes people who weren't actors). It didn't matter if they were bad because they were what he wanted.
So my question is, this film doesn't shy away from Ed Wood's selfishness in the service of getting his movies made. How much of his doting over Bela Lugosi is a result of self-promotion and wanting to keep his "star" around and how much is him genuinely caring about a Hollywood icon?
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/23: Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown
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