Wednesday, December 28, 2005

And cut! Print. We're moving on. That was perfect!



Some days I think that Ed Wood is the greatest movie ever made.

OK - I may be a little crazy on those days, but it is still a pretty wonderful flick. It is so funny and so sad at the same time. It is completely over the top and yet has some nice subtle touches.

My wife Kat gave me the Special Edition DVD for Christmas and we watched it last night. It was probably my 5th or 6th time seeing it, but I always see something new. This time around, it was Ed's hair. His hair seems to have its own personality, and serves as a window into Ed's state of mind. Whenever Ed has an epiphany, his hair seems to take on a 'mad scientist' look.

For all of the praise Johnny Depp gets these days, for me his early 90s work is his strongest. In two strong films (Ed Wood and Gilbert Grape), he plays the moral centre trying to keep a swirling cast of misfits glue together. That's a tough thing to pull off - and he does it splendidly.

Everytime I think of this movie, I smile simply by thinking of his enthusiasm. Wouldn't like be great if we all followed our dreams (however misguided) with such passion?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hear, hear! ED WOOD was indeed a masterpiece, and thanks for alerting me to the Special Edition. I have a hard time remembering what DVDs I want...I keep forgetting, every time I'm in a DVD store, to look for Ghost World, for example. This is one of the DVDs I want that my wife would be happy to watch with me (as opposed to stuff like Godzilla films, which she watches somewhat grudgingly!), since it was one of our first "date movies".