The Dark World of Tim Burton-IV
For earlier posts check here and here and here.
Continuing with the series on Tim Burton, this post takes a look at Burton’s tribute to the B Movie Genre in Ed Wood .
The B Movie, a genre, that defies all understanding, logic and reason. Generally when you speak of B-Movie, what comes to your mind, acting that is either OTT or totally wooden, cheesy effects, ridiculously howlarious action scenes and in most cases, skimpily dressed females. Once upon a time, such movies were shown in stuffy, smelly theaters, and were avoided by both families as well as movie critics. No person would ever want to commit blasphemy, by admitting that he actually liked those movies.
But in recent years the B-Movie genre has seen a kind of revival, thanks to directors like Quentin Tarantino and Tim Burton, who made a career of paying homage to those movies. And no longer was B-Movies a dirty word in movie circles. In fact it became a genre of it’s own, there have been articles and serious analyses on it. There are fan clubs, which have sprung up exclusively for those movies. Both Burton and Tarantino, openly claim their inspiration from the B-Movie Genre.
Tim Burton’s fascination for B Movies goes right back to his childhood or more specifically his growing up years. In order to escape the reality of the school environment, Burton would seek an escape, by watching B grade horror and sci fi flicks. Actually B is a relative term, until Star Wars and Alien happened, sci fi was considered to be a B Grade genre, yes there was 2001 before that, but that movie was seen as way too abstract at that time. What Star Wars and Alien did was to confer mainstream respectability on the sci fi genre.
3 persons would influence Tim Burton in his growing up days, Vincent Price, the actor famed for his roles in horror flicks like House of Wax, The Fly series( the 50’s version) to name a few. The other was Ray Harryhausen, the special effects animator, who had done some outstanding work in movies like Jason and the Argonauts( the skeleton fight), Mysterious Island, Clash of the Titans. In fact the skeleton fight scene in Jason and The Argonauts, is one of the finest examples of stop motion animation. Considering that movie had come in the 50’s, it was something way ahead of its time.
I remember watching Jason and Argonauts as a kid, and this scene really left me spellbound.
And the 3rd person was of course, Ed Wood, the cross dressing cult movie maker of horror flicks. Burton grew up watching Ed Wood’s flicks, and he paid a homage to his idol, in the 1994 biopic of the same name.
Ed Wood stars Johnny Depp in the title role, and Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, the actor who was famous for his vampire roles, and his distinctive gruffy voice. Ed Wood is an open window to the world of B movie making. The movie is not just about Ed Wood and his cross dressing fetish, it also offers an insight into how the B movies caught on the imagination of the general public.
Imagine the Ramsey Brothers, narrating about their movies, their ideas, that is what Ed Wood is about. In his lifetime he was rated as “The world’s worst director” and his movies were ridiculed as BGrade stuff. Yet there was something in Ed Wood, that made Burton idolize him. As he told in an interview
“I’ve never seen anything like them, the kind of bad poetry and redundancy – saying in, like, five sentences what it would take most normal people one…Yet still there is a sincerity to them that is very unusual, and I always found that somewhat touching; it gives them a surreal, weirdly heartfelt feeling.”
But most importantly Ed Wood was an outsider, he was not a part of the Hollywood studio system. Burton’s movies always had this sympathy for misfits and outsiders, Edward Scissorhands or Beetlejuice. Even Batman was not the conventional super hero, he was more darker, more brooding, and he did not have any super natural powers either. This could be seen in Batman Returns, where he shows The Penguin as a social outcast, and takes his revenge on the society that abandoned him.
As a biopic, i would rate Ed Wood one of the best right up there with likes of Patton, Lawrence of Arabia. The entire movie is shot in B&W, as Burton wanted the movie to have the look and feel of the 50’s B Genre movies. The movie though is not just about Ed Wood,it is also a homage to the campy movie making style of 50’s B movies. Those movies had a simple strategy, come up with a grand sounding title, like “Plan 9 from Outer Space” , get in a has been star, Bela Lugosi was a burnt out case, when Ed Wood began to cast him, and then of course the age old trick advertise through posters showing females in the sleaziest poses. It also helped that in the 50’s, the US had a lot of drive in theaters, shady tent houses with low prices and small town single screen theaters. Yes very much reminiscient, of those smelly, stinking theaters we have in India, where you can see “Nasheele Raat” or “Khooni Darwaza”. . In a different way the 50’s B movies were a kind of indie movie making, outside the studio system.
Ed Wood is a movie maker, who is totally in love with his movies. He really does not care, what others think about his movies, he just loves them. Though Hollywood never accepted him, this guy is swept away by the star system. He idolizes Bela Lugosi, even though he has become a burnt out case. And the other members in his crew also don’t inspire any hope. Bunny Breckinridge(Bill Murray), , was more famous for his gay lifestyle and drag acts, rather than any acting talent. Criswell(Jeffrey Jones) or the Amazing Criswell, another hooky guy, whose acting credits include movies like Plan 9 from Outer Space and Orgy of the Dead, and more famous for his pyschic talents. Vampira, real name Maila Nurmi, famous for her female vampire roles on TV and Tor Johnson, in reality a professional wrestler who would do acting
In short a total bunch of loony characters, who would fit into MAD magazine. Or as Ed Wood’s girlfriend, Dolores Fuller( Sarah “Sex In the City” Jessica Parker), puts it
Well, I see the usual cast of misfits and dope addicts are here.
In fact Dolores appears to be the only sane character in the movie.
The movie also explores Ed Wood’s cross dressing fetish, and in fact he even shoots an entire movie, starring himself in drag.
The best part of the movie is however the bonding between Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi. Even though Bela feels he is past his prime, and a has been, Ed Wood, refuses to believe that his idol has fallen. The scenes between Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi are just brilliantly etched.
Another great scene is when a fan comes to ask for Bela Lugosi’s autograph, and he inadvertently praises Boris Karloff, who was Lugosi’s rival.
Conrad Brooks: You know which movie of yours I love, Mister Lugosi? “The Invisible Ray”. You were great as Karloff’s sidekick.
Bela Lugosi: Karloff? Sidekick? FUCK YOU! Karloff does not deserve to smell my SHIT! That Limey cocksucker can rot in hell for all I care!
Ed Wood: W-what happened?
Bela: How dare that asshole bring up Karloff? You think it takes talent to play Frankenstein? It’s all, all makeup, and-and grunting. [imitates Frankenstein] Grrr-Rrrr!
Ed: I agree, Bela. I agree a hundred percent. Now Dracula — there’s a part that takes talent.
Ed Wood also works on the strength of 2 brilliant performances. Johnny Depp is just brilliant in the title role, he slips so well into the skin of the character,that you believe he is Ed Wood. Right from Ed Wood’s peculiar way of speaking, to his gait, and yes to his cross dressing, you get one of the best performances in a biopic. And Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, has to be one of the finest on screen performances you would ever see. His make up, his gruff way of speaking, his arrogant swagger, his smirking, it is a lesson in acting for sure.
Ed Wood is different from Burton’s previous works, in that the story is more character driven, rather than, style driven. And Burton does the job admirably, etching out his characters perfectly, even the supporting ones. I just don’t understand why this movie was never even nominated for an Oscar. And neither Depp nor Landau were nominated for Oscars, and that is a real shame.
The next in the series will be Burton’s another tribute to B movies in the sci fi genre, Mars Attacks.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Great post. Ed Wood gets it due. Liked the way you have presented the scenes. Makes fun for me who hasn’t seen it but lived in a dream B world for long. Bill Murray in a Burton should be fun.
@Ratnakar
what you have written is
one of the best write up about cinema, I’ve ever read,..
B movies are Genre, most recent film makers are reviving,.
.
i’ll be working on the remake of plan 9 next year with conrad brooks, the lone survivor from the original.. something i’m really looking forward to. we’re coinciding it with the film’s 50th anniversary and plan to release it on 09/09/09. i’ll be writing a post once we start filming.. but for now check out the website.. http://plan9movie.com/
ed wood was a quirk, but a genius in his own right. it’s not easy to get a studio to make and release his films and he got thru ‘em all. it’s sad that the b-movie genre gets unfairly looked down upon, yet it’s such a crucial element to the majority of the films that studios churn out today.
good post, ratnakar. much needed.
@Striker
You are going to remake “Plan 9”??
Wow man, I love that Movie !!!
I was checking the link ,.you post
Releasing it on 09-09-09 (Plan 9), is a fantastic idea
shekhar, i’ll be acting in it, not directing it.. not sure what role yet, but john wants to shoot in reverse order.. first he wants to cut together a trailer to generate some interest and acquire the remaining funding. for indie guys, that’s really the way to go.. at least that way they have something to show instead of just talking about it. and the great thing about it is that the movie is in public domain, so no rights need to be acquired for it. a movie like plan 9 needs to retain its indie spirit.. for that matter, all of ed’s movies need to have it.. and john is about as indie as they get. the plan is to tell the story of plan 9 as ed originally intended it.. a straight up horror flick. here’s hoping we do justice to his vision…
Sahi hai!!!
Striker bhai,. Just seen Alucard on YouTube,..
have you heard the band called “Gentle Giant”?
shekhar, nope.. haven’t heard of them.. who is it?
“Alucard” is the song by “Gentle Giant” British Progressive band, about Dracula,.
sweet.. will have to check it out.. thx for the recco
You welcome
Hey Striker
Alucard song is here, by “Gentle Giant”
about Dracula,..
http://www.sendspace.com/file/9reqv7
awesome.. thanks shekhar. couldn’t find the videos online. will check it out..
@ Tushar, do check it out, one of the best movies on B Movie making for sure. Bill Murray rocks in a camp act.
@ Shekar, thanks. The B Movie Genre is fascinating in its own way.
@Striker: Wow so i am speaking with an actor here, thats great company for sure. It is fab idea to pay tribute to a famous B movie. Well as i mentioned in the post, movie makers like Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, Wes Craven, Sam Raimi all owe a lot to the B Genre.
We do seem to have a Tim Burton Fan club out here, with myself, Striker, Shekar and Tushar. Striker, thats a very interesting bit of info, i would love to see a post from you on this. Ed Wood in a way was the first of the indie directors, some one who operated outside the studio system, and that was something in the 50’s studio dominated Hollywood. Awaiting ur movie eagerly.
ratnakar, my intro to tim burton came in the form of the 1989 batman, which i was simply mesmerized with. some might find it silly, but i simply fell into the universe of gotham city that burton had created to the extent that it was a redefining movie for me. i remember making a homemade grappling hook out of my pajama’s naada and a sturdy clothes’ hanger. i would then practice throwing my creation onto the branches of the tree in our backyard in hopes that it would hook and then swing from it. i also created a batarang out of wood in my workshop class in 8th standard and enjoyed target practice with empty bottles and cans.
my next burton film was beetlejuice, mostly bc by then michael keaton had become my favorite actor, and elfman my favorite composer. i remember standing in front of a wall and saying beetlejuice 3 times in hopes that keaton would appear… unfortunately, this was not to be. to this day, i always watch it when it’s on tv. or any of his batmans for that matter.
will surely write in once we start filming the plan 9 remake, and hope to release its trailer right here on PFC.
karthik, Well its the same story here, my first Tim Burton flick was Batman, and i just loved it, especially the dark, sombre look of Gotham City. While Christopher Nolan is credited for reviving the Batman series with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, people ignore Burton’s contribution to Batman. He was the person who actually bought the real spirit of Batman, the dark brooding one, as opposed to the campy TV series of that time. Interestingly a vast majority of his TV crew were British, and he stuck with the same crew for Sleepy Hollow. Also another interesting fact, is that Batman was shot on the set for Aliens.
I think Batman and Batman Returns, were the best of the series, before Joel Schumacher, totally masalafied the series, until Christopher Nolan rescued it again. Beetlejuice is a great movie for sure. Loved Michael Keaton’s quips in it.
if i remember the sequence of events rightly, Ed Wood, the director was not named the worst movie director in his own life time. it was after he died that he got that title.
another thing. Martin Landau won the Oscar for the best supporting actor for the movie and the movie won another oscar.
it would be helpful for the readers if you research the subject well before writing a series or article. otherwise you could misinform the less-aware-enthusiasts.
regards,
Arvind