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Believe it or not, before I saw Ed Wood, I didn't know who Ed Wood was. I had never heard of "Plan 9 From Outer Space". Nothing. Granted, this was 10 years ago, really at the dawn of my movie enlightenment. Still, admitting that now, I feel so stupid.
Ed Wood is, of course, director Tim Burton's telling of the life story of arguably the worst filmmakers in history. Sure, there are a few out there these days who are giving him a run for his money, but he's pretty bad. Johnny Depp plays Wood, a man with a passion for filmmaking, but he's just really bad at it. Surrounding him is a group of people who are equally as bad at whatever they do, be it acting in his productions, telling the future or whatever. Yet despite their collective shortcomings, they continue to do what they do best - make bad movies. And among this harried crowd, we get Bela Lugosi, the once great master of horror who's now reduced to being an addict in a town where the only person who'll give him work is somebody like Ed Wood.
What's so great about this movie? Sure you've got Burton. And sure the man himself, Johnny Depp, leads the cast. And sure you've got Martin Landau giving a knockout performance as Lugosi - one of those roles where you know he's getting the Oscar before they even announce the nominees. But in the end, the movie has heart. It walks the thin line between making fun of the man, and really just being depressing. You care about the characters. You really get involved, and you find yourself rooting for these half-wits.
The special features on this 10th Anniversary Special Edition DVD are enough to make this disc worthy of your DVD collection. First, there's a terrific audio commentary. It starts with Landau in character as Lugosi introducing the participants - director Burton, writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, director of photography Stefan Czapsky, costume designer Colleen Atwood and Landau himself. Although sometimes it doesn't work when the participants aren't together during the recording of an audio commentary, it doesn't really matter here. Burton and the writers understandably take up the majority of the time going over everything that's great about the movie and make this one well worth your time.
Next, we get a making-of featurette - in a sense. Titled "Let's Shoot This F#*%@r!", it's not really your standard, but instead a compilation of behind-the-scenes footage, bookended by an introduction and concluding remarks by Johnny Depp, as himself, as Ed Wood - if that makes sense. Running just under 15 minutes, this one is a fun look behind the camera.
In "The Theremin" we look at the film's music, and the use of and instrument called the "theremin" (the one used to make all the creepy music). Featuring interviews with composer Howard Shore and resident expert Mark Segal, we're shown how the theremin works and are given a little history lesson about the instrument and the role it played in the movie. Fun stuff!
Next, the featurette "Making Bela" features Martin Landau talking about his performance in the movie, his research into Lugosi and choices he made about the character. Although we don't get as much footage of Lugosi as I would have liked, we get enough of a taste with photos (including a famous photo of him in rehab) that really gives us a better appreciation of the man - and a better appreciation of Landau as an actor to have put so much work into the role. In the end, he's really as much as Ed Wood at the heart of the movie.
Pie Plates over Hollywood with production designer Tom Duffield looks at how they made the movie, from the colors and shooting in black and white, to some of the sets props from the movie. Most interestingly, we're shown a book that Duffield made featuring designs from the movie.
The features are rounded out by a truly odd music video featuring the music of the theremin and five deleted scenes that really could've used some commentary or at least introductions by Burton or anybody for that matter.
While the features included are fantastic and serve well to complement the final product, and although this movie really stands alone as a fitting tribute, if this DVD is missing anything, it's that it should have featured a look at the real Ed Wood with archival footage or perhaps interviews with people who knew the man. Either that, or it should have been packaged with copies of "Plan 9 From Outer Space" if only to help people who watch this movie to truly appreciate the man responsible.
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