Todd’s Movie Blog

I have never been a big fan of the biopic, prefering fiction to fact in my movie going experience.  But along comes a film so unique and entertaining that you can’t help but love it.  Leave it to Tm Burton to make a film about a man who made bargain basement budget films and give it the look of a gothic horror film.

The film plays fast and loose with the truth, Woods making of Plan 9 From Outer Space was not the artistic triumph the film makes it look like, and Wood never met his idol Orson Welles, much less got a pep talk from him during a low point during the making of Plan 9.  Plus Wood’s alcoholism is barely even hinted at.

But such complaints aside, Ed Wood is an enjoyable film about a true Holywood maverick and his friendship with a once Hollywood star, now out of work has been, Bela Lugosi.  Johnny Depp and Martin Landau imbue their characters with a deep felt humanity.

Depp’s Wood, despite his constant upbeat personality, shows at times that he isn’t impervious to the constant criticism of his work, and wonders if he really is as talentless as everyone says he is.

Landau, thankfully not doing a “I vant to suck your blood” cliched Lugosi impersonation, makes the actor a tragic, but dignified person.  There is sad scene where, half drunk and feeling sorry for himself, he talks about how turning down Frankenstein probably ruined his career, then gets himself together and finishes his scene fighting with a rubber octopus because the man is a professional and he will damn well give the best fighting with a rubber octopus scene he can, and it makes you love the man.  In the film, this leads to Wood writing Lugosi his famous “Home?  I have no home!” speech from Bride of the Monster.

Of course the film wouldn’t be half as enjoyable as it is if not for all the humor in it, none of it mean spirited, like when Wood refuses to do a retake of a scene where Tor Johnson bumped into the set wall trying to go through a door and Wood, instead of saying they can’t afford to do a retake, reasons that the trouble he had was something his character would have everytime he goes through a door and is brilliant acting on Johnson’s part. Even Wood’s showing up to direct a scene in drag because he is stressed out and angora sweaters and poodle skirts make him feel more comfortable elicits sympathy rather than giggles when the church elders financing the film have a fit, because we gotten to know and like Wood as a person and feel for what he is going through.

This is Burton’s best film and sadly it constantly has rights trouble with it’s releases.  Delayed on coming out on VHS, it only came out on DVD about eight years ago, almost ten years after it’s theatrical run, and who knows if it will ever get a Blu-Ray release.   Too bad, because I think everyone should see Landau as Lugosi refer to Boris Karloff as “That Limey cockksucker!” in high def.

Saw a picture of the new actor as Superman for the upcoming Man of Steel, Henry Cavill.  Not sure how I think about him.  Physically he fits the bill looking all buff and broad shouldered.  What has been giving me pause is his dark and brooding scowl.  I get the feeling that the film makers are trying to make Superman be a bit more like their successful Batman films that Christopher Nolan did, which is a big mistake.  Batman and Superman are completely different characters.

Batman is a revenge fantasy so the dark and brooding hero works. But Superman was always an allegory for the immigrant experience, coming to America, making good and in return giving back to the country that has been good to you.  He has always been a lighter character and doesn’t work as an angry hero.  Let’s face it, an indestructible being who can punch out buildings who is dark angry and brooding isn’t heroic, he’s a scary villain, ala Terrence Stamp’s General Zod.

It works for Batman because he is human and vulnerable, but Superman doesn’t operate on that primal level.  There is a reason he has been called the Big Blue Boy Scout.  Batman is a flexible character.  He can be goofy and he can be menacing, both for the same reason.  He can be goofy, ala Adam West, because he is a man running around dressed like a  bat, and he can be menacing, ala Christian Bale, because he is running around dressed like a bat, which is crazy.

But Superman, he can’t pull off that kind of range.  He has a very narrow area that he can operate in, he can be a little goofy and heroic, ala Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh,  he can be stern and fatherly, ala George Reeves, what he can’t be is dark and menacing.  That’s why his greatest enemy is Lex Luther’s criminal scientist and not The Joker’s murderous psycho.

Hmmm, my first two films both concern fighting Nazis. Coincidence? I always like to say Casablanca is an action film for people that don’t like action movies and a romantic film for people that don’t like romantic movies. Though it contains both elements, they aren’t the main focus of the fillm, which is about one man’s redemption.

I know that most would argue the main focus is about a love triangle between the three principles and which one Ingrid Bergman will end up with.  And I won’t disagree that that has a major influence on Humphrey Bogart’s actions in the last third of the film, but for me the main focus of the film is Bogart’s character shift from a hurt and broken hearted man hiding behind a self centered, cynical shell to self sacrificing patriot.  He is the main focus of the film  and the opening has most people talking about him until he is introduced and then everything revolves around him because he holds the maguffin everyone is after and it is his decision that will affect everyone involved and possibly the war.

I first saw Casablanca in college, which probably affects how I look at it.  Technically it was during the summer when I was working at Cedar Point in the late eighties and the movie that had been scheduled for Employee Movie Night had been cancelled, apparently it had already been rented, (looking back I can’t remember what the other film was, probably Lethal Weapon or Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure) and they were showing Casablanca instead.  About half the group left, probably to see if they could find a place that sold beer on a Sunday night, but I stayed and am glad I did.

Like most people who see Casablanca for the first time, I was immediately captivated by it.  The dialogue was amazing, so many witty one liners. My favorites are Claude Rains believing Bogie left America for killing someone because Rains is a romantic, and Bogie telling Veidt that there are some neighborhoods in New York City the Nazis shouldn’t try to invade.

I had seen Bogart in movies before, but this was the first time I had seen BOGART, so cool, so cynical and tough, and so human.  For the first time I saw that you could be a man and still cry without feeling you were weak.  Important lesson for a twenty year old that women tended  not to notice (starts humming Call Me Mr. Celophane).

The film also rekindled my love of old movies.  Something I had given up on in high school.  Nobody cared about Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein or To Catch a Thief, it was Porkies and Friday the 13th 3D.  So I put it aside thinking it was a part of childhood, and then Casaclanca came along and I realized I could still like old films and new ones, they weren’t mutually exclusive.  It was the begining of a beautiful fanship.