Ed Wood (Special Edition) | 
| Director: Tim Burton
Actors: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, Jeffrey Jones
Studio: Touchstone / Disney
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $9.34
You Save: $20.65 (69%)
New (52) Used (20) Collectible (7) from $8.89
Rating:  249 reviews
Sales Rank: 1729
Format: Ac-3, Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Dvd, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 127 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: DISD29572D
UPC: 786936212501
EAN: 0786936212501
ASIN: B0000VD04M
Theatrical Release Date: September 28, 1994
Release Date: October 19, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com essential video
Edward D. Wood Jr. was an actor writer-director-producer, occasionally in drag, who combined meager bursts of talent with an undying optimism to create some of the most bizarrely memorable "B" movies to ever come out of Tinseltown. Though Wood died in obscurity as an alcoholic in 1978, his films have been considered cult classics for years. He is consistently voted the worst director who ever lived. You would think this an odd subject, but director Tim Burton harnesses the undying hopefulness that made Wood such a character. Shot in black and white, just like Wood's creations, this stylized, witty production captures the poetic absurdity of Wood's films and his unconventional life. Burton's recreation of Wood's wonderfully awful Plan 9 from Outer Space looks much better than the original low-budget quickie. Burton tackled an extremely strange subject matter for a biopic, but Wood is presented as naive almost to the point of delusion, so the story works. The pace sags in the middle, as the weirdness starts to wear thin, but Depp proves himself an adroit actor, even while wearing angora and a blonde wig. Wood's unconventional repertoire company is faithfully reproduced, including an Academy Award-winning Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi. Landau is pathetic, droll, and charismatic as the elderly junkie who made his last screen appearances in Wood's films. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Product Description
A visionary of sorts with no formal training and a fetish for wearing womens clothing. Ed wood follows his dream to direct a studio-made feature. Although recognition and respect seem to elude him every step of the way he never abandons hope of one day becoming a famous director. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/06/2005 Starring: Johnny Depp Sarah Jessica Parker Run time: 127 minutes Rating: R Director: Tim Burton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 244 more reviews...
Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Bill Murray, and so much more June 16, 2009
Thomas C. Edmonds (Columbus, Ms USA)
Ed Wood was the worst filmmaker ever and I recommend buyin a few of his films to see what I'm talking about. His enthusiasm is played well by Johnny Depp and he never lets up, just as Ed would have.
 Johnny Depp makes an odd role pretty spectacular March 12, 2009
K. Deese (Greensboro, NC)
It's an odd movie, but a well made one. It has that classic black and white movie feel that it strives to achieve while still being on a much more modern topic. I liked it though, an interesting buy. The acting is pretty great in this movie. Johnny Depp has always been good though, so I guess it should be no surprise.
Johnny Depp's GREATEST film and performance! February 23, 2009
Dana Jensen (Everett, WA)
I will never forget the first time I saw "Ed Wood". I saw it on television and I didn't know who Johnny Depp was and I had never seen any of his movies. WAS I BLOWN OVER! I remember thinking "who is this guy and what an INCREDIBLE performance!".
Forget those Pirate films he's forced to do now. Johnny Depp is far too talented to be type cast for that role. I hope people will think of "Ed Wood" instead because he is so CLASSIC in it.
Martin Landau won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his GREAT performance as horror film LEGEND Bela Lugosi. I guess it's ironic that a movie could be so GOOD about such a BAD director. Although I have to say I purchased "The Ed Wood Collection: A Salute to Incompetence" on DVD and I LOVE Ed Wood's movies! "Night of the Ghouls" is almost BETTER than "Plan 9 from Outer Space"! The "So BAD they're GOOD" saying is true!
"I just wanna say, that this film is for Bela!"
"VISIONS ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR. WHY SPEND YOUR LIFE MAKING SOMEONE ELSE'S DREAMS?" February 20, 2009
Josef Bush (Phoenix, AZ)
This is one of the best American movies of the last 50 years, and certainly one of the very best comedies. All the praise given out by the reviewers here and elsewhere is deserved, and I can and do say with certainty that if you aren't made of stone you will laugh your head off.
Granted, the film has been created on Wierdland's back lot -- which Burton has staked out for himself, and which he's resolutely plowed for some years -- it appears, nevertheless, that comparing Burton's wonderful BATMAN and all his other exciting apparitions, this effort comes off best. Why? Complex answer required, but in a word, Humanity.
GENRE STUFF. Everybody loves show-biz flicks, as much as they love movies and talkies themselves; from the Barrymore shows (ROYAL FAMILY) to SINGING IN THE RAIN, to A STAR IS BORN (1 and 2), Garland and Rooney and beyond. It's a category worthy of a book, or even a library or two. And ED WOOD is certainly in that genre. It's the story of a sort of idiot-savant of cinema who managed, somehow, to rise to the negative celebrity of "The Worst Director Of All Time" cult status. That's a campy kind of category, both cloying and redundant. Actually, his movies fit or mis-fit into the category of American non-studio or experimental cinema that sprang up after WW II. Put it somewhere close to Kenneth Anger's films. His time-frame is 50's. That includes not only look -- costumes, sets, cars and props, but language. And I think its here that ED WOOD separates itself from the other Burton films; the writing is just a little bit better. The construction of the movie, scene by scene is good, but the dialogue is fabulous! Crisp, brief, idiomatic without being either cute or campy, it has that Hollywood/USA POP culture sound of the decade. Brilliantly done. Ultimately, the credit for that little bit of extra something that makes this movie so unbelievably fine, belongs to the writers.
HOLLYWIERD DAZE? OK, but whatever the movie appears to be about, the real meaning is layered: it is an expression of Faith; faith in the redemptive and transformational power of the love of the performer's trance, whether on stage or here, on sound stage and for film. (Remember Wood's malapropism, 'Havent' you heard about the suspension of disbelief?') It used to be that in the beginning the saying about Chaplin was, "You take Mable Norman and a stepladder to the park, and you come back with a movie." That's the way it was and is, essentially, in Chaplin's LIMELIGHT or in Allen's PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, or one of the Bergman films about Theatre or Circus. This movie, like those, takes place far beneath the layers of technique that disguise mediocre material and dazzle with tricks, noise and light; the conformist cinema. It takes place in the arena of bare-knuckled, face-to-face human encounter. Freak-to-freak, if you will. And it exhibits a truly religious faith on one's ability to make Magic.
Personally, it ED WOOD resonates with me because I spent some years working in a similar kind of never-land of semi-improvisatory theatre and film in New York, with a director equally as inept as Wood, and equally as driven, though far, far less likeable. The memory of frantic ineptitude overwhelms me! We called the kind of location shooting we did -- streets, interiors -- Guerilla or Hit-And-Run. No permits. Hurry! Hurry! Watch out for the cops! Improvise. Edit in the camera. His career spanned 42nd St. Sexploitation shows to English Spatter Flicks. Ugly junk, mostly. Nothing much came of any of it, though a very few people who went on to have small or minor careers in professional cinema owe their careers largely to that first exposure. Bad movies, but oh! the intoxication of creation without censure!
ed wood special edition January 9, 2009
J. tanquary (california)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
edd wood was not the worst all his movies lacked money not ideas and skill or acting ability. some of his ideas were copied later with big buck movie makers, any body thinks a good movie is if they have great expensive special effects, is a idiot.
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