Ed Wood (filmmaker)
Marked by their campy aesthetics, technical errors, unsophisticated special effects, integration of poorly-matched stock footage, eccentric casts, idiosyncratic stories and non sequitur dialogue, Wood's films remained largely obscure until he was posthumously awarded a Golden Turkey Award for Worst Director of All Time in 1980, renewing public interest in his life and work. Some film critics, like Will Sloan, have argued against the Worst Director label, making the case that Wood was creative in working with the financial and cinematic limitations he faced.
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The story of Ed Wood is honestly pretty tragic. His mom was fucked up and I have no doubt that gave him a complex. He served in the Pacific theater in WWII where his greatest fear was being injured in duty - not because of the injury but because the medics would discover he was wearing women's underwear. He never got the budget to work with the ideas he had, and in the end he died in obscurity and penniless from alcoholism.
His most well-known accolade is for Worst Director of All Time. Sometimes these awards, like the Razzies, are intended in good fun with humour, I'm not sure if the Golden Turkey was though. It's not lost on me that Worst Director was awarded to a queer filmmaker who was too dead to defend himself.
Glen or Glenda is a special movie for me. If you take it as the documentary it bills itself as, then it's certainly problematic by today's standards. To me it truly feels like a heartfelt plea from someone struggling to fit into a repressive society that hates them for the crime of existing. Either way, it's ultimately a call for compassion, and only the most callous hearts can take issue with that.
Such a great idea highlighting B-movie filmmakers. 🙏 I think I will follow suit.
I was just cross-posting something I saw in another /c, but might do more, & I look forward your posts, too!
There's also a movie about him starting Johnny Depp. It's good.
If you wanna check out one of his movies but you are afraid you'll get bored, here's a "Rifftrax" (funny commentary added) version of Plan 9 from Outer Space:
https://youtu.be/TpdjMHLN9V8
Notable because it co-stars Maila Nurmi aka Vampira, the first of the gothic-looking horror-movie hosts (i.e. the forerunner of Elvira).
She seems influenced by Bettie Page, who's been given a proper tribute by Zombierella of Messer Chups.
Wikipedia says: