As much rag as I give Burton for his sunset career, without this movie, I might not have actually known much about anything I, as an adult, love. I never would have sought out the weirdos and the semiprofessional oddities that I love so much.

Did it bypass the true tragedy of Ed Wood? Yes, of course. The alcoholism and the genuine inability were glossed over. The porno career wasn't even addressed. But it did speak to my generation in a way very few movies do. It gave us marching orders: like lemmings, we would follow our dreams over the precipice. And we have. But, by God, we're an entire culture of starchasing failures.

I don't think anything was truly glossed over. The epilogue handling the tragedy of Wood's life was completely appropriate, and especially ironic and heartbreaking after leaving Ed on the high of the Plan Nine Premiere, and proposing to Kathy. The movie was about the enthusiasm that allowed Ed Wood to transcend being a loser, and the epilogue placed that in context.

I hate Tim Burton, but this film is incredible. So beautiful, and I have to agree, it didn't gloss over the shitty parts of his life, it just ends before them.

P.S.: Well ok Beetlejuice was ok too.

PULL THE STRINK!

PULL THE STRINK!!!

It's a great movie and one of Burton's best, but it got most of the actual historical details really really wrong, which is ironic since, before the film's launch, he played up how he was being advised by the guys who wrote "Look Back In Angora", generally considered the definitive Ed Wood biography. Instead, he oddly changed the script treatment they wrote (and were never credited for) into what the movie became which was not really very accurate to anyone's life in it.

If you want to see an excellent documentary, check out The Haunted World of Edward D Wood Jr.

That's probably what happened to Johnny Depp, too. And David Lynch for that matter.

Fandoms ruin everything.

Uuh, Ed Wood didn't actually direct this movie.

You mean Tim Burton, right? It's easy to get the two confused, I know.

Ed Wood has more rewatchable movies.

Oh, he's not THAT bad.

Why exactly does everyone hate Tim Burton? My one Republican friend back in college hated him because, quote, "he has stupid hair and needs to grow up, act his age". Personally, I think he's good, but I haven't seen any of his new films since... what, Sweeney Todd? Or maybe that Alice in Wonderland one he did?

I don't like his newer movies because you can tell he's gotten stupendously lazy and unthoughtful in their production. He turned into John Hughes post 1999.

On the other hand, The Sinister Urge I've seen a hundred times.

Oh, I know what it is. Ed Wood cries his warped psychology all over his movies, often involuntarily. Tim Burton used to do that, but once he got rich and famous, he clogged his broken head with money. Ed Wood never reached that stage.

Lately, Burton seems to do nothing but remakes of old properties that he gives the "Tim Burton Treatment", with Joihnny Depp in the lead. Whenever I go to see one of these movies, it's always entertaining, but it's never surprising the way the earlier films were, and nothing I'd care about missing. I liked Willie Wonka and Dark Shadows, but didn't feel any particular need to see Alice in Wonderland.

Last time I brought it up someone suggested I was drunk, but Burton directed my favorite Batman.

Mine too.

I'm not really sure I consider "Sweeney Todd" an actual Tim Burton by comparison considering the active involvement of Stephen Sondheim, who really probably bought his great-grandchildren something pleasant.