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.
all 3 comments