"Stupid! Stupid!" Fun Link

Spotted at the invaluable blog Boing Boing: Ed Wood's dada masterpiece Plan 9 from Outer Space can be downloaded for free from the Internet Archive.

To learn how D.W. Griffith paved the way for Wood, go here.

Comments

joe | July 15, 2005, 4:18pm | #

Watch "Ed Wood" with Johnny Depp. Fantastic movie.

Jesse Walker | July 15, 2005, 4:22pm | #

Yeah, that's a good one. Definitely my favorite Tim Burton picture.

mediageek | July 15, 2005, 4:26pm | #

Wow. I'm agreeing with joe on sumpthin'.

It is indeed a good film. The first couple of times I watched, I thought it was really funny.

The last time, though, it struck me as more tragic than anything else.

joe | July 15, 2005, 4:27pm | #

All those Misfits songs suddenly made sense.

I mean, not "sense" sense.

You know what I mean.

Born Again Iconoclast | July 15, 2005, 4:36pm | #

Thanks for quoting my all-time favorite movie line in the blog title. Everytime I see O'Reilly on Fox TV, I always think of that childishly fey, preachy alien.

"You see! You see! Your STUPID MINDS!! STUPID!! STUPID!!"

And I swear that detective who scratches his head with the muzzle of the loaded revolver had to have been a Navy officer ....

Eros | July 15, 2005, 4:39pm | #

"Can you see or measure an atom? Yet you can explode one! A ray of sunlight is made up of many atoms."

mediageek | July 15, 2005, 4:42pm | #

BAI- I recently heard an NRA instructor remark that he wanted to use that bit in a video compilation of things not to do with a gun.

Born Again Iconoclast | July 15, 2005, 4:54pm | #

Mediageek,

Yes, he should use it!! I actually saw a Navy officer do that when I was in Fallujah. I feared that idiot more than the insurgents.

I the instructor also teaches them that it's not wise to play russian roullette with a semi-automatic ...

Born Again Iconoclast | July 15, 2005, 4:58pm | #

Sorry, my second line should have been "I hope the instructor .... "

You see! You see! You're stupid, keyboard!! Stupid!! Stupid!!

Tom Crick | July 15, 2005, 5:07pm | #

"All those Misfits songs suddenly made sense."

VampiIira
VampiIira
...VampiiIiiIiiIiiIiiIiiIiiIiiI--ra!
Hey!

PapayaSF | July 15, 2005, 5:18pm | #

IIRC, he actually scratches his head with the muzzle of the revolver with his finger on the trigger.

E. Steven | July 15, 2005, 6:08pm | #

Actually Tim Burton's film could have been a lot more tragic. He ends it at the absolute high point of Wood's career. From that moment on it was a long, hellish slide to destitution.

E. Steven | July 15, 2005, 6:15pm | #

BTW, I could never understand why Wood's career tanked in the 60's whereas equally inept directors like Ray Dennis Steckler and Ted Mikels not only thrived, but are still cranking it out! Where they just luckier or better at working the system?

Jim Walsh | July 15, 2005, 6:39pm | #

There is one absolutely priceless moment in Ed Wood where you can see the mike "carelessly" hanging from the boom during an outdoor shot. That, and the scene where Wood comiserates with fellow "misunderstood genius" Orson Welles, are well worth the price of admission.

mediageek | July 17, 2005, 3:10pm | #

IIRC, he actually scratches his head with the muzzle of the revolver with his finger on the trigger.

Dangerously funny, but not surprising. The practice of keeping one's finger off of the trigger until on target didn't even exist until the early 1980's.

the scene where Wood comiserates with fellow "misunderstood genius" Orson Welles, are well worth the price of admission.

"I'm supposed to do a thriller for Universal. They want Charlton Heston as a Mexican."

Gwyn Thomas | July 17, 2005, 5:36pm | #

Ray Dennis Steckler and Ted V. Mikels are not inept directors, they work wonders on extremely limited budgets that they raise themselves. They are both excellent cameramen as well as talent scouts,giving a start to top cinematographers such as Lazlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmund.This attitude is the residue of those godawful Medved Brothers' books.

Mark B. | July 17, 2005, 11:48pm | #

Another vote for Ed Wood - Depp is great at capturing Wood's enthusiasm and genuine belief that he was creating cinematic masterpieces, and Martin Laudau is superb as the drug-addicted, half-demented Bela Lugosi. Probably Burton's best film.

Stevo Darkly | July 18, 2005, 12:37pm | #

Another fan of Ed Wood here.

One scene I liked is when Wood is shooting a movie and the guy playing Tor Johnson (I think it was George "The Animal" Steel), has trouble getting through a door and makes the whole set shake, revealing how flimsy and fake it is. Someone asks if Wood wants to do a retake, and Depp says something like, "No! He's so big, he has to deal with things like that every day of his life! It's part of his character! It's real!"