"A study in the art of communication via the film, Ed Wood"
By David Dellecese
Copyright 2004
Everyone has dreams. Some give them up in fear of failure. Others settle for more practical or mainstream lives and put their dreams to the wayside. Others pursue them to the farthest possible reaches despite any kind of roadblock, obstacle, or criticism that comes in their way. Ed Wood is one of those people. Ed may now be considered the worst filmmaker in all of cinema, but he, of course, never intended to be regarded this way. Ed set out with an unmatched sense of optimism, and slight ignorance that made him believe everything he touched was going to be amazing. He refused to let the death of actors, unfinished scenes, and lack of financing affect the completion of his films.
What I will be doing is taking a look at the film Ed Wood, based on the life of the z-grade filmmaker, and look into how various parts of communication displayed throughout the movie by various characters helped continue their lives, relationships, and careers, albeit sub-par careers for many. I’ll be explaining various concepts within the realm of communication and then discuss where and how it’s shown within the movie. I’d like to start, with non-verbal communication.
We often act or react in ways that have nothing to do with what comes out of our mouths, but yet we deliver a very clear message to someone through other forms of non-verbal communication. The first we’ll take a look at is Kinesics. Kinesics is the communication that our bodies and faces make in movements and positions that deliver messages to others even if we aren’t speaking.
In the film, we see various forms of non-speaking communication. Early on, when Dolores Fuller, Ed’s girlfriend is moving through her closet wondering where all her sweaters go to, Ed simply rolls over and says nothing. However his eyes glancing over to her in the closet and then away show a clear sign of someone with guilt on their conscious. This happens once again a few scenes later, as Ed is on the phone with a small time producer who’s making a biopic about someone who changed their sex. Ed tells the producer he’s got “special qualifications” that make him perfect for the job that he’d rather not go into over the phone. Hanging up, Dolores asks what makes him so qualified for the job. Ed reassures her “it’s just hogwash, hon.”, that he just needed a hook to get a meeting. As soon as her turns away from her, though, his heavy sigh and the unsteadiness of his eye contact make it very clear once again that Ed’s hiding something from Dolores.
Haptics is the type of communication of messages through our sense of touch. This can give sensations of love, affection, or even power and intimidation by those who invade someone else’s “personal space”. When Ed reveals his secret to his girlfriend, that he likes to wear women’s clothing sometimes because it makes him feel comfortable, she gets very angry with him and doesn’t want him touching her. He finally begins to wear her down, asking her if they’re going to breakup, or if she’s going to make the movie with him. As she begins to visually appear to be coming around, he puts his hand on her shoulder.
At first, it appears to be a motion of comfort to Dolores. That is, until, if one pays close enough attention, they’ll see Ed’s hand start to pay less attention to holding Dolores, and start grabbing and feeling the fabric of the blouse that Dolores is wearing at the time. She shoots him a look right before the scene transition, clearly showing that she knows that he’s thinking of the fabric she’s wearing as he’s touching her, and not in fact her. Or, at least, not as much as her.
Physical appearance refers to the actual physical attributes of someone, such as their gender, or their size, and the inferences that we make about their personalities from these attributes. After his first film flops, Ed is out enjoying a nigh of wrestling with Dolores and his friend Bunny, played by Bill Murray. At the wrestling match, Ed spots a wrestler named Tor, and as he watches Tor mop up the ring with his opponents, all Ed can do is think of what a terrific monster Tor Johnson would make on screen in a horror movie. “That man’s a monster.”, Ed exclaims at one point. However, upon meeting Tor backstage, Ed, as well as the audience, learn that Tor is, in fact, a nice, sweet man who’s simply doing his job yelling and screaming in the ring and using his size to intimidate. Tor’s even got a penchant for Mickey mouse cartoons. Ed makes Tor the pitch to be involved in his films, and Tor gladly accepts. We also learn later in the film that not only is Tor not scary in real life, but is also a family man, with a wife and two kids at home. Ed had one expectation of Tor based on his physical presence and appearance in the ring, which turned out to be quite the opposite from the man he was in real life.
One of the things, especially in movies, that tell us more about the characters are the items that surround them, such as the decorations in an apartment set, an office set, or even the clothes that characters where. These are referred to in communications as artifacts. Artifacts is the term that refers to the objects that we use on or around us to give people an impression or idea of what our personalities are like. Our clothes are one of the biggest messages that we give people upon first appearances. If one was going to meet someone dressed in a long black leather coat, spiked color, ripped jeans, and boots, they might get a very different impression than someone who was wearing non-ripped, cleaner jeans and a button down shirt. In Ed’s apartment, there are giant movie posters, one of Citizen Kane starring Orson Welles. We learn throughout the film that Welles is Ed’s mentor and inspiration. Many times Ed gets depressed realizing he’s almost 40 and Orson Welles was in his mid twenties when he made Citizen Kane. The other poster is of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. Also in the film, Ed befriends an aging Lugosi who is no longer wanted by the Hollywood industry, and regarded as nothing more than a “junkie” or a “bum.”
Clothes are also a very important part of who the characters are, as well as the different depths and facets of their personalities. Bunny wears very light possibly linen (the film is black and white, making it hard to tell) business suits throughout the entire film. He’s always dressed very prim, which goes along with his personality. Bela wears his Dracula costume one night while watching White Zombie with Ed on some late night syndication show on Halloween. He also has written into his will that he wants to be buried in the cape and outfit, perhaps so that he would forever be remembered as the mythic Dracula he portrayed on screen and was best remembered for long after his film career ended.
Ed’s character has some interesting clothing artifacts that change throughout the film. He’s a professional, or at least trying to be, and wears a black business suit and tie to meetings with studio executives, small time producers, and even tuxedos to his film premieres. However, on set, he’s often seen in an angora sweater, a skirt, heels, and sometimes a blond wig, because it makes him more relaxed and comfortable. Near the end of the film, Ed is in a bar drinking after a near breakdown with some producers who feel his dressing like that on set is an “abomination to the lord”. Ed has a chance run-in with his idol, the one and only Orson Welles, who is there having a drink and looking over paperwork for lost funding on his Don Quixote project. Ed realizes it’s Welles and is about to go over, when he looks quickly in the mirror and sees himself in full drag. Before he walks over to talk, Ed pulls of the blond wig and makes his way to Orson’s table.
Proxemics is the idea of space and how we go about using that space. This can sometimes be how we use the physical space we inhabit and arrange things within it, or even refer to how we use our own space in relation to others. People in positions of power sometimes display this power by invading the space of others and getting closer than people in less power levels might. In the film, Bela calls Ed over one night and when Ed arrives, he finds Bela talking to him with a gun in his hands. The distance that Bela leaves between the two of them is very minimal, and the closer he gets to Ed, the more scared Ed becomes that Bela is going to do something crazy, possibly even shoot the two of them.
In a scene for a wrap party for Bride of the Atom, Ed is doing a dance in drag in front of the cast and crew. Dolores is in the back, far removed from the rest of the troupe, looking fed up. Ed’s friend Bunny makes his way over and puts his arm on Dolores’ shoulder, smiling. Bunny then takes a second look at Dolores, realizing that the look on her face says it all…she’s about to explode. Bunny quickly moves his hand off of her shoulder and walks away, creating as much distance between he and her as possible.
Environment obviously refers to the areas around us, which determine our feelings and our ways of behaving and acting. If the environment that we’re in is comfortable, we may wish to stay there for quite some time. Some places, such as the hard plastic furniture of McDonald’s are strategically there to make customers want to hurry up and get out, making for more turn over. While Ed makes calls around to try and find backers for his new film, he comes across one party that’s more interested at this mention of Bela Lugosi being involved. They convince Ed to convince Bela to appear on a live variety sketch show. Bela, although not having worked for many years, is accustomed to the environments of a movie set. When thrown in front of live television cameras and audience with a co-performer who begins ad libbing in the middle of the sketch, the frail Bela is completely thrown off, and loses his lines and pacing, ruining the entire sketch, and angering many of the producers.
Chronemics is the thought that time can be used to display status among various people. This is seen by the importance on entry level or lower level workers in a business to be on time, whereas executives and those higher up can take their time, longer breaks, lunches, and keep others waiting. In the film, Bela is astounded by how quick Ed is in his filming. In one scene he is talking with Tor the wrestler and telling him that when he was working on the old Universal Studio pictures they’d do only three or four scenes a day, but that with Ed, they’ll do thirty or forty a day. Bela thinks this makes Ed absolutely incredible. In Bela’s eyes, the fact that Ed can work so fast and accomplish so much in that period of time is a sign of how good he is at the art of filmmaking. In fact, Bela does not realize that Ed just isn’t taking the time to get anything else on film than his first take, despite any mistakes being made.
Silence can say quite a lot even though no sounds are being made. Silence can create a sense of awkwardness, such as when people don’t have anything in common to talk about, or it can signal anger and tell a person that you don’t wish to speak to them, or it can express guilt, as someone may not know what to say and remain silent for lack of words of defense or answer. After Ed recasts the role of Janet Lawton in Bride of the Atom to actress Loretta King, he makes his girlfriend, Dolores take on the role of the File Clerk. When she shows up to the set for her scenes, Dolores is very cold to Loretta. When Dolores walks to the makeup chairs where Loretta is being made up, Loretta tries to say hello, and Dolores does not respond and looks away smoking. This instantly sets up a tension between the two of them. It is finally broken when Loretta offers Dolores the chair and Dolores tells Loretta it’s “obvious they’re not done with her yet…she needs more work.” Silence also plays a huge part in showing the audience Ed’s guilt every time Dolores asked about her clothes and sweaters. His eyes tells us much, as mentioned earlier, but so does his lack of saying anything, combined with his facial reaction, all hinting at his guilty conscience. Also, later in the film, there is a scene where Bela is talking to a crowd on the street about feeling young even if the body is old. The scene then immediately cuts to Ed in the apartment with his new girlfriend, Kathy, havign a fun time, when the phone rings. He picks it up, and says nothing. That silence then says it all. Bela’s dead.
Self Disclosure is a concept of revealing things about ourselves that are personal and would not necessarily be found out by another person without our taking steps to actually tell them. How others respond to our self disclosures can have a tremendous effect on our views of ourselves and our own acceptance of who we are. The film is filled with various self disclosures. In the very beginning, after the bomb of Ed’s stage play, although he tells the cast that they’re doing great work, at night he lays in bed with Dolores and admits his fears to her. He confesses to Dolores that he’s afraid he might “just not have it”. He’s afraid that everything he’s going to do is going to fail.
Some scenes later, there’s more self disclosure as Ed admits to Dolores that he likes to wear women’s clothing and has been wearing her sweaters. Long after his breakup with Dolores, Ed is on a date with a young woman named Kathy (played by Patricia Arquette). The date seems to be going rather well, and when stuck on an amusement park ride in the dark, Ed admits to Kathy on that first date that he likes to wear women’s clothing. He does this because he wants it out in the open from the very beginning, so that it can’t tarnish or get in the way of a possible relationship for them in the future. Kathy asks him if it means he “still likes girls”, which he says “yes, I love women.” Kathy accepts it, and the two eventually end up getting married.
A self-disclosure comes from other characters other than the title character too. Bela admits to Ed that he has had an addiction to morphine for the past twenty years, and with Ed’s help, admits himself to a rehabilitation clinic. He was one of the first celebrities to come public with such a problem.
Criswell the “psychic”, who joins Ed’s ragtag troupe after a meeting on the set of the earlier mentioned live sketch show, admits to Ed over dinner that all his predictions are “horse shit”. He confesses to Ed that the reason people believe what he says is because of the fact that he wears a shiny tuxedo, that it’s all a part of the show-business blindfold over people’s eyes. If you show them enough glitz they’ll believe what you say.
Conflict isn’t always people fighting, as one might at first think. What conflict truly is, in communications terms, is when people who usually rely on each other for something have different ideas, goals, direction, interests, or responsibilities, and those differences make it difficult for those people to be involved in whatever type of relationship they’re in (be it social, work-related, romantic). Ed had written the role of Janet Lawton the reporter in his second film, Bride of the Atom, for his then girlfriend, Dolores Fuller, even toting her around at backing parties as the “ingenue” that would star. When meeting a newcomer to Hollywood, Loretta King, in a bar, Ed is under the impression that Loretta is willing to put up the sixty thousand he needs to make the movie. In order to convince her to do so, Ed gives her the role she wants to play in the film. That role is Janet Lawton, which was meant for his girlfriend. Returning to their home, we see Dolores chasing Ed around the apartment, throwing dishes and pot and pans at him out of her anger that he gave the role away that he had already given and written for her. Ed explains he had to do it to get the movie made, she tells him he should’ve stood up for her and their relationship and told Loretta that the role was for his girlfriend. Dolores finally hits him in the back of the head with a frying pan when he offers her the role of the File Clerk instead. Dolores finally snaps at the wrap party of the film, and shouts at Ed that he’s surrounded himself “with a bunch of weirdos and freaks”, and that they’re all wasting their lives “making crap”. She explains that she stuck it out to help him finish the movie, but now that it’s done that she’s also done with their relationship, as she obviously doesn’t see her life heading in the same direction Ed sees his.
Conflict of the non-romantic kind occurs with small time producer George Weiss, whose company, Screen Classics, paid for what became Ed’s first film, Glen or Glenda. George thought he was going to be getting a sex-change picture that would draw in a b-movie audience like his other “girlie-nudie” pictures did. Instead, Ed used this opportunity as a forum to make a movie about his own feelings on what it’s like to live with the secret of cross dressing. George is, of course, furious, and when the movie doesn’t sell because of this, George tells Ed very bluntly over the phone, “If I ever see ya again, I’ll kill ya!”
While trying to get his film, “Grave Robbers from Outer Space” made, Ed convinces a group of Baptists to put up the money for the film. The Baptists were looking to make films about the apostles, but only had enough money for one film. Ed convinces them that if they were to put money into his film, a film in a known selling genre, that the proceeds from such a picture would give the church enough money to make as many religious films as they wanted. Everything seems to be working out for Ed, until once they all get on set. Once the film begins production, the Baptists begin making changes that they see as unfit about the original script. They feel that the title “Grave Robbers” is sacrilegious and wish to change the title to “Plan 9 from Outer Space”. They also cast their own friends and parishioners that they feel are fit for the roles. Finally, when they upset about Ed’s cross dressing on set of the film, Ed snaps, and, outraged, storms off the set and hops a taxi to the nearest bar, where he has his infamous run in with Orson Welles.
It would be very easy for Ed to get down on himself and his work, as tends to do throughout the film. It’s with the encouragement of those around him, though, that allow him to pick himself up and see his life and his abilities from a different perspective and start again. We all have people in our lives whose opinions we value more than that of others. The opinions and views of these particular people help change and shape our own views of ourselves. These people are referred to in communication terms as Significant Others. Bela Lugosi began to feel a resurgence in energy and his esteem when he was working with Ed, because Ed always treated him like a “huge star”, despite how others may have looked at Lugosi. When Bela would show up on set, Ed would make a huge deal in front of everyone shouting “Mr. Lugosi’s here!” Ed had become a close friend of Bela’s, so constantly hearing how wonderful he was, his work was, and what great futures were coming around the corner for their careers, kept Bela going, right through to the end.
Even though they ultimately broke up, Dolores’ constant encouragement of Ed through his many failures was, it appears, to be a large part of why Ed kept going. He would get down on himself, and feel like giving up, until Dolores would give him some reason why he was unappreciated or just not in the right spot or time, and this always turned Ed’s mood around to a view that he just had to keep on trying. She would tell him he might not be “studio material” and convince him to raise film money independently. She would read and type up his scripts for him, and make him feel good about what he was doing. He felt like a misunderstood genius, because that’s what Dolores made him feel like in her words, and that was the outlook he began to take on in his own personality.
While some particular people may have a large impact on our own views of ourselves, there are also larger, broader groups, our society as a whole, that also determine or set forth certain rules, expectations, and regulations that determine how we should act, behave and live. Ed knows that society as a whole did not approve of the way that he dressed or liked to dress in his spare time, or sometimes on set. It caused people, such as Delores, or George Weiss, to act very uncomfortable around him, as it seemed unnatural for a man who was trying to pass himself off as a professional to be dressing in women’s clothing.
One way in which we evaluate the types of people we are, is by the ways that other people around us view who we are and how we act. In essence, we’re looking at ourselves, through the eyes of other people. This mirror-like approach is called Reflected Appraisal of ourselves. In the very beginning of the film, after the “press night” for the troupes play, Ed, Dolores, Bunny, and two other friends in the play sit around a table in a lounge to read the evening edition of the paper and see their review. No one reads it out loud, but it’s obvious that it’s not a very good review. Their faces all sag and Dolores is the first to wonder about herself, saying “Do I really have a face like a horse?” She was judging herself based on what someone else said about her in a review. After Ed hands Glen or Glenda over to a studio exec at Warner Brothers, he calls a few days later to find out what was thought. We only hear Ed repeating phrases said over the phone, most importantly “Worst film you ever saw.” Ed then begins to get depressed, convinced that he’s made “the worst film of all time”, because of what that studio executive told him.
One might say that Ed ended up becoming what everyone told him he was all those years ago. There are many ways that the evaluations and views that are expressed by others about ourselves affect us. Self-fulfilling prophecy is a phrase used when people begin to act based on the ways that others seem to express what they think of us. You are acting based on the label that has been given to you, such as someone who does bad in school because a teacher constantly told them they were bad in school. Ed was constantly told that he was a horrible filmmaker. The studio executive told him it was the “worst film he ever saw”, the Baptists asked if he “knew anything about the art of filmmaking”, and even Dolores told Ed “these films are terrible”. Ed kept on trying, but even after his death, was voted “The Worst Director of All Time”. He, even after death, turned out to be remembered for and had become what everyone had been telling him all his film career life.
It was his optimism that kept him going, despite all of this criticism, however. It is often easier to succeed when mentally one can already bring themselves to an optimistic view that they have what it takes to do so. Having a bright, positive, and confidant outlook on what you can do and who you are, reinforces your behavior, and you begin to behave like the person you visualize yourself behaving like. This is called positive visualization, and Ed Wood was a master of it in this film. It could be the reason he was able to rally so many people to his cause and films time and time again. He had the belief that every film could turn out to be “the biggest moneymaker of all time”, and with that sort of confidence he was able to convince others of it as well.
Even at the premiere of Plan 9 from Outer Space, as the movie closes, Ed watches what will eventually become known as the worst film of all time. What does he do? He smiles, proudly stating: “This is it. This is the one I’ll be remembered for.” He was right. But in the mind of Ed Wood, never would he think it would be for every one of its faults.
Copyright 2004
Everyone has dreams. Some give them up in fear of failure. Others settle for more practical or mainstream lives and put their dreams to the wayside. Others pursue them to the farthest possible reaches despite any kind of roadblock, obstacle, or criticism that comes in their way. Ed Wood is one of those people. Ed may now be considered the worst filmmaker in all of cinema, but he, of course, never intended to be regarded this way. Ed set out with an unmatched sense of optimism, and slight ignorance that made him believe everything he touched was going to be amazing. He refused to let the death of actors, unfinished scenes, and lack of financing affect the completion of his films.
What I will be doing is taking a look at the film Ed Wood, based on the life of the z-grade filmmaker, and look into how various parts of communication displayed throughout the movie by various characters helped continue their lives, relationships, and careers, albeit sub-par careers for many. I’ll be explaining various concepts within the realm of communication and then discuss where and how it’s shown within the movie. I’d like to start, with non-verbal communication.
We often act or react in ways that have nothing to do with what comes out of our mouths, but yet we deliver a very clear message to someone through other forms of non-verbal communication. The first we’ll take a look at is Kinesics. Kinesics is the communication that our bodies and faces make in movements and positions that deliver messages to others even if we aren’t speaking.
In the film, we see various forms of non-speaking communication. Early on, when Dolores Fuller, Ed’s girlfriend is moving through her closet wondering where all her sweaters go to, Ed simply rolls over and says nothing. However his eyes glancing over to her in the closet and then away show a clear sign of someone with guilt on their conscious. This happens once again a few scenes later, as Ed is on the phone with a small time producer who’s making a biopic about someone who changed their sex. Ed tells the producer he’s got “special qualifications” that make him perfect for the job that he’d rather not go into over the phone. Hanging up, Dolores asks what makes him so qualified for the job. Ed reassures her “it’s just hogwash, hon.”, that he just needed a hook to get a meeting. As soon as her turns away from her, though, his heavy sigh and the unsteadiness of his eye contact make it very clear once again that Ed’s hiding something from Dolores.
Haptics is the type of communication of messages through our sense of touch. This can give sensations of love, affection, or even power and intimidation by those who invade someone else’s “personal space”. When Ed reveals his secret to his girlfriend, that he likes to wear women’s clothing sometimes because it makes him feel comfortable, she gets very angry with him and doesn’t want him touching her. He finally begins to wear her down, asking her if they’re going to breakup, or if she’s going to make the movie with him. As she begins to visually appear to be coming around, he puts his hand on her shoulder.
At first, it appears to be a motion of comfort to Dolores. That is, until, if one pays close enough attention, they’ll see Ed’s hand start to pay less attention to holding Dolores, and start grabbing and feeling the fabric of the blouse that Dolores is wearing at the time. She shoots him a look right before the scene transition, clearly showing that she knows that he’s thinking of the fabric she’s wearing as he’s touching her, and not in fact her. Or, at least, not as much as her.
Physical appearance refers to the actual physical attributes of someone, such as their gender, or their size, and the inferences that we make about their personalities from these attributes. After his first film flops, Ed is out enjoying a nigh of wrestling with Dolores and his friend Bunny, played by Bill Murray. At the wrestling match, Ed spots a wrestler named Tor, and as he watches Tor mop up the ring with his opponents, all Ed can do is think of what a terrific monster Tor Johnson would make on screen in a horror movie. “That man’s a monster.”, Ed exclaims at one point. However, upon meeting Tor backstage, Ed, as well as the audience, learn that Tor is, in fact, a nice, sweet man who’s simply doing his job yelling and screaming in the ring and using his size to intimidate. Tor’s even got a penchant for Mickey mouse cartoons. Ed makes Tor the pitch to be involved in his films, and Tor gladly accepts. We also learn later in the film that not only is Tor not scary in real life, but is also a family man, with a wife and two kids at home. Ed had one expectation of Tor based on his physical presence and appearance in the ring, which turned out to be quite the opposite from the man he was in real life.
One of the things, especially in movies, that tell us more about the characters are the items that surround them, such as the decorations in an apartment set, an office set, or even the clothes that characters where. These are referred to in communications as artifacts. Artifacts is the term that refers to the objects that we use on or around us to give people an impression or idea of what our personalities are like. Our clothes are one of the biggest messages that we give people upon first appearances. If one was going to meet someone dressed in a long black leather coat, spiked color, ripped jeans, and boots, they might get a very different impression than someone who was wearing non-ripped, cleaner jeans and a button down shirt. In Ed’s apartment, there are giant movie posters, one of Citizen Kane starring Orson Welles. We learn throughout the film that Welles is Ed’s mentor and inspiration. Many times Ed gets depressed realizing he’s almost 40 and Orson Welles was in his mid twenties when he made Citizen Kane. The other poster is of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. Also in the film, Ed befriends an aging Lugosi who is no longer wanted by the Hollywood industry, and regarded as nothing more than a “junkie” or a “bum.”
Clothes are also a very important part of who the characters are, as well as the different depths and facets of their personalities. Bunny wears very light possibly linen (the film is black and white, making it hard to tell) business suits throughout the entire film. He’s always dressed very prim, which goes along with his personality. Bela wears his Dracula costume one night while watching White Zombie with Ed on some late night syndication show on Halloween. He also has written into his will that he wants to be buried in the cape and outfit, perhaps so that he would forever be remembered as the mythic Dracula he portrayed on screen and was best remembered for long after his film career ended.
Ed’s character has some interesting clothing artifacts that change throughout the film. He’s a professional, or at least trying to be, and wears a black business suit and tie to meetings with studio executives, small time producers, and even tuxedos to his film premieres. However, on set, he’s often seen in an angora sweater, a skirt, heels, and sometimes a blond wig, because it makes him more relaxed and comfortable. Near the end of the film, Ed is in a bar drinking after a near breakdown with some producers who feel his dressing like that on set is an “abomination to the lord”. Ed has a chance run-in with his idol, the one and only Orson Welles, who is there having a drink and looking over paperwork for lost funding on his Don Quixote project. Ed realizes it’s Welles and is about to go over, when he looks quickly in the mirror and sees himself in full drag. Before he walks over to talk, Ed pulls of the blond wig and makes his way to Orson’s table.
Proxemics is the idea of space and how we go about using that space. This can sometimes be how we use the physical space we inhabit and arrange things within it, or even refer to how we use our own space in relation to others. People in positions of power sometimes display this power by invading the space of others and getting closer than people in less power levels might. In the film, Bela calls Ed over one night and when Ed arrives, he finds Bela talking to him with a gun in his hands. The distance that Bela leaves between the two of them is very minimal, and the closer he gets to Ed, the more scared Ed becomes that Bela is going to do something crazy, possibly even shoot the two of them.
In a scene for a wrap party for Bride of the Atom, Ed is doing a dance in drag in front of the cast and crew. Dolores is in the back, far removed from the rest of the troupe, looking fed up. Ed’s friend Bunny makes his way over and puts his arm on Dolores’ shoulder, smiling. Bunny then takes a second look at Dolores, realizing that the look on her face says it all…she’s about to explode. Bunny quickly moves his hand off of her shoulder and walks away, creating as much distance between he and her as possible.
Environment obviously refers to the areas around us, which determine our feelings and our ways of behaving and acting. If the environment that we’re in is comfortable, we may wish to stay there for quite some time. Some places, such as the hard plastic furniture of McDonald’s are strategically there to make customers want to hurry up and get out, making for more turn over. While Ed makes calls around to try and find backers for his new film, he comes across one party that’s more interested at this mention of Bela Lugosi being involved. They convince Ed to convince Bela to appear on a live variety sketch show. Bela, although not having worked for many years, is accustomed to the environments of a movie set. When thrown in front of live television cameras and audience with a co-performer who begins ad libbing in the middle of the sketch, the frail Bela is completely thrown off, and loses his lines and pacing, ruining the entire sketch, and angering many of the producers.
Chronemics is the thought that time can be used to display status among various people. This is seen by the importance on entry level or lower level workers in a business to be on time, whereas executives and those higher up can take their time, longer breaks, lunches, and keep others waiting. In the film, Bela is astounded by how quick Ed is in his filming. In one scene he is talking with Tor the wrestler and telling him that when he was working on the old Universal Studio pictures they’d do only three or four scenes a day, but that with Ed, they’ll do thirty or forty a day. Bela thinks this makes Ed absolutely incredible. In Bela’s eyes, the fact that Ed can work so fast and accomplish so much in that period of time is a sign of how good he is at the art of filmmaking. In fact, Bela does not realize that Ed just isn’t taking the time to get anything else on film than his first take, despite any mistakes being made.
Silence can say quite a lot even though no sounds are being made. Silence can create a sense of awkwardness, such as when people don’t have anything in common to talk about, or it can signal anger and tell a person that you don’t wish to speak to them, or it can express guilt, as someone may not know what to say and remain silent for lack of words of defense or answer. After Ed recasts the role of Janet Lawton in Bride of the Atom to actress Loretta King, he makes his girlfriend, Dolores take on the role of the File Clerk. When she shows up to the set for her scenes, Dolores is very cold to Loretta. When Dolores walks to the makeup chairs where Loretta is being made up, Loretta tries to say hello, and Dolores does not respond and looks away smoking. This instantly sets up a tension between the two of them. It is finally broken when Loretta offers Dolores the chair and Dolores tells Loretta it’s “obvious they’re not done with her yet…she needs more work.” Silence also plays a huge part in showing the audience Ed’s guilt every time Dolores asked about her clothes and sweaters. His eyes tells us much, as mentioned earlier, but so does his lack of saying anything, combined with his facial reaction, all hinting at his guilty conscience. Also, later in the film, there is a scene where Bela is talking to a crowd on the street about feeling young even if the body is old. The scene then immediately cuts to Ed in the apartment with his new girlfriend, Kathy, havign a fun time, when the phone rings. He picks it up, and says nothing. That silence then says it all. Bela’s dead.
Self Disclosure is a concept of revealing things about ourselves that are personal and would not necessarily be found out by another person without our taking steps to actually tell them. How others respond to our self disclosures can have a tremendous effect on our views of ourselves and our own acceptance of who we are. The film is filled with various self disclosures. In the very beginning, after the bomb of Ed’s stage play, although he tells the cast that they’re doing great work, at night he lays in bed with Dolores and admits his fears to her. He confesses to Dolores that he’s afraid he might “just not have it”. He’s afraid that everything he’s going to do is going to fail.
Some scenes later, there’s more self disclosure as Ed admits to Dolores that he likes to wear women’s clothing and has been wearing her sweaters. Long after his breakup with Dolores, Ed is on a date with a young woman named Kathy (played by Patricia Arquette). The date seems to be going rather well, and when stuck on an amusement park ride in the dark, Ed admits to Kathy on that first date that he likes to wear women’s clothing. He does this because he wants it out in the open from the very beginning, so that it can’t tarnish or get in the way of a possible relationship for them in the future. Kathy asks him if it means he “still likes girls”, which he says “yes, I love women.” Kathy accepts it, and the two eventually end up getting married.
A self-disclosure comes from other characters other than the title character too. Bela admits to Ed that he has had an addiction to morphine for the past twenty years, and with Ed’s help, admits himself to a rehabilitation clinic. He was one of the first celebrities to come public with such a problem.
Criswell the “psychic”, who joins Ed’s ragtag troupe after a meeting on the set of the earlier mentioned live sketch show, admits to Ed over dinner that all his predictions are “horse shit”. He confesses to Ed that the reason people believe what he says is because of the fact that he wears a shiny tuxedo, that it’s all a part of the show-business blindfold over people’s eyes. If you show them enough glitz they’ll believe what you say.
Conflict isn’t always people fighting, as one might at first think. What conflict truly is, in communications terms, is when people who usually rely on each other for something have different ideas, goals, direction, interests, or responsibilities, and those differences make it difficult for those people to be involved in whatever type of relationship they’re in (be it social, work-related, romantic). Ed had written the role of Janet Lawton the reporter in his second film, Bride of the Atom, for his then girlfriend, Dolores Fuller, even toting her around at backing parties as the “ingenue” that would star. When meeting a newcomer to Hollywood, Loretta King, in a bar, Ed is under the impression that Loretta is willing to put up the sixty thousand he needs to make the movie. In order to convince her to do so, Ed gives her the role she wants to play in the film. That role is Janet Lawton, which was meant for his girlfriend. Returning to their home, we see Dolores chasing Ed around the apartment, throwing dishes and pot and pans at him out of her anger that he gave the role away that he had already given and written for her. Ed explains he had to do it to get the movie made, she tells him he should’ve stood up for her and their relationship and told Loretta that the role was for his girlfriend. Dolores finally hits him in the back of the head with a frying pan when he offers her the role of the File Clerk instead. Dolores finally snaps at the wrap party of the film, and shouts at Ed that he’s surrounded himself “with a bunch of weirdos and freaks”, and that they’re all wasting their lives “making crap”. She explains that she stuck it out to help him finish the movie, but now that it’s done that she’s also done with their relationship, as she obviously doesn’t see her life heading in the same direction Ed sees his.
Conflict of the non-romantic kind occurs with small time producer George Weiss, whose company, Screen Classics, paid for what became Ed’s first film, Glen or Glenda. George thought he was going to be getting a sex-change picture that would draw in a b-movie audience like his other “girlie-nudie” pictures did. Instead, Ed used this opportunity as a forum to make a movie about his own feelings on what it’s like to live with the secret of cross dressing. George is, of course, furious, and when the movie doesn’t sell because of this, George tells Ed very bluntly over the phone, “If I ever see ya again, I’ll kill ya!”
While trying to get his film, “Grave Robbers from Outer Space” made, Ed convinces a group of Baptists to put up the money for the film. The Baptists were looking to make films about the apostles, but only had enough money for one film. Ed convinces them that if they were to put money into his film, a film in a known selling genre, that the proceeds from such a picture would give the church enough money to make as many religious films as they wanted. Everything seems to be working out for Ed, until once they all get on set. Once the film begins production, the Baptists begin making changes that they see as unfit about the original script. They feel that the title “Grave Robbers” is sacrilegious and wish to change the title to “Plan 9 from Outer Space”. They also cast their own friends and parishioners that they feel are fit for the roles. Finally, when they upset about Ed’s cross dressing on set of the film, Ed snaps, and, outraged, storms off the set and hops a taxi to the nearest bar, where he has his infamous run in with Orson Welles.
It would be very easy for Ed to get down on himself and his work, as tends to do throughout the film. It’s with the encouragement of those around him, though, that allow him to pick himself up and see his life and his abilities from a different perspective and start again. We all have people in our lives whose opinions we value more than that of others. The opinions and views of these particular people help change and shape our own views of ourselves. These people are referred to in communication terms as Significant Others. Bela Lugosi began to feel a resurgence in energy and his esteem when he was working with Ed, because Ed always treated him like a “huge star”, despite how others may have looked at Lugosi. When Bela would show up on set, Ed would make a huge deal in front of everyone shouting “Mr. Lugosi’s here!” Ed had become a close friend of Bela’s, so constantly hearing how wonderful he was, his work was, and what great futures were coming around the corner for their careers, kept Bela going, right through to the end.
Even though they ultimately broke up, Dolores’ constant encouragement of Ed through his many failures was, it appears, to be a large part of why Ed kept going. He would get down on himself, and feel like giving up, until Dolores would give him some reason why he was unappreciated or just not in the right spot or time, and this always turned Ed’s mood around to a view that he just had to keep on trying. She would tell him he might not be “studio material” and convince him to raise film money independently. She would read and type up his scripts for him, and make him feel good about what he was doing. He felt like a misunderstood genius, because that’s what Dolores made him feel like in her words, and that was the outlook he began to take on in his own personality.
While some particular people may have a large impact on our own views of ourselves, there are also larger, broader groups, our society as a whole, that also determine or set forth certain rules, expectations, and regulations that determine how we should act, behave and live. Ed knows that society as a whole did not approve of the way that he dressed or liked to dress in his spare time, or sometimes on set. It caused people, such as Delores, or George Weiss, to act very uncomfortable around him, as it seemed unnatural for a man who was trying to pass himself off as a professional to be dressing in women’s clothing.
One way in which we evaluate the types of people we are, is by the ways that other people around us view who we are and how we act. In essence, we’re looking at ourselves, through the eyes of other people. This mirror-like approach is called Reflected Appraisal of ourselves. In the very beginning of the film, after the “press night” for the troupes play, Ed, Dolores, Bunny, and two other friends in the play sit around a table in a lounge to read the evening edition of the paper and see their review. No one reads it out loud, but it’s obvious that it’s not a very good review. Their faces all sag and Dolores is the first to wonder about herself, saying “Do I really have a face like a horse?” She was judging herself based on what someone else said about her in a review. After Ed hands Glen or Glenda over to a studio exec at Warner Brothers, he calls a few days later to find out what was thought. We only hear Ed repeating phrases said over the phone, most importantly “Worst film you ever saw.” Ed then begins to get depressed, convinced that he’s made “the worst film of all time”, because of what that studio executive told him.
One might say that Ed ended up becoming what everyone told him he was all those years ago. There are many ways that the evaluations and views that are expressed by others about ourselves affect us. Self-fulfilling prophecy is a phrase used when people begin to act based on the ways that others seem to express what they think of us. You are acting based on the label that has been given to you, such as someone who does bad in school because a teacher constantly told them they were bad in school. Ed was constantly told that he was a horrible filmmaker. The studio executive told him it was the “worst film he ever saw”, the Baptists asked if he “knew anything about the art of filmmaking”, and even Dolores told Ed “these films are terrible”. Ed kept on trying, but even after his death, was voted “The Worst Director of All Time”. He, even after death, turned out to be remembered for and had become what everyone had been telling him all his film career life.
It was his optimism that kept him going, despite all of this criticism, however. It is often easier to succeed when mentally one can already bring themselves to an optimistic view that they have what it takes to do so. Having a bright, positive, and confidant outlook on what you can do and who you are, reinforces your behavior, and you begin to behave like the person you visualize yourself behaving like. This is called positive visualization, and Ed Wood was a master of it in this film. It could be the reason he was able to rally so many people to his cause and films time and time again. He had the belief that every film could turn out to be “the biggest moneymaker of all time”, and with that sort of confidence he was able to convince others of it as well.
Even at the premiere of Plan 9 from Outer Space, as the movie closes, Ed watches what will eventually become known as the worst film of all time. What does he do? He smiles, proudly stating: “This is it. This is the one I’ll be remembered for.” He was right. But in the mind of Ed Wood, never would he think it would be for every one of its faults.
