Posted by GuruAskew at spider-wn072.proxy.aol.com on August 08, 2001 at 17:44:43:
In Reply to: Re: "Ed Wood" is indeed a masterpiece... posted by Vincent on August 07, 2001 at 23:13:34:
I'm not saying that Burton's presence ever had a negative effect on any of his movies (with the exception of "Batman Returns"). I think he's undoubtedly an adequate director, at least. While I said that the movie was a masterpiece for reasons other than Burton's involvement, I never said "the movie would have been 10 times better had Burton not been involved." I just don't think he's a "great director", or ten times better than Kevin as the original poster suggested. I've seen everything Burton's been involved with post-"Vincent" (and will continue to do so, regardless of all this Kevin vs. Burton nonsense), and out of all of that, I would only say that I really loved two movies: "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" and "Ed Wood", and they're both above-average movies in Burton's body of work, they've already got a lot of non-Burton strengths. Not to get on a Pee-wee tangent here, but it's a good example. The character is great, Burton's take on the character is the best, but without his presence, you get a pretty good show like "Pee-wee's Playhouse" or a unforgivable piece of shit like "Big Top Pee-wee".
: : But not because of Burton's direction. It's a masterpiece because of the performances (Depp and Landau, particularly) and the writing. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski wrote it. Sure, they wrote "Screwed" and "Problem Child", but they're responsible for two other masterpieces as well, "The People vs. Larry Flynt" and "Man On The Moon".
: Not for nothing, but directors DIRECT their actors, and a great script can easily be fucked up in the execution.
: And I'm not a fan of THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT at all.
: Vincent