Buy it... only if you are familiar with the film and seek an outstanding companion piece to the Ed Wood experience, in which case Howard Shore's music (along with dialogue from the film) will be equally entertaining.

Avoid it... if you're investigating the score blindly, because even enthusiasts of B-rate 1950's sci-fi and horror schlock may find this throwback score too challenging in its often grating authenticity for casual enjoyment.

Shore

Ed Wood: (Howard Shore) It's fitting that a somewhat fictionalized biopic of the life of cult filmmaker Ed Wood would run into its own kind of production misery. The director has long been popular in the industry (and especially its aspiring younger generations) because of his bizarre persona, his unwillingness to let studios squash his dreams, the truly awful quality of his films, and, of course, the angora sweaters. The troubled production of the 1994 story of Ed Wood experienced scheduling delays and studio conflicts over the fact that director Tim Burton, who had to step in late in the process to lead the project, insisted that the film be shot in black and white. While Touchstone swept in to take the film from Columbia, the box office performance of Ed Wood didn't merit the risk. Despite positive reviews that led to several Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, including wins of both by Martin Landau in an outstanding performance as Bela Lugosi, audiences found no interest in rehashing the bittersweet tale of the transvestite filmmaker. Another oddity of Ed Wood was the temporary departure of composer Danny Elfman from his otherwise enduring collaboration with Burton. The two had gotten into a petty argument at the conclusion of The Nightmare Before Christmas not long before and took a few years before they would meet and easily patch things up. The lone entry during the interim for Burton was Ed Wood, for which he turned to accomplished suspense and horror composer Howard Shore. While Shore was still many years away from true mainstream recognition for his work on The Lord of the Rings, he had already demonstrated a versatility and intelligence in his often morbid music that matched the style of Burton and this assignment quite snugly. In fact, Shore succeeded well enough in addressing the 1950's era of kitsch mambo, jazzy funk, and orchestral cheesiness that many casual listeners may not notice a significant difference between Shore's approach and Elfman's typical quirky mannerisms. Elfman collectors did get to hear the composer let rip with the stereotypical 1950's theremin in Mars Attacks!, but not in the really authentically nostalgic manner with which Shore did for Ed Wood. Several source pieces were employed by Burton for the soundtrack of this film, though Shore's enthusiastic tribute score still managed to stand out in this environment. It remains as much a cult hit within a small crowd of lingering vintage exotica listeners as the film itself.

	Learn about supporting Filmtracks

One of the interesting debates that has long existed about the distinctive music that accompanied the worst horror schlock of the 1950's is whether or not a fresh digital age reconstruction of that sound would be more palatable than the original recordings of the era. Shore answers that question, emulating every aspect of that tone in a way that will either tickle your love of yesteryear or repulse you as much as Wood's films did. The tone of Shore's Ed Wood is all over the place, from the Latin bongo percussion and off-kilter, loungey atmospheres to the wailing of a theremin (and Ondes Martinot) and straight orchestral sentimentality. The source pieces by mambo great Perez Prado and organist Korla Pandit set the tone for Shore's propulsive material, much of which is so hilariously bad that it's difficult to tolerate. The performer of the theremin was late in arriving to perform with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, so Shore substituted the Ondes Martinot for some of the recordings; while later theremin performances replaced some of those on the Ondes, the two instruments sound so similar when in a supporting role that they are interchangeable. The Tchaikovsky favorite, "Swan Lake," was incorporated as a melancholy reference to Lugosi's decline. Shore's original themes yield the most compelling material in Ed Wood, highlighted by a love theme for woodwind in "Ed & Kathy" that is reprised in "Elysium" and with a sense of heavy resolution in "This is the One." The actual title theme, which adds cimbalom and ridiculous synthetic additives, is best heard alone in "Ed Wood (Video)" and will test your patience. Secondary motifs for sneaking ("Angora"), marching victory ("Eddie Takes a Bow"), and grim desperation ("Sanitarium") are faithfully developed by Shore as well. The victory march in "Ed Takes Control" and "Eddie Takes a Bow" ends the score on a satisfying note, though the journey to that point is challenging in its schizophrenia. The tone recalls memories of Les Baxter and Bernard Herrmann (the latter especially with the theremin and muted trumpets), but on album, Shore's music is best tailored for devoted enthusiasts of the film. The album has been arranged with this audience in mind, a significant amount of dialogue performed by Landau and Jeffrey Jones (the psychic Criswell) inserted into cues that film score collectors would rather have heard without the references to the film, some of which won't make much sense to those unfamiliar with it. Shore has to be credited with stepping in admirably for Danny Elfman and yielding an effective result, but the score is difficult to casually appreciate on album for anyone not interested in Wood's notion of the unknown, the mysterious, and the unexplainable.   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Music as Written for the Film: ****
Music as Heard on Album: ***
Overall: ***

Bias Check:

For Howard Shore reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.43 (in 23 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.25 (in 93,154 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.