The "Worst Movie of All Time"
Overrated and underrated in terms of badness, that is.
Overrated "Worst Movie" - Plan 9 From Outer SpaceProbably only a few movie buffs had heard of Ed Wood before the Medved’s published their
Golden Turkey Awards and proclaimed "Plan 9" to be the Worst Movie Of All Time (Interestingly, it wasn’t included in their earlier collection,
The 50 Worst Films of All Time). Given that impeccable authority, it soon became unshakable doctrine that Plan 9 was truly the absolute worst movie of all time.
And indeed, it is quite bad. Dialogue, cinematography, acting, editing…every part of the movie is at the bottom of the barrel. But lost in all the derision is that all these flaws are essentially technical. No one criticizes the story idea very much. Aliens re-animating corpses so they can start a reign of terror to hinder mankind’s scientific development? OK, that one sounds pretty stupid. But the ideas behind a lot of these "worst movies" aren’t that bad. In the hands of a competent producer and director, and with enough money behind them, you can almost certainly make passable movies out of:
* A doctor develops the equipment for keeping a severed head alive. He puts it to the test when his fiancée is decapitated in an auto accident. Now all he needs is a body to graft it to…
* Aliens destroy the human race, except for one small family. The alien sent to track down and kill these last few survivors begins to question the ethics of his orders…
* Aliens land on the Earth, hoping to raise food animals on it to feed their starving race. One of the crew suspects that the planet may harbor intelligent beings, which will force the expedition to go elsewhere. The commander disagrees, and is willing to take the necessary steps to make sure his view prevails…
* A scientist, having defected from the Other Side, is being brought to a weapons test to lend his expertise. An attempt by agents from his home country to **69** him on the way fails when he flees right into the testing area…
In defense of Wood, you have to remember that he was working with practically no money. All his films are the equivalent of "Hey, kids! Let’s make a movie!" Given that, there has to be something that allows his movies to be readily available and enjoyable after all these years. Even if all you’re doing is pointing and laughing at his ineptitude, you have to admit that his movies are entertaining.
And isn’t that all you really want from a movie?
Underrated - Exorcist II: The HereticGiven that we cannot in all fairness deride Ed Wood for not having the financial wherewithal to make a decent movie, then we must logically deride those filmmakers who do have the money and access to the necessary talent, and still produce a clunker. Yet those failures rarely, if at all, get the same sort of attention that the works of an Ed Wood, Doris Wishman, or William "One-Shot" Beaudine get.
The Exorcist is rightly regarded as one of the best horror movies of all time. Capitalizing on its success, Warner Brothers set the wheels in motion for a sequel. John Boorman, who had received widespread acclaim for
Deliverance, signed on to direct. Linda Blair came back to play Regan, and while many from the original bowed out, enough additional talent was found, including the always-good James Earl Jones and Oscar-winner Louise Fletcher. They even got Ennio Morricone to do the score.
OK, so they did settle on Richard Burton for the male lead. He wasn't among their first choices, and at the time he hadn’t yet completely devolved into a **93** buffoon. A good director just might have been able to coax a good performance out of him. He did show great ability in the past, both on film and on the stage…
One would think that with all this talent and ability, they would have at least created something that was interesting if not riveting.
But instead of John "Deliverance" Boorman, they got John "Zardoz" Boorman. He completely rewrote the script in an attempt to produce
"Art!!". And the result…well, it came in second to "Plan 9" in the aforementioned Golden Turkey Awards as Worst Movie of All Time. Even the set design was crap. You can read all about it here:
http://www.jabootu.com/e2.htmOne can forgive the Ed Woods of the world for their failures, since they usually do they best they can with the limited resources (including ability) at their disposal. They deserve credit even for making the attempt. But when a director with a huge budget, backing from a major studio, and a cast and crew that ought to know what they are doing creates an affront to the entire film industry, they deserve all the laughing and pointing we can give them.