MovieChat Forums > Glen or Glenda Discussion > The 'Dream' Sequence or whatever it is. ...

The 'Dream' Sequence or whatever it is. It rules.


The old debate about Wood was whether or not he was "in on the joke". I am of the opinion that that is the wrong question. I believe Mr. Wood was a true artist and had a very specific vision that "camp" is far too weak a word to describe.
Check out The Violent Years, which he wrote but did not direct. (I refer to it as his True Romance). The dialogue is so incredibly convoluted and circular that it had to be either the work of an insane person or a genius.
Ok, so am I saying that he was aware his work would be taken as odd or perhaps even poor film-making? In a way. I think his sense of humor was so subtle, it defies definition.
Like Andy Kauffman, but without ever, ever giving the audience the "wink" that Kauffman occasionally did.

Sorry, Glen or Glenda is the subject of this thread.
Ok. That literally ten-minute dream sequence, which is a huge amount of screen time for a movie that's like an hour and ten minutes, is the most bizarre thing I've ever seen.
His character being chased by a devilish-creature, the pointing zombie-like people judging him, the girls being whipped and approaching lesbianism as they wrestle, the big branch falling in the middle of a living room, and of course, the numerous reaction shots by The String Puller or PuppetMaster of whatever the hell he is supposed to be. God, it's nuts.
To simply say "it doesn't make sense", I would suggest, is to miss the point. I think this scene (most of Ed's work, really, but this scene in particular) transcends sense. Do Van Gogh's sunflowers make sense?

Whatever the hell it's supposed to mean, it's certainly interesting. Which is far more than I can say about anything by Michael Bay or a dozen other supposedly- talented directors.

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I think the footage of the women was added by the producer later in order to stretch out the film as Ed Wood's original version was too short.

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Please tell me where you read that, or heard that. Thanks.

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I don't know about it being added by the producer but my impression while watching was that it was added to satisfy the producer because the film was supposed to be porn wasn't it? I thought the shots of the women were added to satisfy that quota. They seemed out of place to the rest of the movie. This segment of the movie is the most annoying and painful to watch. I like to think Ed Wood was attempting to show people the lives of transvestites which was a good idea but done very poorly. It should have been an unscripted documentary.

Grrrrrr!!Aaargh!!

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Absolutely agree, snowleopard27...this sequence was the heart and soul of this bizarre film....yes, we often hear how incompetent Mr Wood was.....but he operated on another "artistic" level, if you will. This film will never bore me, unlike Top Gun, or Titanic, or Schindler's List, and all that ilk.


Darren Skuja
"Film Is The Ultimate Artform"

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I think if you're watching a film like Schindler's List for entertainment, you're probably going to be disappointed. It's not a popcorn movie for you to have fun with, and the fact that you listed it with Top Gun definately says a lot about your expectations, and why you were let down.

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Actually, I was talking about Big Dumb Hollywood Movies. And yes, I put Schindler's List in that category.

Darren Skuja
"Film Is The Ultimate Artform"

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GREAT categorisation :) .I totally support it , and I think if Leonardo di Caprio was living in the 50's instead of the 90's , he would have been Ed Wood 's number one favourite star to cast in his movies :D

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Then you would agree in the absolute perfection of woofing. True art comes from the bowels and is as sacerdotal as the pleasures of merely circulating.

Nothing exists more beautifully than nothing.

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The archetypical ramifications of art vs. fever dream enscapulates the travesty of innoccular vocations. These stratospheres of incorporeal regimes mark delusional rhetoric in baseless rhododendrons, albeit factoids of true genius. In counterpoint, markedly accusatorial amplifications gravitate towards inwardly docile revolutions in modular bulgar.

oh yeah the dream sequence was weird...

"Who's the only one here who knows illegal ninja moves from the government?"

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Sagellates of factodal eloquence exist in yo' spectral pronouncements. Other than that, how shall the stars on the cheeks of this mandrill find a number?

Nothing exists more beautifully than nothing.

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I think I have just seen the fnords.

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Fnords exist in the rarified filaments of Anton Wilson's glacial armpit pickings along with jumbalya and Richard Simmons. So there.

What is the meaning of meaning?

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... so they're evil, you're saying. :-)

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No; only gassy.

What is the meaning of meaning?

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Richard Simmons, I do believe, IS gas in its purest form.

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whoah, great sig. (Nothing exists more beautifully than nothing.) Is that a quote from somewhere? I'd like to know before I quote it next time I'm punk in drublic.

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It is mine, but a paraphrase of Sartre. Now the sig has been changed, but so what, it is merely a pleasure of absolute perfection in the guise of woofing.

What is the meaning of meaning?

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Bevare! Bevare the green dragon that sits on your doorstep!

Man, if Salvador Dali ever saw this film, he would have cheered. It is so surreal!

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[deleted]

Although I don't know all Ed Wood movies I agree with you as far as I know the director.

_____________________
--- BE TROLL 2!!! ---

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Heavily ramifying and loquacious!

Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.

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I agree. The dream set piece is without a doubt one of the most gloriously surreal things ever filmed.

"We're all part Shatner/And part James Dean/Part Warren Oates/And Steven McQueen"

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Right. Awesome in its crazy way. I'm sure the surrealists would have loved it.

I've just watched the movie tonight and it lifted up my spirits.

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