Plan 9 Meets Film Theory

The Ed Wood film "Plan 9 from Outer Space," hailed for the time being as the worst film ever made, by many of the popular critics, can still show us several things about the nature of films in general. The film does not have to be excellent to show its appeal to different viewpoints on the nature of cinema. To be more specific, most films have some aspects that reflect real life, as well as aspects that show us the abstract elements that make film an art.

While there are many different viewpoints on how a film should be shot, edited and scripted I have decided to only concentrate on two, the Arnheim theory, which sees film as a purely artistic medium and the Bazin theory, which strives for realism. These two viewpoints seem to be nearly polar opposites of each other and this will aid in showing the duality of a films appeal to more than one theory.