Edward Scissorhands

Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay:Caroline Thompson (story by Tim Burton and Caroline Thompson)
Stars: ohnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands),Winona Ryder (Kim Boggs), Dianne Wiest(Peg Boggs), Alan Arkin (Bill Boggs), Anthony Michael Hall (Jim), Kathy Baker (JoyceMonroe), Robert Oliveri (Kevin Boggs), Conchata Ferrell (Helen), Caroline Aaron (Marge),Dick Anthony Williams (Officer Allen), O-Lan Jones (Esmeralda), Vincent Price (TheInventor)
MPAA Rating:PG-13
Year of Release: 1990
Country: USA
Edward Scissorhands Poster

In one way or another, all of Tim Burton's films are about misunderstood outsiders. Evenwhen working with a well-known superhero in his 1989 hit "Batman," Burton still managedto focus on how others misperceived the Dark Knight as a menace rather than acrime-fighting crusader. In his biopic "Ed Wood" (1994), he portrayed Edward D. Wood,Jr., often considered worst director in the history of cinema, as a maligned artist, and in"Sleepy Hollow" (1999) he reinvented Washington Irving's Ichabod Crane as anahead-of-his-time police investigator who is looked at with skepticism because of histhen-unorthodox techniques.

One of Burton's best explorations of the hero as outsider is his 1990 film "EdwardScissorhands," a touching fable that takes place in a world where a cookie-cutter suburbandevelopment sits under the shadow of a huge, gnarled mountain topped with a crumblingGothic mansion lifted right out of a Hammer horror film. "Edward Scissorhands" is aninspired piece of filmmaking that is disarming in its misleading simplicity. The film isstructured very much like a fairy tale in that fairy tales are always simple on their surface,but their deep complexities are what keep them alive over the years.

The titular character of "Edward Scissorhands" is the creation of a kindly old inventorplayed in wonderful fashion by the experienced veteran Vincent Price. The inventor diedbefore he could give Edward hands, so Edward has lived alone in the remote castle for mostof his life with giant scissors that started as temporary replacements for his hands, buthave become permanent. Played by Johnny Depp in one of his first major film roles (at thetime he was best known as a teen idol on the Fox TV series "21 Jump Street"), Edward is acharacter who is physically terrifying until you see that he has the confused, curious faceof a child. He is brought down from his castle one day when Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest), thecheerful local Avon representative who comes calling and finds him all alone.

The first half of "Edward Scissorhands" is essentially social satire, where screenwriterCaroline Thompson (working from a story she concocted with Burton) puts thebizarre-looking Edward smack in the middle of Southern California suburbia. Theproduction design by Bo Welch ("The Birdcage"), in which the threatening Gothic castleoverlooks tracts of uniformly shaped houses, each of which is painted a distinct pastelcolor and set against a stark, cloudless blue sky, is a stroke of genius in the way it contrastsold-style horror with comfortable conformity in simple, visual terms (frighteningly enough,the film was shot in a real neighborhood in Florida). The slightly disjointed sense of timeand place is accentuated by the fact that home décor, costume designs, and carsmake it appear that the story is taking place some time in the early 1960s, although thereare references to modern electronics like CD players and elaborate home security systems.

All the busybody neighbors are fascinated by Edward's presence, and the attention theylavish on him is simply a lid on top of their deep-seated fears of what he represents:difference. Those fears explode in the second half of the movie when Edward,misunderstood as always, gets caught in a series of circumstances that make him look like acrazed criminal. Soon, the same neighbors who had been fighting over going to thesupermarket with Edward are now whispering about how they always knew somethingwasn't right with him.

As Burton shows, the line between celebrity and scapegoat is a thin one, and an innocentlike Edward who was simply going with the flow has no control over his eventual fate.Edward is a tragic figure in this sense, but also in the sense that he is a gentle, fragile soulwho helplessly destroys everything he touches. It is not of his own fault that his "hands"are destructive, of course, but he is blamed anyway.

Within this story, Burton also manages to weave a convincingly sweet romance betweenEdward and Peg's high-school-age daughter, Kim (Winona Ryder). At first, Kim isfrightened and somewhat off-put by Edward's presence in her home, a feeling that isexacerbated by her cruel bully of a boyfriend, Jim (Anthony Michael Hall in a bit of reversecasting from his days as the picked-on nerd in '80s John Hughes films like "SixteenCandles" and "The Breakfast Club"). However, Kim soon begins to see the fragileinnocence of Edward's inexperience, and she becomes the one person in the story who trulyunderstands him.

"Edward Scissorhands" works as a romantic fantasy and as a social satire, but it also has agreat deal of straight humor. Some of it is at Edward's expense, as his scissorhands tend toget in the way of normally simple activities like getting dressed and eating. One of thefunniest aspects of the film is the droll presence of Alan Arkin as Kim's father, a typicalsuburban dad whose understated comments and mellow response to the most fantastical ofcircumstances gives many scenes a humorous edge. He would go on to play a similar typeof character to even greater perfection in "Slums of Beverly Hills" (1998).

Of course, Burton's darker tendencies can get the best of him. His ultra-dreary "BatmanReturns" (1992) was, with the exception of some inspired prowling by Michelle Pfeiffer asCatwoman, just depressing. Some of this darkness infuses "Edward Scissorhands,"especially the violent climax that feels out of place with the rest of the movie, especiallybecause it requires Jim to go from a bullying teenager to a psychotic would-be murderer inan attempt to provide unneeded catharsis. In fact, the ending is so bad in its clumsyconventionality that is brings the whole film down a notch.

Still, the majority of the film is executed very well. So few movies manage to attain aconsistent tone, but "Edward Scissorhands" seems to rest effortlessly in the realm of themodern fairy tale while borrowing handily from a number of different film genres. There isprobably not another filmmaker alive who could have conceived of this story and brought itto life in quite the manner Burton did. It is a testament to his original creativity and hisinsistence on making art at the outer edges of what is expected.

Edward Scissorhands:10th Anniversary Edition DVD

Widescreen1.85:1
AnamorphicYes
AudioDolby 4.0Surround
Dolby 2.0 Surround
LanguagesEnglish(4.0, 2.0)
French (2.0)
SubtitlesEnglish
Supplements Runningaudio commentary with director Tim Burton
Running audio commentary with composer Danny Elfman
Featurette
Interview clips with cast and crew
Original concept art by Tim Burton
Two theatrical trailersThree television spots
Distributor20thCentury Fox
SRP$29.98

VIDEO
The THX-certified anamorphic transfer in the film'soriginal 1.85:1 aspect ratio is near perfect. The image is very sharp without unnecessaryedge enhancement, and the detail level is stunning, especially in the scenes taking place inEdward Scissorhands' Gothic castle. Colors look great; they are solid and vivid withoutlooking oversaturated. The movie has a number of different color schemes, from thesun-drenched pastel suburban housing, to the castle, which looks like old black and whitephotography except the characters are in bright color. The transfer handles all of thesescenes exceptionally well, without a trace of artifacting or dirt.

AUDIO
The Dolby Digital 4.0 surround mix is mostly subtle withthe surround effects. The majority of the sound is kept in the front soundstage with onlyminimal use of the surround speakers. When Danny Elfman's lyrical, choir-heavy scorecomes on, however, the soundtrack comes alive.

SUPPLEMENTS
This 10th Anniversary Edition of the film comes with anumber of supplements, some of which are better than others. The disc is equipped withtwo separate running audio commentaries, one with composer Danny Elfman, whichobviously focuses on the score, and one with director Tim Burton. Burton's commentary,like the one he did for Paramount's "Sleepy Hollow" DVD, is laid back and fairlyinformative, but it is punctuated by too many long periods of silence. Because this filmderives from when he was a teenager, one would think he would have more to say about it.The disc also has "sound bites," which are brief snippets of interviews with cast membersof crew. One very nice additional is a half dozen original concept sketches by Tim Burtonthat show the creative development of Edward Scissorhands as a character. Some of thesketches also turn up in the five-minute making-of featurette that is good, butunfortunately way too short. The disc also includes a nice collection of theatrical trailers,including two Spanish-language TV spots.

©2000 James Kendrick



Overall Rating: (3.5)




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