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| Edward Scissorhands, Snow scene |
Edward Scissorhands
Edward
Scissorhands is Tim Burtons most touching film. This is probably because of how
personal it is to him. Throughout all of his works the reoccurring genre is
always a spin off of a fairytale. Edward Scissorhands is the most definitive in
showing this. The movie begins with a “once upon a time” kind of introduction
and within the first 15 minutes the audience is introduced to the love
interest, Kim, and the “castle”.
At
both the beginning and the end of the movie Edward reverts back into his
“castle”, his house on a hill. He is then initially welcomed into a juxtaposing
pastel-colored-suburbia. At first the town seemed to welcome Edward, but the
audience then realizes that he was just being used and only liked while people
wanted something from him. As the movie progressive the catty side of the
neighborhood is brought out, and we are shown how ruthless people have the
potential to be.
Unlike some other movies of Burtons, this one
places a greater emphasis on the romantic part of the film. Kim is the “princess”
in this fairytale. She helps make Edward
feel loved and somewhat normal toward the end of the film. Sadly though it does
not have a perfect-happy-fairytale ending, rather a realistic one that shows
that “things don’t always work out”(Gothic
Fantasy). There is no hero in this
fairytale though, only the misunderstood monster, Edward. His greatest downfall
is his own hope to be accepted. This need for acceptance and love drives him to
break into a house for Kim and her boyfriend, but in doing so gets caught and
ruins his reputation.
Many
of the aspects of this movie remind me of beauty and the beast. Kim is the
beauty, and Edward is the misunderstood gentle beast. He just wants acceptance
and to feel loved. The Beast from the Disney film locks himself in his castle
because society will not accept him, and the same goes for Edward. It is a
heart-wrenching fairytale that begins with hope and ends with the realism of
reality.
While I agree that this film strikingly resembles many fairytales like Beauty and the Beast, I think that the romantic build between Kim and Edward was lacking more than it was moving. Although we desperately want Edward to be accepted and find love, I did not see the actual relationship build enough to the grand “I love you” between Kim and Edward. Although we see her become increasingly more compassionate and understanding towards him, I do not think that we see the reality part. I agree that one message is that not everything works out, but their sudden jump to love seemed to work out too easily as an easy sentimental ending. The ending is definitely not a happily ever after, which is why I think that Burton felt the need to give Edward this moment and also show that not all of humanity is doomed since people like Kim can become accepting and loving towards Edward. Although it is considered a romance and Edward clearly cares deeply for Kim, I think that the relationship was not built enough to say that they fell in love at the end. However, it did create a more fairytalesque ending and a more sentimentally moving end to a beautiful film.
ReplyDelete-Leanne Reisz