Fig.1
Movie Poster
Edward
Scissorhands is
a wonderful story that at its core is about acceptance of everybody
even those who would at first seem to threaten a very monotonous life
style. The movie follows an eventful section of the life of a person
created by a lonely professor. The person in question is called
Edward and as you may have guessed, in place of hands he had
scissors. It is later explained that Edward's lack of hands can be
associated with the inventor who created him, dying before he
finished him. Edward, as a result of this, lives in the inventors old
house, that is on top of a hill overlooking a dull suburb, by himself
for many years. During this time he becomes accustomed to his bladed
hands and becomes quite the artist, shaping and trimming the hedges
in the grounds. “At
the far end of a suburban enclave, where the houses huddle together
like a candy-colored wagon train, there stands a monument to lonely
genius.”
(Maslin, 1990) We can take two things from this, either it is
directly referencing the inventor and his ability to make a
convincing sentient man and that for of genius or we are looking at
Edward himself being on top of the hill and how he in a sense is a
genius with his quirky ideas and his innocence to the 'civilized'
world, which of course doesn't make him less evolved but rather more
open minded. Edward's perception of the world while seeming alien and
scary to some, particularly those within the suburban community could
also be considered genius and artistic by others.
Fig
2. The Mansion
Taking
on that idea, that Edward is an artistic genius, we could go on to
further say that it is this genius that people don't understand that
makes him truly special. Edward
Scissorhands has
strong messages as a film that creative people are often outcasts and
perhaps question or don't understand why people live and behave the
way they do and Burton pushes that idea and personifies it as Edward.
It seems as if though Burton is expressing his own experiences
through this film because Edward seems so relatable as a character to
anyone who feels like an outcast.
“Tim Burton showed what he could do when he developed a project of
his own. The result is this sweet 1990 fantasy that for the first
time crystallized the latent themes in the director’s work: the
notion of the artist as outsider, of skills that make one special but
at the same time different.”
(Blodrowski, 2000) What Blodrowski is pointing at here is that the
idea if someone creative being an outsider is a recurring theme in
Burton's work and that is because the outsiders have the most special
and interesting stories to follow.
Fig.3
Edward in Kim's Room
After
Edward is bought down from the hill he had been residing on and
dragged into the suburban community the immediate reaction the
audience has is that he doesn't belong there. He is out of place and
out of his world. The significance of this is that most of us have
felt like that once or twice, new schools, moving across the country
and we arrive at a place where we don't really fit in. “The
main thrust of the fable is exposing the exotic gentle freak to the
boring middle-class suburbs and seeing how they relate to each other,
with the monster being the sympathetic innocent and society being the
one to fear because of its evil nature.” (Schwarz,
2008) Edward in our eyes is seen as a victim because as viewers we
establish a special bond with him and we find ourselves relating to
him. The citizens of the town however find him to be at first an
exotic fantasy and then an evil monster after his presence leads to a
chain of unfortunate happenings. From this we can take the idea that
Burton was trying to portray the idea that people are scared of
change and excited of change but if something bad happens they will
blame it on what they don't fully understand. Taking that onboard
this movie is Burton's microcosm representation of society as whole.
People get into a repetitive, monotonous scheme of fulfilling their
everyday tasks and at first are excited at the prospect of new things
and get scared or angry if it ever challenges their life style.
Fig
4. Edward and the Police
All
in all I think we can all agree that Edward
Scissorhands is
a wonderful movie all around, with fantastic acting from Depp and
Ryder, glorious set design that helps portray the themes in story and
a great musical score that really sets the scene. Tim Burton really
did create a classic movie that will be remembered.
Bibliography
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