Edward Scissorhands

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Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands 10th Anniversary Edition DVD cover
Directed by Tim Burton
Produced by Denise Di Novi
Tim Burton
Written by Caroline Thompson
Starring Johnny Depp
Winona Ryder
Dianne Wiest
Alan Arkin
Anthony Michael Hall
Vincent Price
Music by Danny Elfman
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) Widely Released on December 14, 1990
Running time 105 minutes
Language English
Budget $20,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Edward Scissorhands is a movie directed by Tim Burton and co-written by Burton and screenwriter Caroline Thompson. It was released in 1990. The movie is a fable set in an exaggeratedly stereotypical vision of American suburbia that intentionally combines clichés from both the 1950s and late 1980s. It also has a central theme of the isolated, misunderstood major character, a theme that recurs in much of Burton's work. It stars Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder. Vincent Price also has a role in the film; his last before his death. Further, many of the motifs and themes of the 1931 film Frankenstein are referenced in Edward Scissorhands.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

When the neighborhood Avon lady, Mrs. Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest) fails to make any profits in her neighborhood, she goes to the creepy castle on the hill and meets Edward (Johnny Depp). Edward is an artificial man whose inventor (Vincent Price) died before being able to put hands on his creation. Instead Edward has long metal scissor-blades for hands. Touched by Edward's lonliness Mrs. Boggs brings Edward home to her family and thus Edward must adjust to life in the suburbs. He falls in love with Kim Boggs (Winona Ryder), who is frightened of Edward at first, but grows to love him while everybody else in the neighborhood grows to distrust him because of his dangerous condition, especially her boyfriend Jim whom she eventually splits up with after he abandons Edward when they are almost caught stealing. In the end, Edward and Kim go their separate ways, but a love remains between them. The film is told by an elderly Kim Boggs telling her granddaughter the story of Edward. The ending of the movie shows greatly the power of human dignity and love. When Kim Boggs is asked by her granddaughter how does she know Edward is still alive in the castle, the elderly woman answers "Before he came, it never snowed on this town", and then a scene with an Edward that has not aged at all begins and shows how he makes ice sculptures from the attic of his castle. The ice that is being chipped off to give the shape to the sculpture are actually the snowflakes falling on the town who hated him so much.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Literary antecedents

[edit] Frankenstein

The plot of Edward Scissorhands bears resemblances to Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, in as much as Edward is an artificially created man; however, such similarities to the novel are limited.

For example, both Edward and Frankenstein's monster are "monstrous", yet Edward's Creator adored him and wished to give him all he desired. This stands in contrast to the case of Shelley's Frankenstein in which the creator abandoned, despised, and hunted his creature.

Instead, the film bears closer similarities to later adaptations of the original Frankenstein story. In particular, Edward's appearance, with black clothing, shambling, almost mechanical gait, and pale, scarred face, resembles that of the Frankenstein monster in the 1954 Hammer Films version. Additionally, the plot roughly follows that of the 1931 motion picture Frankenstein in that Edward, a creature without malice or knowledge of deception, is naïve to the selfish, malicious, deceitful, and fearful nature of his human hosts. As a result, Edward's innocent mistakes are interpreted as malicious acts by the people of the neighborhood leading to his ultimate downfall in which those who Edward had trusted and loved reveal their underlying fear and misunderstanding along with their selfish motivations for befriending him (such as availing themselves of his artistic abilities).

As well, the final scene involving the confrontation with townspeople at Edward's castle is undeniably an homage to the original 1931 Frankenstein.

[edit] The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The appearance of Edward resembles that of Cesare from the 1920 movie The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

[edit] Beauty and the Beast & The Phantom of the Opera

Similarities and common plot developments are also seen between Edward Scissorhands and the classic story Beauty and the Beast; in both, a misunderstood and visually frightening (but nonetheless emotionally sensitive) "beast" earns the affection of the lead female character (in these cases also an ingénue) while becoming the object of the townspeople's derision and hatred. From there, it is easy to find a parallel between Edward Scissorhands and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of The Phantom of the Opera. Though Erik the Phantom is a considerably less benign character than Edward, the climax of Edward Scissorhands, in which Kim breaks a scissored implement from one of the inventor's machines as proof to the lynch mob of Edward's "death", bears a striking resemblance to the final moments of The Phantom of the Opera, in which the character Meg Giry produces the Phantom's mask when announcing to the assembled mob (and the audience) that the unhappy man is not gone forever, but to live in isolation away from the rest of society.

[edit] Struwwelpeter

Edward Scissorhands was apparently inspired in part by the 19th Century German children's nursery character 'Shock-headed Peter', from the book Struwwelpeter authored by Heinrich Hoffman. Struwwelpeter was a moral fable about the benefits of good grooming. Peter is a slovenly child who refuses to wash or allow his nails to be cut or his hair to be combed. Peter's frightful appearance is mirrored in the plight of the feral Edward Scissorhands, unable to groom himself due to his predicament, and having similarly messy hair and sharp scissors where Peter had untamed fingernails. Another tale from Struwwelpeter, The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb, features the Scissorman, a sort of Boogeyman in the form of a tailor, who uses his shears to cut off the thumbs of children who suck their thumbs.

[edit] Peter Pan

Like Peter Pan, Edward never gets to establish a relationship with Kim, the same way Peter Pan and Wendy didn't, despite sexual tension existing between both. Also, he can never grow older becuase he isn't human, but a machine created by the Inventor.

[edit] Adaptations

In 2005, choreographer Matthew Bourne staged a contemporary dance interpretation of Edward Scissorhands at Sadler's Wells, London. The production is currently on tour in the US and Canada. In Bourne' version Edward is the result of a boy who was struck by lightening while playing with sissors and his subsequent Techno-Corporeal reanimation by his scientist father.

[edit] Reviews Of Matthew Bourne production

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Tim Burton ( This box: view • talk • edit )
Director
The Island of Doctor Agor • Stalk of the Celery • Vincent • Frankenweenie • Pee-wee's Big Adventure • Beetlejuice • Batman • Edward Scissorhands • Batman Returns • Ed Wood • Mars Attacks! • Sleepy Hollow • Planet of the Apes • Big Fish • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory • Corpse Bride • Sweeney Todd
Producer
The Nightmare Before Christmas • James and the Giant Peach • Batman Forever • 9
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