Sleepy Hollow (film)

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Sleepy Hollow

original movie poster
Directed by Tim Burton
Produced by Francis Ford Coppola
Written by Washington Irving (original story)
Kevin Yagher (screen story)
Andrew Kevin Walker (screen story, screenplay)
Starring Johnny Depp
Christina Ricci
Miranda Richardson
Michael Gambon
Christopher Walken
Music by Danny Elfman
Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) 1999
Running time 105 minutes
Language English
IMDb profile

Sleepy Hollow (1999) is a historical horror film directed by Tim Burton interpreting the legend of The Headless Horseman and based loosely around the Washington Irving story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The film was scored by Danny Elfman and filmed at Leavesden Film Studios. It received an Academy Award for Best Art Direction.

  • Tagline: Heads Will Roll

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In 1799, young constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is sent from New York City to the fledgling settlement of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of ghoulish murders.

On Ichabod's arrival, Baltus Van Tassel (Michael Gambon) and town council inform him that the three victims were killed on open ground and their severed heads are believed to have been taken by a headless ghost. Ichabod is unconvinced of this, but learns more about the ghostly horseman: it is the ghost of a Hessian mercenary (Christopher Walken), a horseman who rode a great black stallion whose name is Daredevil. He was sent by the British during the Revolutionary War and came because of his love of killing and battle - he was renowned for cutting off heads at full gallop. However, he was killed in the winter of 1779 in the woods west of Sleepy Hollow, where he fought to the death against soldiers sent to find him, although he killed most of them before the survivors fatally wounded him in the side and then decapitated him with his own sword.

When Ichabod sees the ghost kill one of the town council members, his skepticism evaporates. He soon discovers that the horseman's ghost has an unholy connection to Baltus Van Tassel, a wealthy farmer and Sleepy Hollow's only plutocrat [following the death of Van Garret], whose daughter Katrina (Christina Ricci) Ichabod is falling in love with. Meanwhile, as the film progresses, Ichabod's childhood is recalled through a series of dreams.

His beautiful mother, whom he loved very much, was a pagan, who was condemned by the church. Ichabod watched her be dragged to the back room of the church and followed. In the back room, he found it was filled with torture devices and that his mother was locked inside an Iron Maiden by his father. When he realizes this, he is so upset, he steps back and accidentally grabs the arms of a chair that is covered in spikes, the result of which is that both his hands are covered with puncture wounds that he has his entire life.

As the film goes on, it is revealed that the horseman is being controlled and is being summoned to commit the murders, as they discover when the find the site of the horseman's grave and discover his skull is missing: as Crane surmises, he rises to cut off heads 'til his own is restored to him'. At first, Ichabod is convinced it is Katrina's work, and he is also convinced that she is trying to curse him.

Christopher Walken as The Headless Horseman
Enlarge
Christopher Walken as The Headless Horseman

However, Lady Van Tassel (Miranda Richardson), the supposedly murdered stepmother of Katrina, actually stole the horseman's head and is using it to control him. She wanted to gain revenge against the people of Sleepy Hollow who'd shown her family no mercy when she was a child. As a girl, she met the horseman and betrayed him to the soldiers who killed him. When she watched him die, she sold her soul to the devil if he would give her power to raise the warrior from his grave, so she took his skull and uses it to summon him. Lady Van Tassel summons the horseman to get her revenge upon the landlords who evicted her family, and she later summons him again to gain an inheritance by killing Katrina.

Ichabod rescues Katrina and returns the head to the horseman, after which it is restored from its rotten state. The horseman then goes back to Hell, taking Lady Van Tassel with him. Ichabod, Katrina, and a boy named Masbeth (Marc Pickering) (whose father was killed by the horseman and who helped Ichabod) return to New York and, ostensibly, live happily ever after.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane
Enlarge
Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane

[edit] Victims of the Horseman

  • Dirk Van Garrett: Beheaded by the horseman while driving the coach containing his father.
  • Peter Van Garrett: Beheaded by the horseman in the garden near the scarecrow.
  • Widow Winship: Though the audience doesn't see it, she is beheaded by the horseman and her unborn child is also killed.
  • Jonathan Masbeth: After vainly trying to gun the horseman down, he is beheaded while trying to run away.
  • Magistrate Phillips: Beheaded while trying to get out of town, witnessed by Ichabod.
  • The Killian Family: Mr. Killian is beheaded while fighting off the horseman, Mrs. Killian was beheaded after she hid her son Thomas under the floor. As he was about to walk out the door the horseman turned around, bashed through the floor with his axe, picked the screaming boy by the hair and beheaded him too.
  • Brom Van Brunt: Though not beheaded, he was cut in half through the waist by the horseman as he was responding to the Killian's house. The horseman did this in self-defense as Brom was not his target and Brom, with help from Ichabod, was trying to stop him.
  • Baltus Van Tassel: The last victim of the horseman, Baltus was stabbed through the chest by a sharp fence stake, attached to a rope, by the horseman, The horseman pulled the rope and Baltus through a church window, dragged him some distance, and subsequently beheaded Baltus. The horseman could not enter the church to kill him because the church was off limits to the horseman.

[edit] Trivia

  • The film was shot almost entirely using a blue camera filter. Therefore, for blood to appear red, the mixture used was actually bright orange.
  • Christopher Walken, who plays the Headless Horseman, played a schoolteacher in The Dead Zone (1983), in the beginning of which he tells his class to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
  • Three of the actors, Christopher Lee (Burgomaster), Ian McDiarmid (Lancaster) and Ray Park (horseman stunt double), portray villains in the Star Wars prequels as Darth Tyranus, Darth Sidious and Darth Maul, respectively.
  • Christopher Lee and Johnny Depp also appear in "Corpse Bride" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", the second and third times Lee worked with Tim Burton, the fourth and fifth times for Depp.
  • Sleepy Hollow and Bringing Out the Dead were the last films released in America on Laserdisc.
  • Christopher Walken doesn't speak a single line of dialogue.
  • The film was conceptualized as a stylistic homage to the films of Hammer Film Productions.
  • Richard Griffiths, Sir Michael Gambon, and Miranda Richardson have all appeared in the Harry Potter series of films. Griffiths plays Uncle Vernon, Gambon plays Albus Dumbledore, and Richardson plays Rita Skeeter.
  • The scene from when Ichabod is crossing the bridge to where it is revealed that it was Brom pretending to be the horseman, is an homage to the Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The most noticeable elements are the frog's croak and the flaming pumpkin.
  • Christopher Walken claims that his inspiration for his scenes was Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolf Man. [citation needed]
  • Christopher Walken had a phobia of horses and so a fake robotic horse was constructed for him to ride.
  • The scene where Brom Bones and the horseman are fighting on the bridge, during filming the sword hit Casper's hand thus shattering some of his fingers - he ignored the pain during the shot so the scene could remain in the film.
  • The scene where the horseman breaks into the Midwife's house was originally going to be cut - Burton fought really hard to keep it in the film.
  • The set of the village of Sleepy Hollow was all built just for the film in the middle of a hunting ground in England, by request of the locals the church still remains, and wasn't torn down after production.
  • Even though this film might be a long stretch from the original story, elements from the original story still remain, such as the characters - Ichabod's squirmish character, Katrina's thirst for knowledge and ambition to see the world (established in a deleted scene) and Brom's jealousy of Ichabod. Even the architecture of the church is similar to the real Sleepy Hollow dutch church and the bridge still remains, although its significance is never explored.
  • It is sometimes claimed that this was the first movie featuring Christopher Walken in which the actor had an onscreen kiss. However, Walken had onscreen kisses in The Deer Hunter (with Meryl Streep), The Dead Zone and A View To A Kill (Grace Jones).

[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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