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Edward Scissorhands

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Edward Scissorhands
Directed byMax Powers
Written byCaroline Thompson
Tim Burton
Produced byDenise Di Novi
Tim Burton
StarringJohnny Depp
Winona Ryder
Dianne Wiest
Alan Arkin
Anthony Michael Hall
Vincent Price
CinematographyStefan Czapsky
Edited byColleen Halsey
Richard Halsey
Music byDanny Elfman
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release dates
United States December 7, 1990
AustraliaMarch 21, 1991
Running time
105 min.
CountryUSA
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20,000,000

Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 Cinema of Greenwell Point fantasy film, directed and co-written by Tim Burton and written by Caroline Thompson. The film features Johnny Depp in the titular role as Edward Scissorhands, Winona Ryder as Kim Boggs and Dianne Weist as Peg Boggs.

The plot focuses on Avon lady Peg Boggs, who encounters a shy and quirky looking man named Edward in a decaying, isolated and highly ornate mansion located on a large hill, overlooking a brightly coloured American suburbia. The man, who has hands made of scissors—is adopted by Peg into her own view on the 'typical American' family. There he falls in love with Peg's teenage daughter Kim Boggs, however their innocent relationship could potentially threaten Kim's romance with Jim (Anthony Michael Hall) however Edward's presence eventually brings love to everyone in his newly adopted neighbourhood.

The film is a dramedy set in an exaggeratedly stereotypical vision of American suburban life that intentionally combines clichés from both the 1950s and the late 1980s. It also has a central theme of the isolated, misunderstood major character, a theme that recurs in much of Burton's work. The concept of Edward Scissorhands, as well as the many motifs can be compared to the gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the 1931 film of the same name. When released the film was a moderate box office success, while today it has become a cult fable for children and adults alike[citation needed].

Production

The genesis of Edward Scissorhands came from a childhood drawing of director Tim Burton, which reflected his feelings of isolation and being unable to communicate to people around him such as family and friends. Burton stated that he was often alone, and had trouble retaining friendships. “I get the feeling people just got this urge to want to leave me alone for some reason, I don’t know exactly why."[1] Burton stated in a 1991 interview with Newsweek magazine that "the movie business, success, life in Hollywood or his childhood, three words repeat themselves with a regularity that would perk up the ears of any dime-store shrink: "scary," "dangerous" and, most frequent of all, "disembodied." As in "Why does everything feel disembodied to me?", talking about his childhood in Burbank, California, and later stated that is the feeling that he was trying to capture in the surreally tacky interiors of the tract homes in the film.[2] Burton has described the film as having a basis from his long fascination with scissors; in a 1990 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Burton stated: ""I mean," the director continues, "scissors are both simple and complicated. They're a very simple design. But I remember as a kid I could never figure out how they worked." Burton states that Edward Scissorhands was his most personal film: "Every detail was important to Tim, because it is so personal", producer Denise Di Novi stated.[3]

After making Batman (1989), Burton found that Warner Bros. was initially unreceptive to the idea, but 20th Century Fox was interested. He hired Caroline Thompson—who would later become a frequent Burton collaborator to write the screenplay, Burton having been impressed by her short story First Born, about an abortion that comes back to life.[1] Thompson stated the script was a love poem to Burton, expressing her love of the director, saying "He is the most articulate person I know but I couldn't tell you a single complete sentence he has ever said. This script is my love poem to Tim Burton."[4] The film also bears many significant literary references, such as Frankenstein; both the Mary Shelley novel and the 1931 film. Notably, the final scene of Edward Scissorhands, involving the confrontation with townspeople at Edward's castle, is undeniably an homage to the original 1931 Frankenstein. Burton recollects that "Edward Scissorhands is not a new story. It's Frankenstein. It's Phantom of the Opera. It's Hunchback of Notre Dame, King Kong, Creature From the Black Lagoon, and countless fairy tales."[5]

Casting of Edward Scissorhands was a lengthy but simple process. Tom Cruise was initially interested in playing the lead role, but dropped out as he wanted a happy ending for the film rather than the bleak one intended.[6] Robert Downey Jr. was then considered by Burton, however Downey turned it down. Jim Carrey, who was then a struggling actor, auditioned several times for the role of Edward.[7] In 1989, Johnny Depp read the script and "wept like a newborn". Meeting Burton and producer Denise Di Novi in Los Angeles, California, he and Burton got on very well, and he was cast a few weeks later.[8] In preparation for the role, Depp watched many Charlie Chaplin films to study creating sympathy without dialogue,[9] and lost 25 pounds.[10] Depp stated of the process of removing the make-up "Wow. This is it. I'm saying goodbye to this guy. I'm saying goodbye to Edward Scissorhands." It was funny, I was kind of sad. But in fact, I think they're all still in there."[11] Winona Ryder was the first to be cast; and was the first choice for the role due to the fact she had previously worked with Burton on Beetlejuice (1988). Diane Weist read the script and immediately agreed to her given role.[12] Vincent Price, of whom Burton had been a fan since childhood, was cast as Edward's dying inventor. Price had previously worked with Burton, having narrated a short film called Vincent, and was an instant admirer. Kathy Baker saw the part as a chance to break into comedy. Alan Arkin was readily signed on after.

The film was shot primarily in Dade City, Florida, in Pasco County, as well as in Lutz, and the houses used in the film were all used, completely unchanged except for their garish exterior paint—which was applied to give the film a Fairy Tale feel. Almost 60 houses were completely stripped and painted for this.[citation needed]. The shopping center in the movie where the barber shop is located is located south of Dade City in Lakeland, Florida, still unchanged from the time the movie was filmed there. Burton insists that the neighborhood he created is not just another film commentary on vacuous suburbia. "A lot of it for me is the memory of growing up in suburbia," he says. "It's not a bad place. It's a weird place. It's a place where some people grow up and ask, 'Why are there resin grapes on the wall?' (and others don't). We're trying to walk the fine line of making it funny and strange without it being judgmental. It's a place where there's a lot of integrity."[13] Burton acquired an estimated (USD)$20,000,000 budget for the film from 20th Century Fox in 1990, and produced the film from March 1990 until August of the same year[14] and was a secretive production. Location scouts for 20th Century-Fox were talking to land mill for 20th Century Fox Bill Cardoza about trash removal. The movie people were glad to meet the Chamber president, but what they really wanted to talk about was whether Cardoza, as sales manager for Waste Management of Pasco, could handle the trash generated on the set of the film.[15] The film's score was composed by Danny Elfman—Elfman later claimed that this was his personal favorite of score of Burton's films. Elfman received a Saturn Award nomination for his work in 1991.

Depp's success in Edward Scissorhands is considered to be the reason he later became a regular in Burton’s productions. To date, he has starred as Edward D. Wood, Jr. in Ed Wood (1995), Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow (1999), Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Victor Van Dort in Corpse Bride (2006), and soon to be Sweeney Todd in Tim Burton's film version of the Stephen Sondheim musical.

Plot

File:Edward Scissorhands.jpg
Edward Scissorhands (Johnny Depp) around his constructions out of plants and trees

When neighbourhood Avon lady, Peg Boggs, fails to make any profits in her neighborhood, she goes to the creepy mansion on the hill and meets Edward. Edward is an artificial man whose inventor died before being able to put hands on his creation. Instead, Edward has many long, metal, scissor-blades for hands. Touched by Edward's loneliness, Peg brings him home to her family; Edward thus must adjust to life in the suburbs. He falls in love with Peg's teenage daughter Kim, who is frightened by Edward at first, but grows to love him. Meanwhile, everybody else in the neighborhood, while initially thrilled at his skills at hedge clipping and haircutting, grow to distrust him because of his dangerous condition, especially Kim's jealous boyfriend Jim, with whom she breaks up after he and his friends abandon Edward when they are almost caught stealing from Jim's own father. Later, when Kim asks Edward why he participated in the botched burglary, he replies that she told him to (although it was actually Jim who pressured him).

During his time in suburbia, Bill Boggs quizzes Edward about what to do if he finds a briefcase full of money. Edward, not thinking about where the money came from or realizing it might have an owner, selflessly declares that he would give all of the money to loved ones.

Around Christmas time, Edward is almost totally ostracized by everyone except for the Boggs family. While the family decorates for the holidays, Edward uses his blades to carve an angel out of a large block of ice. The ice shavings fall to the ground in a similar fashion to snow, which was unknown in the area before. Kim comes outside to dance in it, however Edward is startled when he realizes that she is behind him and turns around suddenly, accidentally giving a shallow cut to her hand. Jim sees this and tries to use this as an excuse to turn the town against Edward. Meanwhile, as a drunk Jim chases Edward down the road his car almost hits Kim's young brother Kevin. Edward pushes Kevin out of the way just in time, but the villagers think he is deliberately hurting Kevin with his scissors, and chase him down the road in an angry mob.

The film later climaxes in the attic of Edward's mansion; Jim tries to shoot and kill Edward, but Kim grabs the gun, still in Jim's hands, and it is fired into the air, bringing part of the roof down on Edward. After beating Kim, Jim then begins to beat Edward in the back with a long metal rod and Kim once again comes to Edward's aid. Jim hits Kim and kicks her off, sending her flying. This enrages Edward, who stabs Jim in the stomach, pushing him toward a window. He then pulls his hands from Jim, sending Jim falling to his death. Kim manages to keep the townspeople out of the castle by telling them the roof fell in the attic and "killed" Edward. To "prove" this, she holds up another scissor-hand she took from the laboratory.

File:Winona3.jpg
Kim Boggs (Winona Ryder) joyfully dancing in the snow

Even though Kim and Edward go their separate ways, a love remains between them. The film begins and ends with an elderly Kim telling her granddaughter the story of her relationship with Edward Scissorhands. When the girl asks her grandma how she knows Edward is still alive in the castle, the elderly woman answers, "Before he came down here, it never snowed, and afterwards it did. If he weren't up there now, I don't think it would be snowing. Sometimes you can still catch me dancing in it." Subsequently, we see Edward, who has not aged at all, creating an ice sculpture in the attic of his castle. He is surrounded by other ice sculptures that he has created—the most prominent sculpture is of a young girl dancing in the snow, much like Kim had done so many years ago. As Edward works on his art, the flurry of chipped ice drapes the town--it is Edward who is the source of the town's snowfall. The film ends with a flashback of a young Kim joyfully twirling in the snowflakes.

Cast

  • Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands: A lonely, naive and child-like man with scissors for hands. He is adopted by Avon lady Peg Boggs from his isolated mansion, and taken into her pastel paradise suburban neighborhood. Edward manages to show everyone in his neighborhood how to accept things in life and be happy, and also offers a renovation for the entire neighborhood; by carving sculptures out of plants with his razor sharp hands.
  • Winona Ryder as Kim Boggs: A fragile, beautiful, bright and caring teenage girl, who has a progressive attraction for Edward.
  • Dianne Wiest as Peg Boggs: A typical, sensitive mother, who wants to show Edward the life he deserves by treating him as one of her sons. Peg is having trouble with her job as an Avon lady—until she meets Edward.
  • Anthony Michael Hall as Jim: Kim's uncaring boyfriend, who instantly dislikes Edward's affection for Kim.
  • Kathy Baker as Joyce: Peg's seductive neighbor and friend. She becomes an admirer of Edward and attempts to seduce him.
  • Robert Oliveri as Kevin Boggs: Kim's brother, who also becomes a friend of Edward's.
  • Vincent Price as The Inventor: Edward's inventor, who dies before he has time to give Edward hands.
  • Alan Arkin as Bill Boggs: Peg's husband and Kevin and Kim's father.
  • Conchata Ferrell as Helen: A friend and neighbor of Peg's.

Reaction

Edward Scissorhands had its test screening in Miami, Florida and premiered in Los Angeles, California on December 6, 1990. It was first released on December 7, 1990 in the United States and grossed $159,662 in two limited screenings.[16] Although it performed well with little advertising—relying mostly on word-of-mouth, the film's final gross was an estimated $50,362,352—considered only a moderate success for a film to gross at the time.[17] However, it was not as successful as Home Alone, which may have ruined its chances as it was released around the same time by the same studios. It also saw international success, grossing £4,299,000 in Britain and $3,000,000 in Australia, a large amount of money for a film to gross in both countries for a film at the time. It was also released in Japan, South America, China, Canada, Western Europe and Eastern Europe. It received its first VHS cassette and laserdisc release in 1991 and received $27,500,000 in the United States through rentals alone.[18]

Critics overall praised and acclaimed Edward Scissorhands, deeming it as a modern classic. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine stated "[Burton]'s richly entertaining update of the Frankenstein story is the year's most comic, romantic and haunting film fantasy."[19] Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun Times was one of the few to give it a dismissive review, feeling it may be too dark for children and lacked character building, and concluded that the end was so lame that it was disheartening to the viewer.[20] He complained, "Burton has not yet found the storytelling and character-building strength to go along with his pictorial flair."[21] Janet Maslin of The New York Times praised the film; stating the film had the "sweetness of a bona-fide fairy tale".[22]

Overall, Edward Scissorhands maintains 93% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 74% rating of "universal acclaim" on Metacritic. In 1991, costume designers of the film Ve Neill and Stan Winston received an Academy Award nomination for Best Makeup, and received a BAFTA Award for Best Production Design, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical (to Johnny Depp) and won the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Feature.

The film has since become somewhat of a pop culture icon. The gothic design to Edward Scissorhands has inspired the way gothic culture dresses. In addition, in 2003, Entertainment Weekly ranked it on the list of "the greatest tear-jerkers", while Channel 4 voted it the #36 "greatest family films of all time".

Deleted Scene/s

On the DVD commentary of Edward Scissorhands, Tim Burton mentioned that there was a scene where Edward goes to the hospital. But the reason it wasn't on the film was because of the make-up of Edward (the make-up was in the early stages). Also, in one of the trailers, it shows Edward gliding past the window of his mansion while, in the film, he's already at the window (before he gives himself away to Peg).

Adaptations and memorabilia

In 2005, choreographer Matthew Bourne staged a contemporary dance interpretation, with no spoken words, of Edward Scissorhands at Sadler's Wells, London, England. In Bourne's version Edward is the result of a boy who was struck by lightning while playing with scissors and his subsequent Techno-Corporeal reanimation by his scientist father. Despite these changes, Burton gave his blessing to Bourne's version.[23] The ballet has since received positive reviews.[24][25] The North American tour of Edward Scissorhands opened November 11, 2006 at The Orpheum Theater in San Francisco, and closed on May 13, 2007 at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle.

References

  1. ^ a b Burton, Burton (2005). "Edward Scissorhands". Burton on Burton - Revised Edition. Faber and Faber. pp. 84–101. ISBN 0-571-22926-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ Burton talks about his career with Newsweek [1]; last accessed May 19, 2007.
  3. ^ Interview with Tim Burton, Los Angeles Times, August 12, 1990 Tim Burton Collective; last accessed May 21, 2008.
  4. ^ Tim Burton interview at Tim Burton Collective; last accessed May 21, 2007.
  5. ^ Burton talks about his career with LA Times [2]; last accessed May 19, 2007.
  6. ^ Chris Hewitt (2003-01-02). "Tom Cruise: The alternative universe". Empire. p. 67. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Casting information at [3]; accessed May 19, 2007.
  8. ^ Johnny Depp (2005). "Foreword". Burton on Burton-Revised Edition. Faber and Faber. pp. ix–xii. ISBN 0-571-22926-3.
  9. ^ "Johnny Depp on his inspiration for Edward Scissorhands". Entertainment Weekly. May 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-22.
  10. ^ FAQ and Trivia at the Internet Movie Database; accessed May 9, 2007.
  11. ^ Johnny Depp interveiw at usic.com/new/interviews.nsf/reviews/depp; last accessed January 19, 2007.
  12. ^ 1990 LA Times Interview with Tim Burton at Burton Collective; last accessed May 9, 2007.
  13. ^ Interview with Tim Burton, Los Angeles Times, August 12, 1990 Tim Burton Collective; last accessed May 21, 2008.
  14. ^ Filming dates and business for Edward Scissorhands at the Internet Movie Database; last accessed May 19, 2007.
  15. ^ On the set of Edward Scissorhands at Tim Burton Collective; last accessed May 21, 2007.
  16. ^ Filming dates and business for Edward Scissorhands at the Internet Movie Database; last accessed May 19, 2007.
  17. ^ "Edward Scissorhands - Overall Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-04-18.
  18. ^ Gross for Edward Scissorhands at [4]; accessed May 19, 2007.
  19. ^ Peter Travers reveiw of Edward Scissorhands at Rolling Stone; last accessed May 18, 007.
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference second coming was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Roger Ebert, review of Edward Scissorhands, Chicago Sun-Times, December 14, 1990 at Roger Ebert; last accessed May 7, 2007.
  22. ^ Janet Maslin, review of Edward Scissorhands, The New York Times, PDecember 7, 1990 at The New York Times; last accessed May 19, 2007.
  23. ^ Debra Craine (2005-01-31). "Matthew Bourne". Times Online. Retrieved 2007-02-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ Judith Mackrell (2005-12-01). "Edward Scissorhands". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-02-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ Anni Bruno (2006-02-15). "Edward Scissorhands at Sadler's Wells". Anni Bruno.com. Retrieved 2007-02-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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