Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands
Directed by	Tim Burton
Produced by	Denise Di Novi Tim Burton
Written by	Tim Burton (story) Caroline Thompson (story and screenplay)
Starring	Johnny Depp Winona Ryder Dianne Wiest Alan Arkin Anthony Michael Hall Vincent Price
Music by	Danny Elfman
Cinematography	Stefan Czapsky
Editing by	Colleen Halsey Richard Halsey
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	December 7, 1990 (USA) March 21, 1991 (AUS) July 26, 1991 (UK)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$20 million
Gross revenue	US$86 million (Worldwide)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 American fantasy film, written by Tim Burton and Caroline Thompson, and directed by Burton. The film features Johnny Depp as the titular Edward, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest and Anthony Michael Hall. The plot revolves around a man named Edward, an inventor's creation, who has dangerous shears and scissors for hands, and appears frightening, who is adopted into a colorful, but stereotypically suburban, family.

The film is a comedy-drama set in an exaggerated and highly stereotypical vision of American suburbia and the typical families that inhabit it. It intentionally combines clichés and styles from both the 1950s, early 1960s and the late 1980s. The concept, and many of the motifs of Edward Scissorhands can be compared to the English Gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the French legend of Beauty and the Beast. Edward Scissorhands was a modest box office hit, grossing $56 million worldwide.^[1] Critics acclaimed the film as a timeless tale of friendship; it is usually cited as one of Burton's greatest films.^[2] The director cites Edward Scissorhands as epitomizing his most personal work.^[3]

Plot

The film opens with an elderly woman reciting a story of a man named Edward (Johnny Depp), the creation of an inventor (Vincent Price), who unfortunately died before he could give Edward hands. Later scenes show that this inventor had been inspired to make an artificial man by the anthropomorphic appearance of his other inventions. He had raised Edward as his son and tutored him in various subjects, but died of a cardiac arrest while in the act of offering a pair of hands to Edward.

In a flashback immediately following the opening, local Avon saleswoman Peg Boggs (Wiest) fails to make any profits in her neighborhood. Driven by a whim, she visits a pseudo-medieval mansion on a hill. Once inside, she finds Edward, a friendless, pallid youth having scissors in place of hands. She decides to take him home and adopts him into her family. Thus, Edward is forced to adjust to new surroundings. He quickly befriends Peg's son, Kevin (Robert Oliveri) and after an initial misstep, her daughter Kim (Winona Ryder).

Peg's conformist neighbors, while initially curious of her visitor, become thrilled at Ed's masterful skills at hedge clipping and haircutting. However, two of the townspeople — a religious fanatic named Esmeralda (O-Lan Jones) and Kim's thuggish boyfriend Jim (Anthony Michael Hall) — dislike him immediately. The resident town slattern, Joyce (Kathy Baker) suggests that Edward opens a haircutting salon with her, as a ruse to pull him aside from the others. While examining a proposed site, she attempts to seduce him — confusing Edward, who escapes the room in a state of panic. Edward attempts to bring up the subject of her actions while the family is having dinner, but no one reacts to the news.

Wanting money for a van, Jim takes advantage of Edward's ability to pick locks and breaks into his own home. The burglar alarm sounds, and all but Edward escape, over Kim's furious protest. Edward is arrested, but is scheduled to be released when a psychological examination reveals that his isolation had allowed him to live without a traditional sense of ethics. The arresting officer, Allen, befriends the timid Edward, sensing his intrinsic goodness.

Shortly thereafter, Peg's husband Bill (Alan Arkin) tests Edward's moral code and asks Edward about what to do if he finds a briefcase full of money. Edward, not thinking about whence the money came or realizing it might have an owner, selflessly declares that he would give all the money to his loved ones. Bill tells Edward that this is not morally right, but Kim defends Edward, saying it is the kindest choice. Humiliated at the earlier rejection, Joyce tries to claim that Edward tried to rape her. Many of the neighbors begin to gossip and slowly turn against Edward. During Christmas, Edward is therefore ostracized and disliked by almost everyone around him except his hosts, thus making him an outcast.

While the family is preparing for Christmas decorations, Edward is carving an ice sculpture from a block of ice. The ice shavings create effect of precipitating snow, under which Kim dances. Jim, passing by, catches Kim's attention, whereupon Edward, unaware of her presence, turns around and accidentally cuts Kim's hand. Jim assumes that Edward deliberately harmed her, and uses this as a pretext to attack Edward in a jealous rage. The situation worsens when Kevin is almost run over by Jim's drunken friend, who is driving their van. Edward, seeing Kevin in danger, pushes him out of it, mistakenly cutting his face. In the confusion, the neighbors (including some of Kim's family) misunderstand the situation, thinking Edward attacked Kevin. They formed an angry mob and pursue him to his creator's hill-top mansion (a reference to the climax of Frankenstein). Officer Allen, out of concern for Edward, attempts to turn back the angry mob by giving them the impression that Edward is dead, but the neighbors do not believe this and are outraged that Officer Allen let him go. They continue to the mansion, presumably to kill Edward themselves in order to bring justice to their own hands or to see if Officer Allen really did kill Edward.

Kim, who also refuses to believe that Edward's dead, hastens to enter the mansion. There, she reunites with Edward. Jim follows them and attacks both, one after the other. During the fight, Edward refuses to retaliate until he sees Kim in danger. Connecting his previous experiences in his mind, Edward uses his sharp fingers to kill Jim, who falls out of a window. Recovering, Kim kisses Edward on the mouth, whispering that she loves him, and goes out to meet the mob, who have assembled near Jim's corpse. Kim seizes a scissored implement from the nearby machines and presents it as proof that Edward and Jim have killed each other. All the neighbors (presumably either relieved or a little depressed that they didn't get to kill Edward) then return home.

The elderly woman from the beginning of the movie reappears, telling her granddaughter the story. When the granddaughter asks her of Edward's fate, she says she believes that Edward is still alive in the castle. She supports her assertion with the statement that before Edward came, snow never fell on the valley, but has come ever since his departure. The old lady attributes the snow to Edward and remarks that she still dances in it, revealing that she is a significantly older Kim. The granddaughter questions Kim as to why she did not return to visit Edward, and receives the reply that she (Kim) wants Edward to remember her the way she was. Viewers then see Edward, apparently unchanged, creating an ice sculpture in chilled chambers of his mansion. He is surrounded by other ice-sculptures that he has created, including one of a girl dancing. As Edward works, the flurry of ice shavings is thrown, presumably by Edward himself, onto the valley and onto the town below.

Cast

• Johnny Depp stars as Edward Scissorhands. A lonely, timid, naïve, and creative being with scissors for hands, adopted by Peg and taken into her neighborhood. Tim Burton personally expressed the character as "both simple and complicated. Both beautiful and off-putting, both creative and horrifically clumsy"^[3]. Twentieth-Century Fox had demanded Tom Cruise to play the role.^[4][5] The studio wanted a "bankable" actor and Burton felt it was best "to be open about casting". Burton attempted to work with Cruise, but found the relationship impossible.^[4] Cruise also wanted the ending to be "happier"^[6] and in addition, cited scheduling conflicts with Days of Thunder^[5] while blaming Edward's "lack of virility".^[3] In due time, Michael Jackson expressed having interest for the role but was ignored. Tom Hanks then turned it down in favor of The Bonfire of the Vanities. William Hurt and Robert Downey, Jr. had both openly expressed interest.^[3] Although Burton was unfamiliar with Depp's previous work, Burton was impressed with his "subtlety and ability to act with his eyes", citing that "for a character that doesn't speak a lot, eyes are very important "^[4]. In 1989, Depp read the script and "wept like a newborn". Meeting Burton and producer Denise Di Novi in Los Angeles, California, he and Burton co-operated very well, and he was cast a few weeks later.^[7] In preparation for the role, Depp watched many Charlie Chaplin films to study the idea of creating sympathy without dialogue.^[8] Studio executives were so worried about Edward's image that they tried to keep pictures of Depp in full costume under wraps until release of the film.^[9] Burton was so impressed with Depp's performance that he would become close friends with Depp and go on to include the actor in five later films.^[7]

• Winona Ryder as Kim Boggs: A fragile, beautiful, bright, compassionate teenage girl, who has a progressive attraction to Edward. Burton claimed that he could not envision any other actress in the role, feeling that Ryder gave a positive performance in Beetlejuice. At the time, Ryder was coincidentally romantically involved with Depp. Burton felt "she could respond to this dark material", and that the idea of her as a cheerleader and wearing a blond wig "was very funny". Burton feels that it was the hardest role for her to take at the time, as she herself was "tortured" and mocked by cheerleaders at school ^[4]. Ryder dropped out of The Godfather Part III in favor of this film ^[10].
• 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, but is not wholly wise and sometimes appears as foolish as are her neighbors. Peg is having trouble with her job as an Avon agent until she meets Edward. Although Ryder was the first to be attached to the project,^[3] Wiest was the first to sign and read the script. Burton claims that it was "her stamp of approval" that had "others soon interested "^[11].
• Anthony Michael Hall as Jim: Kim's uncaring boyfriend, who instantly dislikes Edward's affection for Kim. Hall and Arkin were the last two central characters to be cast ^[3].
• Kathy Baker as Joyce: Peg's seductive neighbor who becomes an admirer of Edward's and attempts unsuccessfully to seduce him. Baker saw her part as a perfect chance to enter comedy ^[3].
• Robert Oliveri as Kevin Boggs: Kim's obnoxious, curious younger brother, who also befriends Edward.
• Alan Arkin as Bill Boggs: Peg's husband and Kevin and Kim's father. Although he is portrayed as a loving father, he often tries to act as if listening to his family when in reality he is not. When Arkin first read the script he was "a bit baffled" saying "nothing really made sense to me until I saw the sets", claiming "Burton's visual imagination is extraordinary"^[3].
• Vincent Price in his final film appearance in the small but pivotal role of The Inventor: Edward's creator, who dies in the very act of trying to give Edward hands. It is implied at one point that he is blind; but this seems to be disproved. Edward refers to him as his father and he is known to have taught Edward poetry and courtesy. Burton chose to cast Price in the role because he (Price) was one of Burton's childhood idols. The two had previously worked together on Vincent. Price said of Burton, "There is a wonderful cartoon madness in his work, a kind of madness that doesn't exist anymore in film". In response, Burton stated, "I can't tell you what Price meant to me growing up. This sounds dramatic but he helped me live. When you're a child and a teenager it's not unusual to go through a melodramatic phase. Some people find release through heavy metal or whatever. But by watching Price's films, there was a catharsis for me. You're not just watching a low-budget Edgar Allan Poe movie, there's something else there that's not on the screen. I channeled my melodrama into that, as opposed to suicide probably"^[3].

Production

Development

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". He also commented "[it was] linked subconsciously and was linked to a character who wants to touch but can't; who was both creative and destructive".^[4] Burton stated that "the movie business, success, life in Hollywood or my 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?"^[12]. In addition Burton cited influences from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera, Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, King Kong, and Creature From the Black Lagoon.^[3]

After the success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Burton pitched the idea to his agents at the William Morris Agency,^[3] where they introduced him to Caroline Thompson, thinking the two would get along. Burton read a short novel of hers titled First Born, which was about an abortion that came back to life. He also cited the novella depicted a tone Burton wanted for the film. During pre-production on Beetlejuice (1988) he felt her to be perfect to write the script, paying her a few thousand dollars by himself, and as such, he commissioned Thompson to write the screenplay. In Thompson, Burton found a kindred spirit who would later write the screenplay for another of Burton's long-cherished projects, The Nightmare Before Christmas.^[4] Thompson claimed she wrote the screenplay as a "love poem" to Burton, calling him "the most articulate person I know, but couldn't put a single sentence together".^[12] Burton originally had plans for the film to be a musical, explaining "It seemed big and operatic to me", but later dropped the idea.^[3]

It wasn't until the commercial success of Batman (1989) that Burton was then a commercially famous director. This gained him the opportunity to make any film he desired. Instead of doing another blockbuster, or the Batman sequel Warner Brothers desired, Burton seized what he took to be the perfect chance for Edward Scissorhands. Although Burton was linked with Warner Brothers with his three previous films, he found the studio unreceptive to the idea, and sought out another studio which would allow him the freedom to make the film his way. Burton quoted, "Warner just didn't get it, which was good because I knew they didn't want to do it. I try to work with people who want to do what I want to do. Even now I try to gauge if people just want to do it because of me, or if they actually like it". When submitting the script to various studios Burton joked that it was more or less of a package, in terms that Burton and Thompson would not have creative difficulties over rewrites if the studio disapproved over the script. He would eventually find Twentieth-Century Fox to finance the film.^[13]

Filming

The houses were painted in faded pastel colors, to represent the generic nature of American suburbia with which Edward finds himself at odds.

Cast and crew spent twelve weeks filming in Florida, where they found an occupied community to film in, Carpenter's Run subdivision in Lutz, Florida. On the shooting location, according to the words of the production designer Bo Welch: "a kind of generic, plain-wrap suburb, which we made even more characterless by painting all the houses in faded pastels, and reducing the window sizes to make it look a little more paranoid "^[14]. Sixty different houses were to be repainted for Tim Burton's vision of suburbia, all of them occupied, and only changed for the garish exterior paint.

The director stated on the film and its setting: "A lot of it for me is the memory of growing up in suburbia. 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".^[3] The production then relocated to a set in Los Angeles, California for the shooting of the mansion scenes.^[14]

Film score

Danny Elfman, who previously collaborated with Burton on Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Batman, was hired to compose the music. Elfman describes three themes appearing in the film as the first being the "Main Titles" (which he called "the storybook mode"). The "emotional" (or second theme) is featured with Kim as a grandmother telling her granddaughter the bedtime story. Elfman claimed it was originally "Edward's Theme" as well as a supposed theme for the "Main Titles", though Burton and Elfman decided to "toss it out".^[15] He felt this piece created "the heart of the character". "The Ice Dance", or the more recognized composition, concludes the third and last theme. Elfman took scoring "The Suburban Theme" seriously, depicting it as an opportunity. In the scene where Edward is cutting the hair of the various housewives in the neighborhood, Elfman stated it was not intentional to "add a gypsy, or Spanish tango beat", calling it coincidental. Elfman described the climax music as "twisting the theme" or "themes that were innocently written; seemed to become worse and worse "^[15]. The scene wherein as Edward enters the Boggs' home and looks at the family photos is what Elfman considers his favorite piece of music notes for the film.^[15]

Elfman claimed that he is relieved whenever he finishes work on a film, though on Edward Scissorhands, he felt the exact opposite, claiming he "wanted more" and wished the film were longer. To date, Elfman cites his work on the film as his most personal and favorite film. In addition, Elfman considers it his hardest film he has composed, jokingly stating "even harder than Batman" ^[15]. It wasn't until after his work on Edward Scissorhands that he himself felt he earned the title of a film composer. Nonetheless Elfman jokingly theorizes that pieces and notes of the film score appear simultaneously in television commercials and various movie trailers. Elfman was romantically involved with writer Caroline Thompson during the production of this film. In addition to Elfman's music, three songs performed by Tom Jones appeared in the finished film. Elfman himself cited Burton as being creative when choosing the songs "It's Not Unusual", "Delilah" and "With These Hands". "It's Not Unusual" would appear in Mars Attacks! (1996), another film of Burton's with collaborative effort by Elfman, with Jones himself featuring a cameo.^[15]

Reaction

Edward Scissorhands opened in America on December 7, 1990 and grossed $6,325,249 in its opening weekend.^[16] This was somewhat of a disappointment for 20th Century Fox, who thought that it could possibly beat Burton's Batman (1989) and Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).^[17] Although it performed well with little advertising (relying mostly on word-of-mouth),^[18] it would eventually gross a modest $56,362,352, worldwide, beating out its $20 million budget.^[16] Box office wise, the film became the 20th highest grossing film in 1990.^[19] It received its first VHS cassette and laserdisc release in 1991 and received $27,500,000 in the United States through rentals alone.^[20] The film was first released in a DVD format in 1997 in a bare-bones edition, followed by a special edition in 2001, celebrating the film's tenth anniversary. It has also been issued as a Blu-ray release.

Based on 42 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Edward Scissorhands received an average 93 percent overall approval rating;^[21] the film received an 80% with the five critics in Rotten Tomatoes' "Cream of the Crop."^[22] Those who supported the film were largely enthusiastic. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone stated, "Burton's richly entertaining update of the Frankenstein story is the year's most comic, romantic and haunting film fantasy" and continued: "Edward Scissorhands isn't perfect. It's something better: pure magic."^[23] Desson Howe of The Washington Post praised overall aspects of the film that included casting, design, story and the direction of Burton.^[24] Chris Hicks of The Deseret News was pleased to see a modern fairy tale as he himself felt the genre had "faded out."^[25] Nonetheless, the film was not without its detractors. Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun Times gave it a negative review, citing that the film lacked development in its plot and character background: "Burton has not yet found the storytelling and character-building strength to go along with his pictorial flair."^[26]

The film was nominated for an Academy Award at the 64th Academy Awards in the category of Best Makeup and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical for Johnny Depp, while Elfman's score was nominated for a Grammy Award. In addition, the film won a BAFTA Award for Best Production Design, and was nominated in three other categories.^[27] In 2003, Entertainment Weekly ranked the film one of the most "tear-jerking";^[28] and was also ranked by a Channel 4 poll of the 100 greatest family films.^[29]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Edward Scissorhands

• Edward Scissorhands at the Internet Movie Database
• Edward Scissorhands at Rotten Tomatoes
• Edward Scissorhands at Metacritic
• Official website for Matthew Bourne's adaptation
• Official website for North American tour of Matthew Bourne's adaptation

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