Edward Scissorhands (1990)

 Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands is a modern-day fairytale about isolation. It is Burton’s most personal film, even here in 2022. While Burton had a flair for comedy in his earlier films, he takes the Batman route to make a darker, gothic story about a man with scissors for hands. He still uses dark humor, especially with the adult characters, to make the story richer. Whether you get taken in by the story or not, you cannot deny that Burton always had a knack for creating rich visuals that never has been seen before. Here he creates a modern suburbia whose houses lack biting color pastels (done on purpose), but a large, haunting gothic castle overlooks these houses. It is odd, but it works for the story itself. I loved how Burton portrayed the suburbia and its inhabitants. Danny Elfman’s wonderful score may just about be the best score he has ever done. The music is a major factor in the character’s, especially Edward himself, characterization. Trust me when I say it will also play with your emotion. It remains my favorite score of his to this day. As a child, Burton’s story spoke to me because I found it so relatable. Someone who was always alone as people couldn’t bother with me. Once people got to know Edward and his skills, his social side was released. Very similar to my life. Unlike me, poor Edward has a bittersweet ending as explained in the touching epilogue.

The genesis for Burton’s film came as a schoolchild. He was generally left alone and hardly had any friends. He created a drawing of a thin man with scissor-like hands which reflected his loneliness and isolation. While in pre-production of Beetlejuice, he hired Caroline Thompson to write the spec script based on this idea. After the wild successes of Beetlejuice and Batman, he could have fastracked sequels to those movies, but he instead chose to make a movie that was most personal to him. With his A-list credibility, he now had the pedigree to go for the A-list cast starting with the highly respected Dianne Wiest. He always had Johnny Depp in mind as the lead role despite not seeing him in his teen idol show, 21 Jump Street. Burton hired the great Stan Winston to work with Depp’s prosthetic scissor hands. It took Depp nearly two hours to be fitted into his costume. Those hands surely were scary and as seen in the film, could be a deadly weapon when angered.

This is a story about a young man named Edward (Johnny Depp). He lives all alone in this large castle at the edge of town, a castle that all the townsfolk stay away from. He was created by an old man only known as The Inventor (Vincent Price). He died before he was unable to finish Edward leaving him with only sharp scissors for hands. He was all alone until the local Avon representative, Peg (Dianne Wiest) comes calling. Shocked at what she sees, she takes Edward to live with her family that includes her husband Bill (Alan Arkin), and daughter Kim (Winona Ryder). Soon after, the town discovers he has good hands for haircuts and hedge trimming. He even gets seduced by his neighbor, Joyce (Kathy Baker). Edward will soon learn that there can be a bad side to humanity.

Johnny Depp hardly has any spoken lines. It is all in his eyes and facial expressions that expresses his true emotions. He spent lots of time watching Charlie Chaplin movies to get an understanding how to use face/body emotions rather than dialogue. The end result was a truly moving, affectionate performance. His character finds love with Kim, played beautifully by Winona Ryder. Ryder previously worked with Burton in Beetlejuice, so he knew she was right for the role. She certainly knows how to dance in the snow. Anthony Michael Hall plays her jealous boyfriend, Jim. He was great at playing a tasteless character who quite frankly deserves his fate. Alan Arkin said he took the role because it allowed him to branch into comedy. I think he did a good job. Both him and Dianne Wiest. Wiest cracked me up as the Avon lady. She is a kind-hearted but a bit naïve person. Fun fact, her makeup scene with Edward is widely considered one of the first ASMR scenes. Finally, this is one of Vincent Price’s last roles before he passed away. It is fitting, with all the monster/sci-fi films to his name, that he was in a film about a kind man seen as a monster due to no fault of his own.

The first of many collaborations between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, Edward Scissorhands is them at their best. Staying away from the blockbuster status, Burton created a smaller, intimate, personal film about being alone and inclusivity. A story that I found highly relatable. On this smaller scale, Burton still let the world know he is the master of creative, interesting visuals. Danny Elfman accompanied this fable with one of the best scores you will ever encounter. The ending is so bittersweet as it made me feel Edward’s pain. There were times when I thought the film dragged, but those were rare moments. I think after watching this fairytale, you would also want to be dancing in the snow or creating magnificent ice sculptures. I know I did.

My Grade: A-