Falconer-Reflecting on "The World of Tim Burton"

When the email came out over the summer telling me to sign up for a freshman seminar I first rolled my eyes nauseated by the thought of ever doing school work again. For four long years I worked hard in school anticipating the day I was to graduate from high school. Unfortunately the email came out a short two days following my high school graduation reminding me that I was about to spend four more years working hard in school crossing off the days on my calendar to college graduation. I reluctantly clicked on the link to browse my options when my eyes stopped on “The World of Tim Burton”. High school classes were always boring standard subjects like math, history, etc. and I was intrigued to spend a semester not only watching the movies by my favorite strange, infamous, and talented director, but learning more about what makes them so different from the works of other film directors. Now today on my last week of school I can truly say this seminar course exceeded my expectations.

We started of the course with one of my childhood favorites, “Beetle Juice”. I always knew this movie had a twisted attitude towards death but our class discussion revealed the complex denial of death Burton portrays in the film and how it relates to American culture. We also first discussed the idea of the “trickster” in this film. The trickster is always in some sort of prison trying to escape, as close to an animal as you can get and often a shape-shifter.(these are only a few elements of the trickster) We then watched “Batman” and the sequel “Batman Returns”. Each of these Burton films had their own trickster character. In “Beetle juice” it was Beetleguise, in Batman it was The Joker, and in Batman Returns I argued that the Penguin and Catwomen both posses many elements of the trickster. In our “Batman Returns” discussions we were introduced to Mise-en-Scene analysis, which we continued to use in every film we watched from then on. Mise-en-Scene helped us break down the significance of Burtons directing in certain scenes. This helped me see how Burton could influence the audience’s eye to a specific object in a scene and how that could prove the object’s significance in the story. We then watched “Edward Sissorhands” where I found it hard to identify a character with the traditional elements of the trickster but found many scenes that a simple Mise-en-scene analysis revealed the hidden complex meanings behind Burtons directing including his film angles, character proximities, lighting choices and so on.

Next we read poems by Tim Burton from “The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy”. During this unit I learned more about Tim Burton himself, leading to my more clear understanding of his film and poetry style. I began to notice that many of his films and poems reflected his own views on life, death, feeling like an outcast, love, family and much more that Burton started to develop from childhood. This helped me to understand Burton’s unique, gothic and twisted film style on a new level I had never been able to fully reach before this course. My mind was blown to learn all the elaborate characteristics that made a Tim Burton film or poem something so unmistakably and unapologetically his own.  

Falconer- Tim Burton's Moral Twists in Sweeney Todd

     

      Sweeney Todd starts off as the damaged hurt Benjamin Barker returning to London under a new alias with one thing on his mind: revenge. His anger and resentment is targeted towards Judge Turpin who had Benjamin falsely convicted for a crime and took his wife and daughter. He hears rumors that his wife killed herself from disgust for her life with the judge and that his daughter is still locked away in the judges home. His main goal is to coax the judge into coming into his shop for a shave only to slit his throat. Morally killing is wrong but from seeing the clear evil of what the judge did to Sweeney Todd you begin to justify his vengeance. When Mr.Pirelli comes in for a shave and recognizes Mr.Todd and threatens him Todd becomes nervous. He then impulsively slits the man’s throat. This is the first time you really question Todd’s morals. He was willing to kill an innocent man just to carry out his revenge with the judge. Then there is Miss Lovett. She gets little to no business in her pie shop and is experiencing financial troubles. She casually mentions a pie shop she had heard about that sporadically began to boom with business. The rumor was that the meat pies were made from human. This film takes place in a time in London where the economy was down and many people were struggling. Child labor was acceptable because it was cheap labor and anything cheaper helped.

            Soon the combination of Todd’s growing anger, shortening patients and Mrs.Lovett’s influence he turns into a heartless killer. At the point Tim Burton makes the audience see that his killing can no longer really be morally justified in any way. Miss Lovett isn’t bothered by it though because then her pie shop begins to thrive. Studies show that when people are starving to death they may eventually resort to cannibalism. Well her customers were unaware they were eating human it was Miss Lovett’s starving to make ends meat that lead her to be morally okay with all the murders. It is interesting how Burton can make his audience see and justify the murder of one man and then present more murders that the audience would have trouble justifying. Also although I could not morally justify the cannibalism in the film Burton shows us how one person’s greed can lead to the decline of their moral values. 

Falconer- Big Fish

Edward Bloom is a very amiable character. Almost everyone he encountered on his epic journeys loved him but what was interesting was that the people he took a particular liking to were the darker more grotesque characters. First as a child the rumored witch in their town fascinated him and his friends. She supposedly had one glass eye that if you looked into you could see your death. While his friends shook scared at her gate he said he wasn’t afraid. One of his friends doubts his bravery and asks him to prove it by going to get her eye. Ed knocks on the door and the witch opens it promptly. He barely hesitates in telling her his friends would like to see her eye. She complies with Ed and follows him to his friends outside. They are terrified as she lifts up the eye patch and they whiteness their death. Ed then walks the witch back to her door and tells her he would like to know his death because then he couldn’t have to be afraid of anything else. He looks into her eye and calmly remarks, “oh so that’s how I go.” He and the witch then form some sort of friendship she offers him advice as he leaves town and you can tell he really respects the advice even though he tells Karl it was nonsense. I think the reason dark characters really take a liking to Ed is because he talks to them like they are just like everyone else. While many people of the town live in fear of the witch and talk rumors of her Ed takes the initiative to really meet her.

Ed takes the same approach when meeting Karl the giant. At first he isn’t really sure how he is going to talk Karl into leaving town. But when the giant admits to just being to big Ed relates and begins to speak to him on a different level. He says he is also too big for this town and they should move on to somewhere bigger together. I think just as the witch was, Karl the giant was pleasantly surprised for someone to really get to know the real him behind the stereotypes and rumors and that’s how Ed gains his trust. The two then leave the town together looking for somewhere the giant won’t be too big in size and Ed won’t be too big in ambition. I think Ed Bloom possesses the rare quality of genuineness that makes him liked by almost anyone he encounters. He talks to everyone to get to know without the pretext of what he may have heard about them before. The reason I think Ed identifies with the dark characters the most is because of his ambition he has always felt different from others just like the dark grotesque characters in the film do.

Falconer- Intelligence and the Superiority Complex

Tim Burton regularly uses dualities in his films to help develop character through conflict. The dictionary definition of a duality is an instance of opposition or contrast between two concepts or two aspects of something; a dualism. In Tim Burton’s 2001 remake of The Planet of the Apes I believe intelligence is an important duality that really plays into the development of characters Ari and Captain Leo Davidson.

In the beginning of the film we are shown Captain Davidson’s world. He works on a United States space ship training monkeys to operate space shuttles. The Monkeys are kept in cages and are experimentally trained to do work for the humans. Clearly in Captain Davidson’s world he is used to being the superior more intelligent species. In Ari’s world humans live in the wild in fear of being captured by the Apes. Once captured, they are put into cages and treated as property to be sold as slaves or pets to Apes. In this world it is clear that Apes are the superior species and more intelligent than humans.

Ari is a prominent supporter of human’s rights believing they may indeed be equally intelligent yet also a very privileged Ape who has only ever known the life of being the superior species. She some times gets herself into trouble with her talk of humans being intelligent but her fathers powerful roll in the Ape community always gets her out of any real consequences. Captain Davidson has too only ever known the life of being the superior more intelligent species until he is thrown into Ari’s world and forced to experience the demeaning nature of being the inferior species for the first time.

Conflict arises when Ari frees Captain Davidson and a few other humans to help him fulfill his promise to Ari that he will show her something incredible and unbelievable. The conflict in this duality is that both Ari and Captain Davidson have their own superiority complex. Ari has argued for equality but never imagined a human would claim to have ever been superior to her.

Captain Davidson first comments on his belief of having superior intelligence as he starts to        really notice his situation.

Captain : “How did the apes get this way?”

Daena: “What other way would it be?”

Captain: “They would be begging me for a treat right now”

He offends Krull greatly with all this talk especially by calling them monkeys and he responds violently but Ari truly shows her intelligence by demining human activity the captain describes to her. He tells her their apes couldn’t talk to which Ari responds, “Maybe they chose not to... given the way you treated them.” She asserts her own superiority to him just through her intelligent words and ideas. My favorite dialogue in which she does this is here:

Ari: So many questions I want to ask.

Leo: Yeah me too.

Ari: These zoos you speak of what are they this word is not familiar. Leo: Zoos is where we find our last few apes.

Krull: What happened to them?

Leo: Gone! After we cut down the forests... the ones that survive we lock up in cages for amusement or scientific experiments.

Ari: Thats horrible.

Leo:Yeah we do worst to our own kind.

Ari: I don't seem to understand you seem to possess such...intelligence.

Leo: Yeah... the smarter we get the more dangerous our world becomes.

I really enjoy the way Burton uses this duality between the two characters to comment on the social problem that growing intelligence can lead in negative directions. The Apes have not yet begun to create the technology humans have in Leo’s world and she is shocked by it all. I think in the end this duality allows Ari to teach Leo that many of his world’s ways are wrong and Leo sort of warns Ari of the danger of the superiority complex combined with growing intelligence. 

Falconer- Mars Attacks!

Director Tim Burton is widely known for directing movies with scary disturbing plots such as “Sweeny Todd” or “A Nightmare Before Christmas”.  However, “Mars Attacks!” is not the spine chilling alien attack thriller it may seem at first glance. In the film Burton satirizes government, military, capitalism and patriotism all together. The dictionary defines satire as “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.” If aliens were to attack the earth tomorrow it would in fact be a crisis that would require the country to come together and rely on their government but for decades people have been channeling their disagreement of how the government can handle things into jokes. In my opinion making jokes on these matters is the way people cope with the fact the country will never be run the exact way they want it to.

            One major problem people have with our government is that it is supposed to be a “democracy” in which we have a say but too often the majority end up disliking the president and senators they even voted for themselves. I really enjoy the way Tim Burton shows different peoples reactions as they watch the Aliens encounter congress on television. First you see the President, his wife, daughter and Professor Donald Kessler watching the program. At first the aliens seem peaceful and willing to give earth a second chance. The President has a smug proud look on his face as he is watching this because he thinks he has fixed everything. Then the aliens dramatically change the mood and start mass murdering all of congress with their Technicolor ray guns as if it is hilarious to them. Though they just witnessed the mass murder of he United States congress Taffy mocks her father by simply stating, “I guess it wasn’t the bird”. Many presidents through out history have thought too highly of themselves and their plans only to be embarrassed by failure. It was funny to see his ego broken down first by his own teenage daughter. Then you see the grandma watching the same program. She is laughing hysterically at the tragedy chuckling, “They blew up congress”. Congressmen are often depicted as wealthy lazy old men with selfish intentions. Burton portrays a satire yet realistic idea of how the people would feel to see congress blown up.

            In “Mars Attacks!” Burton uses the perfect combination of cheesy dialogue and an all-star cast to create a brilliant satire to the popularized idea of what the country would do when aliens attack. Many movies have made a serious version of this scenario, which in my opinion are just temporarily thrilling but have no lasting impression. Burton’s film may have been a silly comedy but it challenges our ideas of the government, military, patriotism etc. 

Falconer-The Tim Burton Fairy Tale

One night at a sleepover my friend and I decided to watch Edward Sissorhands. My friend’s mom is all about including the whole family so her younger brother and his friend watched it with us. All night they each pretended they were Edward, acting him out as a villain. I found it interesting that they ignored the real Edward and saw him as a crazy villain. It was just like the towns people in the movie. At first they loved him but it was so easy for them to turn on him. An interesting theme in most fairy tales is a dark or violent meaning. When researching many of my favorite fairy tales such as Snow White or Hansel and Gretel I found that originally they were dark and disturbing before being written for children.

            Edward Sissorhands is supposed to be about a misunderstood creation of a lonely inventor forced to feel alone and incomplete after the death of his creator. But  within this emotional story are many violent acts that leave you questioning right and wrong. Is Edward a monster or did society just make him that way? The suburban neighborhood in this movie gives a very realistic look into the mob mentality. At first Peg who is a total outsider suddenly has a friend the neighbors are interested in and they all begin to treat her like their best friend in order to relieve their curiosity. Then when Edward rejects Joyce coming on to him out of confusion she decides he is a monster. Next he helps Kim break into her boyfriend’s house because he really cares about her and would do anything for her. That was the final straw for the neighbors. With Joyce’s negative testimony to his character combined with his recent run in with the law they all decided to turn on him. In turn they turn on Peg as well, proving they were never really her friends.

            In the end Peg, Kim and her family prove that they have really cared about him all along and attempt to stick by him. But the power of the mob is able to chase him out of the area. Then there is the truly dark and violent scene between Kim, Jim and Edward. Edward and Jim fight for so long until finally Jim is stabbed and thrown out the window in Edward attempt to protect Kim. What kind of fairy tale has such a violent murder scene you ask, a Tim Burton fairy tale. 

Falconer-Bruce&Selina or Batman v. Catwoman

When Batman Returns starts one question is on everyone’s mind: What happened to his seemingly perfect girl, Vicky Vale? We all know from viewing and discussing Batman that he is not your average hero, but has more than one side to him. So my theory here is that maybe Vicky was just too one dimensional for Bruce Wayne/Batman. A complex hero like that needs a complex girl. Selina Kyle/Catwomen may be the perfect girl for the job.

The movie begins with Selina Kyle as your average single workingwoman. She is the secretary to Max Shreck, a rich, power hungry man with some not so respectable hidden agendas. After a long hard day or working for Shreck with no appreciation Selina returns home to no one but her cat and nagging voicemails from her mother. Her character portrays the lonely life style of the modern workingwoman with ambition. She corrects people who call her a secretary, telling them she is a “personal assistant”. The only person she can’t seem to stand up to and correct is Shreck. One day she puts her intelligence to use and hacks into protected files regarding Shreck’s meeting with Bruce Wayne. She casually brings this up to Shreck as she is prepping him for his meeting, informing him of all her knowledge of his secret plans to steal Gotham’s energy. She finally stands up to him only for him to attempt to kill her. This leads her to discover her other side: Catwoman.

Bruce’s first encounter with her is right as she discovered her powers and is filled with newfound confidence. Bruce is immediately interested in her. He notices the good and innocence of her Selina Kyle side and wonders why she is working for a man like Shreck. Interestingly enough they meet later as their masked sides. Catwoman doesn’t like the idea that women wait around for their hero (Batman) to save them. This probably comes from her background of being pushed around by men in her job. She wants to prove herself as a strong woman that can defend herself and duels with Batman proving a challenge to him but ultimately losing.

The two later meet again for dinner as their unmasked selves. At first I was expecting this to be almost exactly the same as the scene in Batman where Bruce seduces Vicky for the first time. But the romance between Bruce and Selina develops in a very different more complex way. Selina challenges his and doesn’t give in to spending that night with him, partially because she fears him noticing her wound from her earlier fight with Batman.

Perhaps the most complex part of their relationship is when the two finally discover each other’s second side. Yes it is cute and romantic when Bruce and Selina are attracted to one another as themselves then enemies as Batman and Catwoman but the cosmic significance of their attraction is truly revealed with their identities. Bruce is still interested in Selina and thinks they can work together. He believes he can talk her out of her vendetta with Shreck by taking his mask off for her. But in the end I believe he failed at doing this because no one could have talked him out of his own vendetta with the Joker. The Joker could have been taken to jail rather than killed just like Batman suggested they do with Shreck. But because of Batman’s undeniable past with the Joker and his ability to cope with murdering him because it was for the good of Gotham, no one could stop him. Catwoman felt the same towards Shreck. Killing him could benefit Gotham as well as end her Vendetta towards him. In the end I think those two events in the duel sided characters lives is what brought about the strong connection between the two. 

Falconer-Film Noir in Batman

            In the film Batman, director Tim Burton uses many elements of Film Noir to help develop his story line and characters. Gotham is a very unique city that helps set the mood to the whole story. An important element of Film Noir is urban modernity, which is how Tim Burton was able to portray Gotham. The city is very grey, sad and claustrophobic. The drab colored, harshly angled buildings with little lighting show a sense of modern alienation. This is expressionism because it brings out the emotional side of Gotham. People seem unhappy and alienated. The alienation could be from each other by means of wealth. The separation of the wealthy and the poor is a big part of Batman. The wealthy live in fear of the poor criminals lurking in Gotham’s shadows, prepared to do almost anything, even kill for what they want. The scene in which Bruce Wayne’s family is robbed is done with many elements of Film Noir. The family is walking ominously through grey streets with a shadow behind every tall building when two burglars appear. One shoots both the parents then aims the gun at Bruce for a few seconds before retreating back into the shadows of Gotham.

            Batman or Bruce Wayne is almost the perfect Film Noir conflicted hero. Before you know Bruce Wayne’s background you could think he’s just your average guy fighting criminals to make Gotham a better place. But you soon learn this “hero” has some personal motives. This is depicted phenomenally in the final scene as Batman encounters the Joker face to face. The Joker tells Batman, “You made me.” and Batman’s responds, “I made you? You made me first.” This really brings out Bruce Wayne’s conflicted heroism showing us that the hero he created was started out of a personal vendetta for the thief who killed his parents. And while yes the Joker deserved to die to save Gotham, Batman’s motives in killing him was his own revenge not the good of Gotham.

            I do think however that the one element of Film Noir that Tim Burton undermined was the Femme Fatales. Film Noir’s femme fatales relationship is described by Quart and Auster as "a world where women, often in the central role, were glamorous and dangerous – seductive sirens whose every action was marked by duplicity and aimed at satisfying a desire for wealth and power – while the male protagonists were frequently weak, confused and morally equivocal, susceptible to temptation, and incapable of acting heroically." While yes Vicky’s first intentions of coming to Gotham are to further her career by photographing Batman and she is involved with Bruce Wayne, a weak, confused man who acts heroically, that is only how their relationship starts off. Her intentions of helping Gotham remain pure and she goes through with several heroic acts herself. In Film Noir the male’s dominance is supposed to be restored by the climax. The Climax of Batman is when he kills the Joker and saves Vicky. The movie ends with her quitting her job to hide Batman’s identity and goes away to live with Wayne. Making Bruce and Vicky’s relationship a Femme Fatales one. 

Falconer-Beetlejuice

It is common for young children to be afraid of the dark; but why does that room they are so familiar with become such a scary place when the sun goes down and the lights turn off? One theory is that naturally humans fear what they don’t know. In the light what you see is what you get but in the dark there is a chance you could miss something. So when it comes to the unknown death is the biggest mystery to us all. Do you go to heaven/hell? Will your soul be reincarnated to live another life? Maybe death is truly the end of everything and there is no such thing as an afterlife. Whatever death may mean no one can be positive. Because Americans are so afraid of this fate we begin to deny it. Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice denies death by portraying the afterlife as very similar to life hear on earth. The characters Adam and Barbara’s lives stay so similar after their accident it isn’t until Adams attempts to leave the house that they notice anything is wrong. They get to keep their same human form, live in the same house and be together. They even receive a “Handbook for the Recently Deceased” outlining afterlife for them. Now if Americans knew they would receive a handbook after death do you think they would fear it so much?

To most Americans death is an anathema because we are so unsure of what it means but to some it is an idea of peace. Jim Morrison of “The Doors” says, “People fear death even more than pain. It’s strange they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over.” In Beetlejuice this alternative cultural outlook on death is shown by Lydia. At one point she feels so overwhelmed by her differences from those around her she considers that by taking her own life she can fix this. Adam and Barbara are horrified she thinks this and explain to her that life is much better than the afterlife. 

Beetlejuice, much like heaven/hell or reincarnation creates another theory of what happens after death. These theories help people to cope with their fears. The films comical twist on the afterlife helps to make it not so scary. But in the end that is denying death. All these theories are temporary distractions to keep us from facing the idea of no longer living. In the end all we have are entertaining movies or religious beliefs to explain death because who ever has encountered death can’t come back to tell the tale.

Falconer- Introduction

 For the last few months every time I told someone I was going to college in New Orleans their response has been "oh my gosh that's so awesome! your gonna have so much fun!!" And yes I knew I would. Now after living here for almost two weeks, I can say that it has not met my expectations but exceeded them tremendously.

I have learned a few new things both in and out of the classroom. I went to my first day of classes anxious and excited. I have always pictured college as this whole new world with enormous classes and professors that don’t even know your name. I was so happy to learn that at Loyola my class sizes are reasonable and my teachers are committed to me doing well in their class. From doing a few of my first assignments I have realized that they aren’t just going to throw things at me that I can’t do. I feel much more confident that if I put in work this school year will go smoothly.

All of high school I slept at friends houses as much as possible and couldn’t wait to be living on my own. It was interesting to learn that moving out has actually been one of the hardest things I have ever done. Living with someone is more difficult than you think no matter how well you get along. My roommate is fantastic but I am always worried that something I’m doing is bothering her. Everything I do in our room effects both of us and that’s going to really take some getting used to. I pretty much need to consider her in every decision I make that relates to the room and that’s going to require a lot of empathy and selflessness for the both of us. I’ve noticed that she is so polite sometimes I need to do something without her asking. For example the other day she was studying in the room and I asked if I should stay and she said it was fine but I soon realized she probably needs some peace and quiet.

And then of course there are lessons to learn about parties. The other night I went to a Tulane party and a girl from down the hall had clearly too much to drink. Her roommate stood by her side all night and put up with her to get her home safely. That taught me that is important to make friends that have your back in case of an emergency. I look forward to learning much more these next four years and taking advantage of every new experience!