The film Edward Scissorhands incorporates many fairytale
like qualities. One example of this is the beginning and the ending of the
movie where Winona Ryder plays a grandmother telling a story to her
granddaughter. This is used as a device to allow the story to be told in a
fairy tale like manner as a type of framing device. This movie also
incorporates a moral as most fairy tales do, although the moral is rather sad
and vague. This movie is also marked by
brutal violence not often found in most fairy tales. For example, Edward is
always cutting himself accidently with his scissor hands, and in the climax of
the movie Edward stabs Winona Ryder
shitty boyfriend, and watching him fall out of a window to his death. Winona
Ryder also covers for Edward, saying the two killed each other, using a spare
scissor hand found in Edward’s mansion. The plot of this movie speaks to how
Tim Burton views morality in the world; as found only in the random few, like
Peg, and the innocent and naive, like Edward. The suburbia Edward comes to live
in is marked with people who are obsessed with popular opinion. They all live,
what they assume to be, an ideal lifestyle. For example, when Edward first
moves in, everyone wants to be directly involved in his life and have him cut
their shrubs and eventually into interesting designs, especially the woman.
When Edward eventually is caught inside Winona’s boyfriend’s house, everyone
changes their opinion about him. They all demonize him, saying they always knew
he was weird, and one woman even accuses him of attempted rape. The town truly
transgressed when they ended up rounding up a mob to chase Edward to his mansion,
in a Frankenstein-esque event. The scene that really caught my attention was
when the town’s people gathered at the mansion, standing around Jim’s dead
body. They acknowledged that the young man is dead, but they do not make any
attempts to call the police or check his vitals. Instead, they are more focused
on the physical state of Edward. When they are told that Edward was killed they
then chatter, then turn back around to head to their homes. The town’s people
treated the entire situation like a show. They dismissed the tragedy of it all.
Once they heard Edward, was dead they became uninterested because there was no
longer a main attraction to the situation, there was no longer a creature of
difference to judge.
Gabby Buzaid, I really liked how you brought up the idea of the community being obsessed with the popular opinion. The mentality the community had towards Edward is something that can be found in everyday life. For example, many times throughout our history people have rallied behind certain causes because it is what everyone else is doing. When the popularity and the show aspect of this cause dies down, the people no longer care and forget about the cause. One recent example of this is the viral video Kony 2012. The video went viral in March of 2012, and it talked about the atrocities that were occurring in Africa due to a man named Joseph Kony. An initiative was set out by the charity Invisible Children to make April 20, 2012 a day in which people across the world spread Kony’s name. The spreading of Kony’s name worked well initially, but when April 20th came, no one cared anymore and everyone had forgotten about Kony. Everyone only cared about Kony at first because it was the popular thing to do, and when the excitement and buzz surrounding Kony died down, no one cared anymore.
ReplyDelete- Patti Butler