Hasty, Anna- Sleepy Hallow

           

             After reading Irving’s story and watching Tim Burton’s film Sleepy Hallow, I believe that Burton used Irving’s title and characters to enhance his story more than anything. The main example of this comes from most obviously Ichabod Crane. In Irving’s story, Ichabod was just a strange man who was made fun of and did not really matter- even to the woman that he fell in love with. But in contrast to this, Burton made Ichabod someone with depth and a backstory. Ichabod in Burton’s film was in a way a completely different character, the only similarity being the name and experience in Sleepy Hallow. In the film, Ichabod does not go to Sleepy Hallow as a schoolmaster but he goes there to investigate serious murders. Even his job in the film is much more complex than his job in Irving’s story. To continue with this complexity, Burton adds a backdrop to Ichabod’s life, which explains why he is the way he is and why he believes the things he believes in. In this backdrop to Ichabod’s life, it is explained that his mother died by murder from his own father. His father murdered his mother simply because of his own religious beliefs, which is why Burton dedicated his belief system to pushing away the religious and supernatural and holding onto reason.

            Another main difference between Irving’s story and Burton’s film is simply that Ichabod Crane had a chance in the society of Sleepy Hallow, which allowed for a more interesting and dramatic film. By this I mean, although different, Ichabod was not immediately made fun of by everyone in Sleepy Hollow and simply not cared about like he was in Irving’s story. Ichabod developed relationships with the citizens; for example with Young Masbath and Katrina Van Tassel. In Irving’s story, Ichabod fell in love with Katrina but she laughed at him and made fun of him. But in Burton’s film, they both fell in love with each other. Their love caused discord with another citizen, Brom Van Brunt, the man she was supposed to be with. Ichabod’s relationships with the other people in the town allowed Burton to use characters from Irving’s story to create a more dynamic horror film of his own.