Jump - Sleepy Hollow

While Tim Burton's Sleep Hollow was definitely inspired by Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleep Hollow", both stories are very different. In the short story, there is no headless horseman; it is merely a ghost story. In the film, however, there clearly is a headless horseman terrorizing the village. I think Burton did this for a few reasons. First, I think his obsession of the supernatural and the undead came into play. Second, it makes for a more interesting story. Third, I think Burton wanted to join Ichabod Crane into the community. He is an outcast in New York because while he pushes his new technology and ideas of more humaine forms of punishment, the police station is fine with sticking to their old ways of torture. They become so sick of his meddling that they send him to Sleepy Hollow to solve the case of the headless horseman hoping that he will not return. Ichabod is also an outcast in Sleepy Hollow because he is a man of the city entering a small village where everyone is in some way related. As we see in all of Burton's work, he has a common theme of outcastness. He was an outcast himself as a child and young adult, and so he often reflects his personal experiences through his characters. In Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Ichabud Crane was also seen as an outcast, and he was eventually run out of town. In Burton's Sleepy Hollow, Ichabud solves the case, saves the town, and wins the heart of Katrina Van Tassel. The Ichabud in the short story, however, is in love with Katrina, but she mocks him and has no interest in a romantic relationship. I think Burton decided to make these changes because he wanted to give the protagonist a chance out of isolation. We see this in Edward Scissorhands; though Edward is eventually run out of town, he gets the chance to experience family, friends, love, and the world outside of his mansion on the hill, and he is given purpose to his life. Burton was an outcast in his family and in his town, but now he is a world renown film director and has a family of his own with Helena Bonham Carter as well has a family of actors and crew that he has formed throughout his career. Perhaps in a way Burton is trying to express that there is hope for the outsiders and that there is a way out.