The two Legends of Sleepy Hollow could not be more different. In fact, I think the only real similarities are the names of the characters and the fact that there is the legend of the headless horseman. Even though the characters have the same name, the two Ichabod Cranes are nothing alike. The Ichabod Crane in Irving's version is an ugly and rather awkward school teacher who literally looks like a crane - he has long arms and legs and a long nose (like a beak), while the Ichabod Crane in Burton's version is a constiple who is played by one of the most attractive actors in Hollywood: Mr. Johnny Depp. Despite their many differences, the two Ichabod's do have a couple things in common. One of the main things they have in common are that they are very superstitous. The Ichabod Crane in Irving's version spends his nights pouring over books about witchcraft and listening to wise tales and legends told to him by the mother's of his pupils, while the Ichabod Crane in the movie tries to hide his superstitous side but pays close attention to legends and scares at simple things that remind him of them. Another thing they have in common are that they are both madly in love with Katrina Van Tassel. In the story, Katrina does not return the love Ichabod has for her, but in the movie she does. In fact, one could argue that she loves him more than he loves her. In the story, she falls for "the hero of the country round": Brom Van Brunt. Brom appears in the movie as well, and is surprisingly like his character in the story, but unfortunately he is killed while attempting to kill the headless horseman.
A few smaller similarities between the story and the movie include the scene where Ichabod was "pranked" (someone dressed up as the headless horseman and threw a pumpkin at him) and the fact that Ichabod is an outcast (in the story he was a schoolteacher and in the movie he was a city boy...not a farmer like the other men).
A couple other key differences are the fact that the story of the headless horseman was left an old wise tale in the story, while the movie made him come to life awnd the stepmother and her witchcraft did not exist in the story...nor did many of the other characters that were killed by the headless horseman.
Rosalia Esteva
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to remark, as you did, that in his film Tim Burton uses one of the most physically attractive actors in Hollywood for Ichabod Crane while in the story he seems like quite an odd person to look at. Also it may be important to think about how Tim Burton decides that Katrina does returns the love to Ichabod and relate this change in the film to Burton's life and his other movies. Finally, as you mentioned, I believe Tim Burton only uses the name of the characters from the stories. Apart from that he changes each one of them entirely.