Tim Burton uses Irving's original story The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow to tell a tale of vengeance and greed. I
don't necessarily believe that Burton is using the same take as Irving in his
movie. The addition of characters and the change in plot makes the movie a
horrible representation of the story. I am not saying that Burton's Sleepy Hollow is not entertaining or enjoyable, it was just a different medium that was being represented and sometimes things need to be changed to keep an audience interested.
First the two Ichabods were hardly similar. Whereas
the Ichabod Crane in Irving's story is an ugly sleazy coward, Burton uses the
attractive Johnny Depp to portray an odd man who actually has a little bit of
charm. Irving's was a schoolteacher and choirmaster and Burton's was a
constable. On the other hand what Burton did keep similar with Ichabod was his
very superstitious nature.
In the movie the ending is completely different from the story. Brum did
not die, technically there was not Headless Horseman or an evil witch
controlling it, and Katrina did not live happily ever after with Ichabod. In
reality she did not even like him in the story. Burton took liberties to
get Brum out the picture to leave an open path from Ichabod to Katrina. The
story was more of a thriller mystery with a dash of romance, which is more than
I believe Irving intended when he created the story.
The addition of the evil
stepmother added Burtonish tone to the story, making it more of a dark
fairytale. I like the plot twist of the
movie, and it did show an example of how greed and wicked soul can corrupt a
person, but it still was not part of the story Irving wrote.
Burton really just took the name
of the Irving’ story and though he kept some of the characters and their
traits, it was not an accurate rendition of the story. It was brilliant in
Burton’s own way but realistically Tim Burton made a horror movie out of the
Headless Huntsman instead of leaving it as a joke or a superstition like Irving.
You were right about the two stories being completely different. I feel as if Burton's take on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow could be seen as a sort of "fractured fairy tale" because there are some similar characters and themes, but as a whole Burton's story is very different from Irving's. I like how you talked about the differences between Irving's Ichabod and Burton's Ichabod because they are obviously essential parts of the story and the fact that they are so different is important to the plot. I agree with you in that the ending is also a very obvious difference between the two stories. I also liked how you mentioned the fact that legend in Irving's tales was in fact as old wise tale, while in Burton made the legend come to life!
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