Buzaid- Tootles Tim Burton

This course, The World of Tim Burton, has been my favorite part of college thus far (academically speaking.) It has opened up a whole new world to finding the deeper meaning behind things, specifically film. What was so appealing about this course was the focus on reading visuals and making connections with the seen and unseen. More so, I should say watching the film and taking in the storyline, characters, setting, and linking it with either a controversial issue, a statement, or a message. For example, Edward Scissorhands is a film I originally watched and enjoyed because I liked the plot. Now, after watching the film in class and making interpretations with my classmates, I have come to enjoy the film for more than just the interesting storyline. Rather, I have gained respect for the film and its play on conservative societies and outcast individuals.  I was not expecting to find so many of Tim Burton’s morals, and himself as a person, in each and every one of his films. With every picture Tim Burton has worked on, he morphs the story to mean something to his life story and views. In return, he is able to create films that audiences can understand, relate to, and make their own meaning of.

I was taken a bit back when I watched Tim Burton’s Batman. It was my first time watching the two movies done by him and I was totally not expecting to the like them so much. I have always been a fan of Batman as a super hero. Although, before this class I had never taken into mind of how much of a tortured character Bruce Wayne really was. I think it was because of the way Burton portrayed him through Michael Keaton. Burton has good taste in actors, there is some sort of comfort in knowing that he likes to reuse actors in his films- making his own family and such. Another great thing about Burtons Batman was that his artistic side really came out. Through the settings and scenery- shots and framing, he reflected the mood of the film in the dark musty colors.

I have a lot of respect for Tim Burton as a director, but what makes me love him as an entertainer is his undying ability to instill his crude humor in almost all of his creations. From Beetlejuice, to Catwoman, to the parents of the Oyster Boy, Burton has a character with a twisted sexual jokes. Without fail he can capture the attention of any audience, whether they like it or not.

Because of this course, I have a new found love for film. Most of my phone calls to back home have held conversations on this class about all the assignments and the time I have put in for it. As well as sharing with my family everything that I know about Tim Burton and his personal twists in his movies, (and telling my parents to watch the movies too!)  It is true when I say that I am not leaving from this course with zero knowledge. Instead, I am taking wider eyes for visual observations.

Honestly, if I had never taken The World of Tim Burton, I would have continued my future on with under appreciating a lot of film.

Buzaid- Sweeney Todd

                       In Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd, viewers watch as an emotionally damaged character transforms into a chaotic revenge killing barber. When Benjamin Barker returns to London after being accused for committing a crime he didn’t do, he reappears in search of retribution by a new name: Sweeney Todd. He goes back to his beginning, living over the loft of Ms. Lovett restaurant. When he murders his first victim, he continues to go on a bit of a killing rampage. His first order of business was to only kill the Judge as payback. But, in turn, Ms. Lovett becomes involved, using Sweeney Todd’s brutality to build up her business. That is when the cannibalism comes into play. The human meat has its appeal because it is fresh and free. Although, Ms. Lovett ties in the idea of the cannibalism and turns it into a bigger meaning. It can been understood as a political statement, when “man eats man.” This demonstrates, from a social aspect, people eating people of higher standing, and then turning into what they eat. Almost like a human food chain, they gain authority by killing those of high order and feel empowerment as a group. This indication is attractive to Sweeney Todd because it screws with the urbanization of the people in London. By this I mean that one’s living in poverty are the ones falling at the knees to the upper class. With cannibalism Sweeney Todd and Ms. Lovett can have a certain kind of twisted control.

In London there was once growth and urbanization that created two different distinct classes of humans -“the one staying put in his proper place and the one with his foot in the other one's face." This statement is a reflection of how the working class became devoured. People were losing their individuality, their belongings, their rights and their lives.  Capitalism had a huge impact on London and Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett are representation of the rebellion. Therefore, the idea of cannibalism can be seen in a more gruesome light because consumers do not seem to care where “meat” comes from as long as it satisfies.

Buzaid- Planet of the Apes

 

In Tim Burton’s, Planet of the Apes, the duality that I found to be most prominent was civil liberties verse slavery. The film presented two different living worlds, each with opposite values. Values which were based off of who is deserving of civil rights and who should be put into slavery. Throughout the film we see through the eyes of Captain Leo Davidson as he travels between these two different societies. Davidson, who works for the United States space program, starts off in America where ape were in caged and trained to do human like activities. During a space exposition, Captain Davidson gets pulled through time by an electric storm and ends up falling into a completely different planet. In this new world he finds that his rights do not apply to life anymore. In fact, it seems to be a complete switch. The planet in which he has land on is ran by apes. Humans were deemed the weaker animal. Therefore, instead of the ape’s beings behind the bars, the humans were the ones in cages.

In the beginning of the film there is a scene where the apes are slaves in the spaceship. In this scene, the control man of the space pods pushes Captain Davidson’s chimp out of his cage and into space despite the dangerous risk of it. The chimp was chosen to fly into space because he is considered the weaker animal due to the fact that he is different, and can’t speak and act like humans. So, in turn, the chimp is like a slave- following the demands of the humans. An opposing scene would be when Davidson is taken to this opposite world and the humans are in cages and branded by the apes to signify they are of difference, and lower ranking. The human’s purpose is to become a slave and to serve the apes. Both scenes demonstrate character development on Captain Davidsons part because we can experience through his eyes what it is like to be on the flip side of the cage. He seems to be the only character who has a complete understanding of what it means to have civil liberties, and what it is like to have zero liberty at all.

              

Buzaid- Sleepy Hallow

               Burton takes Washington Irving’s story and turns it into a Sherlock Holmes investigation. Ichabod Crane, in Irving’s story, is a lean, lanky, unattractive schoolmaster from Connecticut who has a romantic attraction to Katrina Van Tassel, the 18-year-old daughter of the wealthy landowner, Baltus Van Tassel. During a party at the Van Tassel home, the guests tell tales of the Headless Horseman, the ghost of a Hessian soldier that fell victim to a cannonball during the American Revolutionary War and now haunts the nearby forest in "nightly quest of his head." After the party, Ichabod is pursued through the forest by the Horseman himself and is never heard from again.

And that's basically it. Definitely not the same of a feature-length Hollywood film.

In Burton’s film, Sleepy Hollow, the Van Tassel party is in there, as well as the romantic rivalry between Ichabod and Brom. Brom even dresses up as the Horseman in one scene to scare Ichabod (only to be cut down by the real Horseman shortly after). And that's where the similarities pretty much end.

There is one major difference from and one major addition to Irving's story. The major difference is in Ichabod's profession -- Johnny Depp plays an eccentric and excitable constable from New York City, not a meek schoolteacher from Connecticut. Irving's Ichabod seems to be extremely superstitious, whereas Depp's Ichabod is a skeptic, believing all seemingly supernatural occurrences can be explained through nature and science. He doesn't stand by that philosophy for very long, though -- he starts believing in "ghosts and goblins" after a few of those six fainting spells.

The major addition is the nature of the Horseman itself. Burton's Horseman is a ghost, no question about it. And he doesn't go about chopping off heads without reason -- there is a method to his murders, all part of a major conspiracy involving traditional families in Sleepy Hollow. And of course it’s the “evil, witch-like, step-mother” in town who is calling the shots -- or rather, the decapitations -- with the Horseman.

In Burton's film, the Horseman isn't simply a figure of fear and superstition -- he's the plot itself. I think Burton rather enhanced Irving's story mostly for visual effects. Like all Burton films we can always point out his staples in terms of style.

Buzaid- Mars Attacks

 

Tim Burton never does just comedy or just drama. I have found throughout a majority of his films that he has an odd mix of different tones. Mars Attacks is no exception. On the surface, the film is a parody. However, there’s a strong social satire that runs through the center of the film. Many can consider it to be more of a mean-streak where everyone but the "misfits" are spared. The government, the media, the military, lawyers, and rural right-wingers are just a few of the groups that are mocked and eventually killed in this film. Americans are seen as petty, opportunistic, shallow, and stupid. I found these characterizations to be funny. In a sense, Burton plays Americans (with the exception of the outsiders) to be as stupid and/or evil as the Martians. There’s no good vs. evil like in "Independence Day." I think that Burton's satiric point is that the humans are just as soulless and far-out as the Martians. They're too stunted to even react properly to the invasion; while the world is being incinerated, Vegas still packs in gamblers and show business, and the White House is still giving tours. Then there is Tom Jones, who seems ageless enough to be an alien himself, continues to croon "It's Not Unusual" even when his backup singers turn out to be barking aliens.

The one character in the film who comes across as genuinely heroic--as opposed to mock-heroic--is Lukas Haas's Richie, the Kansas slacker who, helped inadvertently by his dotty grandmother, played by Sylvia Sidney, figures out a way to burst the Martians' brains; by blasting Indian Love Song. It's probably no accident that Richie, with his shambling alertness and scraggly locks, resembles Burton. In a way, Richie brings out Burton's Boy Scout side. When, on a Kansas back road at night, a giant Martian robot clomps after the boy attempting to escape in his truck, we fear for him in a way we don't for anybody else in the movie.

Buzaid- Ed Wood

Tim Burton and Ed Wood are both cold directors. As said in the Jonathan Ross documentary, Ed Wood had a “very distinctive, absolutely unusual style” and I think that very much applies to Tim Burton too. They are both weird and unique individualists and it shows through their film work. In any case of difference, Wood was more of the type to actually be awkward with his cross dressing; Burton comes off as more of an appreciator of awkwardness. Together they exploit the awkward state of being by producing their films and instilling themselves in their productions. Certain elements used in Burton’s Biopic of Ed Wood were ones of conformity, outcasts, family, and passion. In the film Ed Wood, we see similar suburban neighborhoods. Burton and Wood both felt constricted by their areas of living. For Ed Wood it was more of his way of living that held back his wearing of women’s clothing side of him. Tim Burton’s dysfunctional family and their depiction of an ideal lifestyle turned him against what was deemed as acceptable and conformist. Both Ed and Tim had a habit for gathering people of their kind to work and act for them. By people of their kind I mean others who were outcasts and misfits in the conformed world. The two directors are known for bringing together the strange and offbeat and creating a comfortable togetherness of a family. Like Maila Nurmi, who played Vampira in one of Ed Woods films, said in Jonathan Ross’ documentary “birds of a feather flock together”

 

 

 In Burton's depiction of Ed Wood he made it seem like Wood didn't care about the criticisms of his film, in his eyes he was doing what he loved and had a deep passion for film. He also didn't care about what people thought of him as long as he was happy (wearing the women clothes), but he was not selfish. Ed Wood in reality rarely made a sustainable income off his films, which further proves how driven he was about fulfilling his passion for directing and screenwriting.

Buzaid- Anchor Baby

In Tim Burton’s short story, “Anchor Baby” there are three Carl Jung related archetypes present. The first Jungian archetype is the idea of the shadow. The beautiful girl who comes from the sea onto land, in search of a man named Walter, is much like a shadow.

            “But throughout all their lives

They never connected.

She wandered the earth

Alone and rejected.”

She lingers the earth trying to make a connection with a man whom she want to be with. Like a shadow trying to catch up, but always falling behind, her attempts to join herself and Walker together fail. It is until the idea of having a child to “anchor their spirits” that Walter and the beautiful girl are joined. This then leads into the second Jungian archetype. Walker can be seen as the quisling or rather the trader. After the two have their “ugly and gloomy” anchor baby, Walker seems to move on from it all and ignore the child and beautiful girl.

               “So Walker took off

               To play with the band.

               And from that day on,

               He stayed mainly on land.”

Abandoning his somewhat of a child and, what we consider to be, his lover. In addition, we can assumed the anchor baby to be the third Jungian archetype.

               “And she was alone

               With her gray baby anchor,

               Who got so oppressive

               That it eventually sank her.”

This applies to the idea that the anchor baby is like the jester archetype, for bringing knowledge and realizations to her mother. The anchor baby can represent abandonment, reminding her beautiful mother that she was left alone in the ocean with the weight of a child to deal with. In effect, leaving the beautiful mother feel unfulfilled and wasted. This short story only further illustrates Tim Burton’s everlasting grudge on his own abandonment.  The idea of a dysfunctional family fits well with this story. A father, who entered the situation with a “hit it and quit it” mentality. A mother, who started out as a young beautiful woman just looking for love, but in turn ended up an unhappy mother. A child, who feels that they are cause of all problems, the reason for their mothers despair, as well as the reason for their father’s absence. Together the characters create a dark, depressing story.

Buzaid- Edward

 

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.

Buzaid- Batman (Joker)

“Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moon light?”

The Joker is definitely the trickster character with his clever creations of chaos and witty sly lines. His operations of destruction are nothing but foolish and pest-like. For example, the scene where the Joker forces the reporter Vikki Vale to have dinner with him, he tricks her into thinking she’s meeting up with Bruce Wayne.  “What do you want from me?” Vale asks, to which the Joker replies, “Oh, little song, little dance, Batman’s head on a lance.” The Joker knows Vikki will not help him, but harasses her anyway for the purpose of firing up Batman. He acts out obnoxiously when he begins to destroy the masterpieces in the museum: spraying graffiti on the paintings, smashing the sculptures on the ground, and playing funky music and dancing, acting as if he is some kind of hood rat kid. The Joker makes a show out of his every move and that is how Burton supports the trickster idea.  Although, a good 50 percent of the Jokers behavior in the film does overstep the boundaries of humor and games. There were some scenes in the film that caught the audience off guard and really widened the eyes of the viewers. The Joker was sadistic when he revealed the woman’s face who he had an affair with before he even became the Joker. He makes a remark saying that he attempted to make art out of her face, but as result she became a test dummy for his chemical cosmetics. He then later mentions that she committed suicide with zero sympathy or guilt. The Joker lives by no code of morals or ethics of the everyday world. He had no trouble burning somebody's face into oblivion and then speaking to the burnt corpse in an evil and threatening way. A scene I feel where Burton really undermines the Trickster character, before the Joker became pale faced and smiley, is the scene when Jack Napier shoots Bruce Wayne’s parents in front of him. To do such an act in front of a child, and then point a gun at his face, takes a twisted and sick person.  All in all, I believe Joker is not a criminal, but can be considered a rather artistic lunatic. It must have been a difficult character to play. Jack Nicholson really did an outstanding job.

 

Buzaid- Beetlejuice

 

               Death cannot be avoided and I think that’s what makes it so hard for us to accept. To be dead is an unimaginable state of being. If we were to put out a survey asking Americans what their biggest fear is, there is no doubt that the majority of people would answer “death.”

“America the brave fears what we don’t know”

This quote, taken from the song Same Love by the artist Macklemoore, applies to how our nation reacts to most things we do not understand. I find that Americans are never satisfied with accepting the way things are. We are constantly searching for explanations behind things that do not sit well with our own personal beliefs, values, and minds.  Therefore, the American culture challenges death. Our will to live is so strong that dying isn’t appreciated like it is in other countries. For example, Mexico celebrates a day known as “The Day of the Dead.” I think the closest thing we have to anything like that is VooDoo fest, here in New Orleans. Otherwise, Americans do not celebrate death in a positive way. Instead we do burial ceremonies, which all cultures in one way or another do.

 In the film Beetlejuice, the Maitlands became ghosts after they died. Could this be how Burton imagined life after death? They were ghosts restricted to only their house. I find this to be sort of funny because in the beginning of the film they wanted nothing more than to spend their vacation together at home. There was also the impression that the couple was having trouble getting pregnant. Also, Jane the sales woman makes a point of saying that the house is too big for just the two of them. Later on, we see the house full with Maitlands and the Deetzes living together happily, and Lydia playing the role of a child for the Maitlands. Here we see Burton making light of a usually dark and sad situation, leaving the audience satisfied with the end result. 

 

 

The scene where Lydia tells Barbara that she wants to be dead too and Barbara gets wide eyed and responds “No! Lydia, being dead really doesn’t make things any easier” is the only scene that I found Burton to be showing acceptance of the reality of death. Otherwise, wouldn’t have been ok for Lydia to join the Maitlands in their afterlife? With a few changes here and there that could have easily been a happy ending as well.