Perkal- Reflective Blog

Throughout this course, I have not only learned more about Tim Burton, but also about myself.  In the beginning of the semester, I knew nothing about Tim Burton.  I was interested in learning about him after the first movie we watched, which was Beetlejuice.  After watching his first movie, I was not sure if I was going to love his style of movies because of the contrast between usual plots and his added darkness.  My favorite movie of his was definitely Big Fish.  The movie Big Fish was a good balance between a typical drama and Tim Burton movie.  I enjoyed the relationship between Will and Ed Bloom because I had learned a lot about Tim Burton’s family history and I knew how he felt about his town and parents. 

In terms of learning about myself, through this class, I believe that it has broadened by imagination and knowledge on movies.  Before taking the Tim Burton class, I had never analyzed a plot or director so closely.  Between our discussions in class and the mise en scene analysis, I feel that I am able to watch movies not just for the entertainment, but also to see a deeper meaning.  I am now a much bigger fan of Tim Burton and on my own time want to see the movies that we were not able to get to in class.  Some of the other skills I picked up throughout this course were the ability to write blogs, as well as, a movie review.  I was unaware that I would enjoy writing these types of texts as much I did. 

Some of the topics that Tim Burton addressed in his films also stood out to me because I had not focused on them.  Learning about Tim Burton’s childhood life brought me relief because I felt that I could relate to him in the way that he was not fond of his hometown.  Although, I do not feel that I understand his view of parents or isolation, it was nice to be able to experience one of the issues he felt strongly about.  The idea of darkness that Tim Burton included in his films made me aware of some of the messed up views that people have toward the world.  I feel that by watching Tim Burton movies, my mind is opened up to more issues that I have been close-minded to.  Tim Burton is a unique guy and going into this class not knowing much about him, I was glad to be so intrigued by his views of the world.  He has a dark view of the world, but he also puts deep meaning into his movies, which made this class so interesting to analyze his movies.   

As the semester comes to an end, I realize that I am finally coming to a comfortable state in college and my transformation is becoming easier each day.  I am happy that I got to take this class because it challenged me in ways that I had never thought of trying. 

Perkal- Sweeney Todd

Tim Burton addresses the issues of cannibalism, as well as, urbanization in Sweeney Todd.  We see  through Mrs. Lovett's meat pies the idea of cannibalism. As for the moral standards of murdering innocent people we see when Sweeney Todd becomes outraged in his inability to kill the judge the first chance that he receives.  Sweeney Todd puts aside his moral view of revulsion toward murder and focuses on killing people until he can finally kill the judge, which has been his plan of revenge throughout the movie.  The idea of cannibalism and Sweeney Todd relates to how there is the theme of gothic fantasy and darkness in Tim Burton’s movies.  In the article, “It’s Man Devouring Man, My Dear”: Adapting Sweeney Todd for the Screen, it talks about how cannibalism goes back as least as far as the seventeenth century in London.  The article also states the dangers of cannibalism in living in an urban environment.  An urban environment is not focused on the well being of others, as it holds many dangers and not as much emphasis on safety.  As we see in Sweeney Todd, Sweeney’s mind was immediately turned to killing everyone in the town for no reason and with no regrets for his actions.  The power of cannibalism is extremely scary and the article from London addresses how real that issue can become.  An interesting point in the article is how it states that Sweeney Todd is a perfect example of an “honest version of merchants and retailers.”  It is also interesting to look at this plot in the view of relating it to merchants and retailers because Mrs. Lovett sells people meat pies, which are actually humans.  This line in the article especially stood out to me because it relatable to many people.  Merchants and Retailers are focused on one thing and that is to sell their items to people, no matter what the consequences may be.  The article talks about the different themes that are seen in Sweeney Todd, which include, ambition, love, desire, appetite, vanity, atonement, retribution, justice, and cannibalism.  Many of these themes are seen in fairy tales, but also a lot of them include what Tim Burton regularly adds to his films.  

Perkal- Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes deals with many dualities.  The duality that stood out to me was the different species.  I thought that having the contrast of the apes versus the humans was a creative plot.  Ari in Burton’s Planet of the apes is the daughter of the senator and she is the only ape that wants to not put the humans to work.  Ari is another example of a duality involving different species because she goes against what her friends and family believe. Throughout the entire movie both species are fighting against each other and we see the conflict of the apes trying to undermine the people.  We see an example of this because the apes lock up Captain Leo Davidson and the others.  Since the apes locked up the humans and in real life we usually see apes locked up in cages at a zoo, the movie changes the usual dynamic.   The apes act like humans while the people are treated like animals, which is one of the main conflicts in the movie.  The people are intellectual while the apes are physically stronger, but the apes act like the humans are not smart and try and degrade them.  Another scene in which we see duality is when the apes go to war with the humans.  The apes are fighting to keep their territory and use the people, as slaves while the humans just want to escape from being used.  A little bit after this scene we also see that the political issue that the apes caused.  The apes changed the Lincoln statue to make it an ape and take over America.  The way that the apes act is extremely violent and their only goal is to be the dominant species.  The apes go to any extreme to make it known to the humans that they are in charge and nothing can change that.  It is ironic to see that the apes are taking over humans in the movie because they are the animals that are most closely related to humans.  The roles between humans and apes are switched and I think that Tim Burton did this because in his movies he always has an underlying message that relates to issues going on in the world.  This is why we see the issues of duality being related to political policies and gender/species issues, and civil liberties.  Tim Burton does a good job of associating these issues in the movie.  

Perkal- Sleepy Hollow

The movie and story of Sleepy Hollow were both very dark and share similar plots with some striking changes.  In the story of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, Ichabod Crane is a teacher who hangs out with old ladies and tells ghost stories, while in the movie he is hired to help save the community from the headless horseman.  In the story, people who came to Sleepy Hollow became sleepy, which made them dreamy and loopy, which does not occur in the movie.  In the movie, Katrina is immediately attracted to Ichabod because he is not the typical man she is used to seeing in her town and she is blindfolded when she first meets him.  In both plots, Ichabod is seen as superstitious and intelligent, which I think were important factors that needed to be kept in the movie.  Ichabod in the movie does not believe that there is a headless horseman until he sees him for himself.  He thought in the beginning there was a rational explanation for this nonsense.  Another similarity between the story and movie is the importance of the witchcraft book.  The Witchcraft book was seen as the most important book in Ichabod’s life and when he was shot it made a hole right through the book.

The way that Tim Burton took Irving’s version of Sleepy Hollow, I think he wanted to do something more with Irving’s story and give an underlying meaning to it.  In all of Tim Burton’s works, he always adds his own opinions to them and makes sure that they show his way of life and how he feels about the topics, such as alienation, adaptation, and darkness.  We see the recurring theme of a house on a hill in Sleepy Hollow, which we also see in Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice.  I think that Tim Burton wanted to keep most of what Irving did, but add his personal attributions to the story, which is why we see the house on the hill and the outcasts in society.  Ichabod Crane would be the outcasts in this community because he is not the typical resident in this area of town, but he was called into help keep people safe from the headless horseman who was being controlled by a lady with his head.  Tim Burton does a good job of combining Irving’s story and his movie to make it similar, but not exactly the same.

Perkal- Mars Attacks

The movie Mars Attacks is a comedic movie that makes fun of the government, military, capitalism and patriotism. Mars Attack may have a simple plot, but there are many factors about it that lead to real issues facing America. The first scene of the movie is where we see the government discussing what they are going to do in order to deal with the aliens coming to earth.  The president basically relies on everyone else’s opinions.  All of the congressmen are unclear what to do about the situation and joke around about it.  Tim Burton also took the character of the president and gave him two roles. The president was also known as Art Land and he frequently went to casinos dressed up, so that no one knew that it was him.  In terms of the military, Burton had the president never listen to what the military officer wanted to do.  In the beginning scene, the president would put down all of the military officers ideas, even though he had no ideas of his own. 

As far as Burton’s opinions on patriotism in Mars Attacks, I think that he makes fun of it because the aliens are killing all of the humans and trying to take over America.  No one is able to stop the aliens and the government barely helps in the traumatic situation.  In the end, mostly everyone is gone except for a few of the main characters and they hold a very weak and sad ceremony for America, which also goes to show that they are not showing strong patriotism.  I think that the film makes fun of sacred institutions, but not in an offensive way.  Burton has very specific opinions when it comes to the government and scared institutions and he wants to get his message across through his movies.  Even though the film is not an in depth plot, I think that it has a good underlying meaning, which Burton continuously does through all his movies. It also makes the movie better that Burton put so many successful actors in it and they are able to make it much more enjoyable to watch. I also think that having all these stars makes Burton’s points about patriotism, military, and the government that much stronger.

Perkal- Ed Wood

The movie Ed Wood by Tim Burton reminds me of Tim Burton because of the similarities between these two artists.  Tim Burton and Ed Wood seemed to face the same sort of problems in starting up their careers.  When deciding to create the movie, Ed Wood, Tim Burton wanted to pay homage to Ed Wood’s works because he appreciated how hard he tried and he wanted to honor the family and spark that made his movies even though his movies were seen as terrible.  In terms of similarities to Ed Wood and Tim Burton, they share the qualities of struggling to be accepted in society and succeeding in the movie business,

The first element that I noticed in Ed Wood is the recurring theme of the outcast and darkness, but contain a good message in the end.  Tim Burton’s films are always filled with strange and gruesome atmospheres.  Ed Wood is a dark movie about a failure of a director, but even though Wood did not achieve what he wanted to, he never gave up because he loved directing so much.  Tim Burton portrays the message that if you love something go for it no matter what the outcome may be. 

Tim Burton and Ed Wood both had the struggle of trying to create a career making movies.  Ed Wood was rejected for his movies all the time and has the reputation of being the worst director ever.  Most of Ed Wood’s movies were seen as lost movies and received a lot of negative reactions toward his directing. People found Ed Wood’s films to be funny and continued to watch them because he never gave up no matter how much people claimed that they were not good.  In terms of Tim Burton, Disney rejected him because they were not sure what to do with his art.  His art was not the kind of art Disney was looking for because it was too dark and so he was not appreciated for his talent. 

The last element of Ed Wood that pays homage to Tim Burton is the relationship between Vincent Price and Tim Burton, and Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi.  These people were seen as mentors to Ed Wood and Tim Burton and shared an extreme part in their lives.  I think that Tim Burton felt that since Bela was so important and such a big part in Wood’s life, that he should be incorporated into his film.