My theme “Outsiders in society - how appearances can be deceiving” I think is very important to the film Edward Scissorhands; directed by Tim Burton, as the theme is repeated throughout the film. My theme has a general importance because its shows the other side of society that we don’t get to see or notice too often. The group of individuals on the other side constantly shows the challenges they face, and the different ways of living are often ignored because they don’t fit into the current society. This brings up a strong contrast and compare between what society defines as normal and what is abnormal. My theme tells us that their appearances are often deceiving and we should learn to to give them a chance. This means you are also more …show more content…
Edward (the outsider) is introduced into the bright society below and I noted he is readily accepted by most as they got to know him more. Edward I thought also became happier compared to his sad face in the beginning and more confident in himself and others as he was recognised by the suburban society. However the betrayal of robbing a house by Edward later in the film meant he was framed, forced to leave and return to the place where he came from. I thought this was cruel and inhuman as Jim, who told Edward to break into the house was using him as he could open any house with his scissors. He had no knowledge of what he was doing and was unfortunately framed and Edward being all the more vulnerable because of his appearance. I thought Carol (a member of the suburb) makes a strong connection to Edward’s appearance by talking on the phone to the other suburb neighbours “Joyce, I just saw this strange guy driving with Peg... I didn’t get a good look at him, he looked kind of pale.” I felt quite curious in the way that Carol felt to see this new character in the suburb and shared this same feeling with many others in the film. Edward was very welcomed by Peg (who found Edward) and so, he meet the rest of the people in the suburb and was accepted to be more involved in their society. This reminded me of the text: Perks of being a Wallflower, where an anonymous person (named Charlie) describes himself as an outsider. It is quite unique as he knows what other people say
People who are different are made to feel alone and excluded they can also be treated unfairly and Edward being up in the mansion shows how isolated he really is. For example when Peggy pushes through the gate
The camera focuses on Edward’s face; it shows how pale and sad he is. The gothic horror feature used here is the physical appearance of the “monster”. Edward is a large, dark figure with objects (his scissor hands) that can cause harm. This is very stereotypical of the gothic monster as this has been used in Frankenstein (1931) and Nosferatu (1922), and is imprinted in viewers’ minds. But what makes us question how monstrous Edward truly is, is his facial expression and the way he talks. Unlike most gothic horror monsters, he does not have a scary personality. He is shy and is not the antagonist. As the story continues, all the bad deeds he does, are actually the result of someone else taking advantage of him. As viewers, we see this, and we are led to believe that it is not Edward who is the monster, but rather the community Peg has brought him into. By manipulating common features of gothic horror films, Edward Scissorhands is able to influence the audience into believing the “monster” of the film is Edward, but when the tradition is changed, it makes us think that not everything is black and white, and that to get the correct judgement, we must wait until all evidence is presented.
Usually a change occurs in the main Character of a Fantasy Film e, this could be in a good way or a bad way. In Edward scissor hands Edward is the main Character. He is lonely innocent person who lives in a big mansion. Edward has never had contact with humans so when Peg first sees Edward he is very frightened and decides to hide. Moreover the dialogues that Edward says when he first meets Peg is very desperate and scared however at the end of the movie Edward speaks louder and more confidently. During his stay with Peg he wore white clothes as he returned to the castle he cut off the white clothes leaving the black underneath. This shows a change in personality and figure as Edward becomes himself and doesn’t want to change for the people in the community. However during the course of the film Edward gets more and more comfortable with Humans. Even
He is looking at things with wide eyes because he has never seen these things before. He even pops Kim’s waterbed with his Scissorhands. While the audience finds it humorous, the author conveys a deeper meaning, showing that from the start, Edward was not able to fit into the “perfect society” that was created. He was an abnormal child, but Burton still manages to show that it's okay to be abnormal. He feels relatable to Edward, who grew up with no parents and in an isolated castle, and when brought into the real world, he was looked at as an outsider. But he was still treated the same as us, in the beginning. He was seen as special. So, Burton’s use of lighting and camera angles to show his pitiful
In ‘Edward Scissorhands’, Edward goes through new experiences that show his individuality and how he is different to all the community. In the film, characters such as Joyce and Jim firstly rejected Edward as he was different, they then adored him as he did unique art such as hairdressing, gardening, grooming dogs, cutting meat and ice sculpting. Once Edward discovered his talents, he became very popular amongst the community. They used him so that they would have an easier life, but then when he did something wrong he was then rejected again. Being the individual Edward was in the community, he experienced so many new things such as his growing relationship with Kim. His new experiences with Kim made him learn what true feelings for a girl really was. As great as being and individual is with all this said however, being an individual can also be dangerous in a way, as you would get judged by others around you for being yourself. Edward in the beginning of the film had that exact problem, everyone would be judging him for having scissors as hands and would think of him as a scary monster. The reason Edward went to the community in the first place was because of Peg. Peg
In addition, mise-en-scene is used to show the contradictions between the two understandings of life. The barbecue and dinner scene show the emotional overkill and unstable conduct of the residents in the town by using the lively and distinctive color (Burton, 1990). The distinction with Edward’s gothic punk style of fashion, hairdo and makeup is unusual and marks him as an outcast. It is not only his exterior that points out his detachment from people, but also his ideas which represent his own reality and separates him from the world that he does not belong to. When the people discover Edward’s talents they begin to request different tasks from him. Overall, it seems as if the society is only accepting of Edward for their own benefit. However, Burton makes it clear that there is no true acceptance for Edward when he is forced to leave Peg’s house. Kim, the girl Edward falls in love with, knows she cannot change society, so she leaves him in the castle and tells everyone he’s dead so he is protected.
Another example from the movie is when Edward is introduced into this brand new style of living where he is the new ‘toy’ and uses his creative side to make people’s lives more enjoyable and fulfilling by cutting neighbours hair and turning a hedge into art. Tim Burton makes us think to look beneath the surface and not too just leave out someone who doesn’t look normal, he makes us think about our everyday life how we can be ignorant, rude and reject people who don’t look like us and have a disability. In Edward Scissorhands Edward isn’t always seen as the good guy from the town’s perspective. In the opening seen when we are given a bird’s eye view of the cars moving in and out of the town, this gives us the thought that the town is bright, bubbly and organized to the split second that the cars come out of the drive way but really as the movie goes on they seem to take the tag of being the ‘bad town’. In the movie the town thinks he is the bad guy because of what people have been gossiping about. Edward becomes the ‘bad guy’ as he is being betrayed/forced into the role of the town devil when he is the town hero as he has bought something to the town that will
Edward is represented as the creation of an intelligent inventor, yet before Edward could be “completed” the inventor passed away. This had a long-term effect on Edward as he was left confused, alienated, alone and most importantly, “incomplete” literally, and metaphorically. This contrast, symbolizes the complex feelings associated with alienation and ostracism, and the destructive effects it has on individuals, leading them to create barriers of isolation, and lack of acceptance and understanding. William struggles to form a sense of identity because of the emotional abuse that was inflicted upon him during his placement with an unidentified male. And Edward suffers from a sense of identity, as he was never able to establish on, through social interactions, Edward is intrigued by those around who to him seem to be, unique and different, while those around Edward believe him to be unique and one of a kind, accepting him for “ The years spent in isolation have not given him the tools to judge from right or wrong. The snow represented the change he brought to the people and especially Kim. It showed how he blossomed, and when the chaos of his visit came and left, he still left his mark behind to the town. Before Edward visited it had never snowed, and now every year it does. This is because even though Edward was looked down upon at the end, he still wanted to show people he can create beauty and not just destruction. Edward wanted them to feel a sense of belonging, maybe not with him but with each other, with the town’s community. understood by us as an audience that the need to belong is significant in our world as it is through the healing process in our relationships and experiences that the human
Edward’s differences are viewed negatively by society as he is encouraged to conform. By having scars visible on his face, Peg makes an effort to mask Edwards imperfections. She is unfamiliar with his fair complexion as everyone in the neighborhood has glowing smooth skin and therefore she urges to “help with the scars”. While Peg applies a concealing cream on Edwards face, she insinuates that “blending is the secret” which symbolizes how blending into society will help Edward conform. This suggests that Edwards flaws are not accepted and how society pressures to cover up your differences because uniformity is acknowledged. As the family warms up to Edward in their home, Bill suggests that Edward gets a job to earn money like everyone else in the community. He says that having a job is the “greatest satisfaction” a man can have. This insinuates that men are conformed to have a job and earn money for their family. Edward decides to make an effort and get a loan to start up his own business at the local bank which is painted white and black symbolizing the dull and homogenous life the society lives in. Edward is rejected by the bank authorities when he finds that Edward has no previous bank records and therefore “may as well not even exists.” This implies that by Edward not having a job, he is not welcome to exist in society as they are not willing to give others who are different a chance. As humanity negatively views Edwards differences, Burton displays how humans encourage outcast to conform to society.
The movie Edward Scissorhands starts off with an unusual character named Edward who was very different to the others. At the start, everyone seems to like Edward because he is able to do things others can’t, which means he has something different to give. The film shows that people who are different are treated differently for example when Edward was deemed interesting by the town but as soon he's done something wrong he is not liked.
Tim Burton, the director of Edward Scissorhands, draws inspiration for his work from fairytales and children’s stories. He has always had an affinity for the darker elements of these stories, which is made evident in the film Edward Scissorhands. The film’s main character is a man named Edward who has scissors for hands. Later, it is shown that he was a metal figure brought to life by his inventor, an elderly man who dies before he is able to give Edward human hands. Edward lives in a mansion on a hill on the edge of town, all alone, until a woman named Peg finds him and bring him to live with her family. Edward immediately develops an attraction to Peg’s daughter, Kim, though she has a boyfriend. Towards the end of the film, Kim tells Edward that she loves him, and Edward seems to be completed. However, Edward struggles to conform to society, and eventually is forced by the members of the community to return to his mansion, isolated from any human interaction. The film combines a make-believe character, as often found in children’s books, with elements of a horror film, like suspicion and violence. The film features several flashbacks throughout that elaborate on Edward’s past and show how he came to be. Burton uses these flashbacks to grow the audience’s understanding of Edward, explain events, and emphasize themes.
In ‘Edward Scissorhands’, conformity is a main theme throughout the entire movie, which is shown through the community and the characters that live within it. Many things throughout the movie show how the community conforms. For example, their houses are all one solid colour and all have the same shape, the characters are all dressed the same and all act very similarly. When Edward is introduced to the community, he is immediately looked upon as an outsider who does not follow the community’s nature. Most importantly, Edward is different because of his scissor hands. This does not only make him an outcast, but it makes him dangerous to the community, but surprisingly special. Both of Edward’s positive and negative differences show how he does not conform to the community; however, this does not stop him and his friends from attempting to make him indistinguishable. “But if you had regular hands, you'd be like everyone else.” There are many attempts to make Edward conform, whether it is the Bogg’s, the people in the
Edward Scissorhands is one of the most curios and anticipating oviesive seen and it all starts off with A man named edward scissorhands is living in a dark mansion up on the mountain towering over the little town. Then an Avon representative drives up to the mansion and realizes the Edward is the only one living up in this mansion and decides to take him home to her house. Then then the peg the Avon representative took edward on a tour of the house and they get to her daughter kim's room and right when you see it you can tell edward like kim but Jim edwards boyfriend does not like Edward every much because he's different. If i was that person i would not bring edward home because who knows what he is capable with those scissorhands.
In Tim Burton’s movie, “Edward Scissorhands,” he claims that when one seems different from the other, then people do not accept them for who they are because they are not like them and they are not willing to accept a new change that has come to their life. He illustrates this by making Edward stand out,so he has him only wearing black and white whereas all the other people are wearing colourful clothes; he says that Jim is mad at Edward because Edward stole his girlfriend from, then he makes fun of him for not being human behind his back because he is a machine; he moreover implies that Edward looks dark and scary when really he is sweet, nice, and unique, however, the town is colourful but the people are not, they are just bland and cruel people. Burton exaggerates the fact that Edward is different from the others by adding scissors for hands and making him wear all black and have pale skin making him look like he has a scary look even though he is sweet like candy, while the townspeople are colourful but cruel like villains; he additionally points out that people have to tolerate him but Kim has accepted him for he is, he demonstrates that by letting people know that even though Edward is different, he can still love. Although the author has advised that everyone should be treated fairly, he has more suggested that some people are not used the change that Edward has brought to this town; Burton has advanced that everyone is different and everyone should be treated fairly no matter what they look like or what problems they have.
In my essay I am going to reference two films, Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Vincent (1982), directed by Tim Burton. Edward Scissorhands, is Tim Burton’s take on the Frankenstein story. We can clearly see the influences that have appealed to Tim Burton in the classic Frankenstein (1931) was not the character’s monstrousness appeal but the sense of sad sorrow that audiences sympathized to in Boris Karloff’s performance. Whereas in Tim Burton’s vision, we see a “Special” character as the Frankenstein Monster, in the similar way that we call people with disabilities Special. And then we have Vincent, a short stop-motion animation. The short film itself is an entertaining aspect of a suburban boy named Vincent who recites Edgar Ellen Poe and categorizes with Horror film star, Vincent Price. With similarities to Edward Scissorhands, the main character is a chance for Tim Burton to represent himself on the screen as a tortured boy, outsider and artist. I am going to discuss how cultural and psychological concerns are represented through characterization, art direction, cinematography, and sound. I will support my discussion by analyzing a reflection on both the similarities and differences between the two films, and whether a distinctive “Burton” signature (aesthetics, cultural and psychological concerns) is evident.