Edward Scissorhands Essay
The film Edward Scissorhands, directed by Tim Burton, explored the themes of love and acceptance through the life of an artificially made man with scissors for hands. The film follows the main character, Edward, who is brought in by a woman named Peg Boggs. She introduces him into the family and the neighbourhood. The director shows a keen focus on loving relationships and acceptance. Burton uses camera angles, zooms and different types of music to convey these emotions.
Love is conveyed in many different ways through the film Edward Scissorhands, mainly through music and camera shots. Music and zooms are used in order to show the audience that Edward and Kim are falling in love. When Edward first sees the pictures
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These low angle shots make Edward look powerful while he is accepted. For Example, when Kevin brings Edward in for show and tell Edward is shown with a low angle shot while the class is shown at level shot. This makes him look powerful and the kids cheer when he finished his paper cutting. This helps his efforts to be accepted. This scene is accompanied by frantic music that ends in a heroic jingle. Another scene where Edward is accepted is when he starts cutting dogs hair. Joyce then asks if he would cut her hair. The neighbourhood love the hairstyle that Edward gave her, so every woman lines up to get their hair done they way the want it. This scene is accompanied by fast paced strings. When he cuts their hair it is filmed with a low angle shot to make Edward seem powerful. The people love him for it which makes him feel more confident in himself and he is accepted into the neighbour hood. This is his new found signature talent. Finally, the last scene is where Edward is on a talk show with Peg. Edward and Peg on the talk show and are asked numerous questions. Edward and Peg are shown with a low angle shot to give them a powerful presence. Although this scene is not accompanied by music, the crowd clap and cheer at various questions, such as his favourite thing in town being the friends he’s made. This proves that the presence of low angle shoots is an indication of the theme of acceptance towards
The first person who first meets Edward is Peg when she is going up to the mansion to sell her Avon cosmetics. He comes out of the shadows Peg is shocked by his looks. “Oh my! What happened to you?” She asked shocked by his scissor hands. During this the camera shots of Edward are mostly close ups on his face and hands point out his most unique and different features. Edward’s clothes throughout the entire movie are tight, black, leather which is very different to the bright colourful town’s people’s clothes and often these clothes made him stand out which set him apart from the town’s people. Edward isn’t just set apart by film techniques, he is also very much an outsider to the towns who find him curious. This is shown in a few situations. The main one is at the BBQ when George Monroe meets Edward and asks him to play cards. “Would you like that? The only thing is you can’t cut.” George said making fun of Edward’s differences, something he wouldn’t do to a friend. While Edward and Esmeralda are quite different from the town’s people, Peg is one of them but struggles to fit in at times because of how she sees things and how she is more
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.
Tim Burton’s film, Edward Scissorhands, portrays different ideas about westernised society through various conventions, introducing the character of Edward to a stereotypical suburban society. The westernised suburban town comes across as quite judgemental, stuck to a routine and doesn’t seem to know any better, which all closely relate to the actions of society that many people don’t admit to. Edward is shown as very different and everyone wants to make a good impression on him. The townsfolk in Edward Scissorhands are very intrigued with Edward’s arrival, yet even though they were interested in him they were very forceful to him.
Edward Scissorhands is about Edward, a Frankenstein-like creation with scissors for hands, who is left alone unfinished in his creator’s mansion. Many years after Edward was created, local Avon saleswoman Peg Boggs visits the broken-down Gothic mansion on the hill where Edward lives. There, she finds Edward alone, and upon realizing he is virtually harmless she decides to take him to her home. Peggy’s inquisitive neighbours like Edward and begin to exploit him. Edward is then rejected from the town after a few misunderstandings. Edward stabs Jim in the stomach
To illustrate, Burton specifically incorporates non-diegetic music into Edward’s haircuts, exploiting his proficiency and strange dexterity with his scissorhands. The music is very rapid and uplifting to show Edward is performing the very spectacular feat of cutting and shaping the women's and dog’s hair into interesting designs. A low camera angle is used which shows the superiority Edward has over his clients. Showing their trust in him bearing his large scissors around their heads. Also, high key lighting is used, creating a bright open scene. Conveying the trust and absence of fear in the women. Just by being himself and embracing his abnormality, Edward gained enough of the women’s trust to develop and
Edward Scissorhands also uses elements from the fairytale genre, as shown in the first scene where a grandma is telling a child a bedtime story in a fairytale-cottage-like setting, but is especially reminiscent of the Walt Disney productions Beauty and the Beast, where an outsider falls for a young and beautiful woman, as shown through Edward and Kim’s relationship, and also incorporates Sleeping Beauty’s dark and ominous castle settings. Because of the allusions to such genres, the audience at first assumes that the production is a horror movie, but because Tim Burton has chosen to add elements of comedy into the film, it becomes clear that that movie is no-doubted a satire, which is important as the invited response is achieved through the ridicule of other concepts. Tim Burton cleverly merges and combines a variety of different genres and allusions into the Edward Scissorhands in order to construct and give greater depth and meaning to the overall film in a humorous way. Symbolism also is a significant, if not essential element in the production of Edward Scissorhands. Tim Burton makes the choice to centre the film around Edward’s hands, not only because
This shows the viewer that, even though, they love to use his hands to help themselves they are still bothered by how obviously different he is from themselves. They seem to feel that Edward is too different to be accepted into their community without changing who he is, that they have to hide that thing that makes him different. This has also been a continuing theme throughout the history of the human race, and is especially prevalent in today’s media-centric era. If we don’t like what is happening somewhere in the world or if someone wants to create a precise feeling about a certain group of people they only share
In the scene when Jim tricks Edward into breaking into his home, society discards Edward and calls him “devious” the audio codes the producer uses shows us that Edward is being rejected by society. The audience is perturbed that people have a very little conscience and knowingly take advantage of the people with unique
Similarly, the film by Tim Burton, Edward Scissorhands portrays deep ideas about belonging whereby notions of acceptance and identity are illustrated through the use of filming techniques. Love and acceptance are challenged when Peg Boggs, the Avon representative rescues Edward from the mansion on top of the hill where he has spent his entirety. Upon Peg entering, a wide shot shows the sun shining into the mansion symbolising how the outside world has forever shone through but never been explored. The fear and disappointment of being judged for the hands that his inventor was never able to give him as “he never woke up” has left him in solidarity disconnected from society. A close up shot shows a collection of various images relating to those who are in some way unable to perform normal daily functions,
Constructing Reality “Tim Burton explores universal themes in Edward Scissorhands to make a social comment”. Tim Burton uses the film ‘Edwards Scissorhands’ to make a statement on society's mistreatment towards people's differences. Tim Burton uses techniques such as low lighting, dialogue, and camera shots. Using this he shows 3 key themes, manipulation, discrimination and relationships. Discrimination ‘Edward Scissorhands’ largely focuses on the difference of Edward to the other characters.
The film Edward Scissorhands is a contemporary archetype of the gothic genre exploring themes such as unrequited love, social rejection and human creation as defined by Tim Burton. Feature films explore different ideals that can be categorized into different genres that create expectations among audiences about characters, settings, plots and themes. Edward Scisscorhands directed by Tim Burton in the year 1990 is described as both a dark romantic fantasy and a gothic horror film. The film tells a story about Edward Scissorhands, the creation of an elderly inventor who dies before he can give Edward his normal hands in place of his scissor hands. Edward is taken from the mansion he lives in by a suburban family in an attempt to live a
Edward Scissorhands, written by Tim Burton, tells the tale of a young man who is lovable, childlike and sensitive, bewildered by the humanity around him, yet is terrifying- someone who has scissors, the deadly weaponry, for hands. Many viewers may read this film as a “Tim Burton” type of fairytale which includes both an alternative aspect and romance. However, through the presentation of mise-en-scene in this film, Burton drives in a much more serious subject of social criticism by establishing two different understandings of life in the movie.
Tim Burton’s gothic drama film Edward Scissorhands explores what is immoral with our society. A present issue with humanity is people who are different are encouraged to conform. In addition, society plays by the rules and follow societal norms rather than listening to their hearts. Most importantly, humans are cruel and exploit those who are vulnerable for their own benefit. Through the use of film techniques, Burton proposes the faults in humanity and the brutal nature of humans.
The film ‘Edward Scissorhands’ by Tim Burton, is a modern day fairy tale which follows the story of Edward, a young man that is taken out of isolation and introduced into a new way of life. Although the film is for entertainment, that is not its sole purpose. The film has deep and rich themes, which convey many important messages to the audience. Some themes of the film include; conformity, appearances versus reality and individuality.
How would you feel if you had scissors as hands? In the beginning of Edward Scissorhands, Edward wasn't finished so he was left with scissors as hands. During the movie Edward goes through a journey trying to fit in and be accepted by everyone. In the film Edward Scissorhands, director Tim Burton uses the stylistic elements of juxtaposition and symbolism to develop the theme, never judge someone by their appearance.