Edward Scissorhands: Difference between revisions
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[[File:edwardscisorsposter.jpg|frame]]
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To paraphrase Linus from ''[[A Charlie Brown Christmas]]'', of all the [[Tim Burton]] movies in the world, this is the Tim Burtoniest. Not that there's anything wrong with that...
This 1990 film was Burton's first after the mega-success that was ''[[Batman (
The youthful hero ([[Johnny Depp]]) is [[Exactly What It Says
At first, Edward is welcomed by the community and he is quite happy to be of help to others; in particular, his talent for yard decoration progresses to dog grooming and eventually hairstyling. He's so fascinatingly alien that a local tart, Joyce, even tries to seduce him. Ironically, he falls in love with Peg's teenaged daughter Kim ([[Winona Ryder]]), one of the few who isn't immediately enamored with him. Of course, that's partially because she already has a boyfriend, the [[Jerk Jock]] Jim (Anthony Michael Hall). He decides to take advantage of her love for him to convince ''her'' to take advantage of Edward's innocent kindness, so he will help them commit a burglary. The consequences of this start a chain of events that will lead to a most [[Bittersweet Ending]].
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While only a modest success at the time, in part because of the strange premise and perhaps because ''Home Alone'' effectively commandeered the holiday movie season that year (both were 20th Century Fox releases, as it happened), it's since gained a large fanbase, and turned out to be the first of seven (so far) collaborations between Burton and Depp. In 2005 it was adapted into a ballet by British choreographer Matthew Bourne.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The ballet adds a lot of characters to the neighborhood that weren't in the movie, and it gives Esmeralda a husband and two children.
* [[Ambiguous Disorder]]: Edward is speculated as being a metaphor for autism and related diseases. One particularly notable thing is the way the film portrays people's ''reactions'' to him. While one might see the fascination most of the neighborhood has with him as being parodic of the stereotype of 1950s suburbanites being closed-minded, it's perfectly apt considering the timeframe when the movie came out. In the post-[[Rain Man]] world of the late-80s and early 90s there was widespread interest in the savant abilities possessed by some autistics.
* [[Anachronism Stew]]: The whole town seems like some sort of 50's-60's suburban fairy tale, but Peg drives a 70's Dodge, and Jim mentions his father getting a new CD player.
** Not to mention the gothic castle atop the hill. [[Word of God]] says that these contrasts were done on purpose, so the seemingly idyllic 1950's
* [[Artificial Human]]: Edward, of course, but he is more of a homunculus than a robot or
* [[Ascended Extra]]: Esmeralda has a slightly bigger role in the ballet. Instead of being a reclusive neighborhood crazy, she's the wife of the local preacher, Reverend Judas Evercreech, and she has two children (Gabriel and Marilyn-Ann Evercreech, a pair of stereotypical goths who hang out with Kim and her friends). Though she's just as nuts as in the movie, she's not as reclusive, and is seen mingling with the women of the neighborhood a lot more.
* [[Auteur License]]: Burton exercises his for the first time...and certainly not the last.
* [[Author Appeal]]: Many of Burton's favorites show up: strange hands, dogs, German Expressionism, Vincent Price, snow...heck, the hero looks like him!
* [[Beast and Beauty]]: Edward and Kim. Played with in that Edward's personality is more akin to that of a [[Gentle Giant]], and he isn't so much ugly as odd in comparison to the other characters, {{spoiler|but he fits the "beast" role quite well when he kills Jim in the climax}}.
* [[Berserk Button]]: Towards the climax
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]:
* [[Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress|Blood Splattered White Dress]]: Kim's lovely white dress ends up spattered with
* [[Cannot Spit It Out]]: Many people seem to know a doctor who could help him get real hands, but they never seem to actually give the information of who or where.
▲* [[Blessed With Suck]] / [[Cursed With Awesome]]: Guess who.
* [[Cassandra Truth]]: Subverted. Esmeralda, a fanatical fundamentalist Christian, believes Edward is evil and tries to convince her neighbors of this, but no one takes her seriously. Once Edward has been arrested for the burglary, thus changing their opinion of him, she's able to say she told them so. The subversion is that the audience knows all along Edward isn't evil.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Edward's ability to pick locks with his blades.
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* [[Dreaming of a White Christmas]]: Averted and then played with. There's no snow at all in this town and Bill Boggs staples fake snow on the rooftop of their house at one point. However, Edward essentially brings this to Kim when he carves the ice angel, {{spoiler|and continues to bring snow to the entire town even when he's once more confined to the castle at the end}}.
* [[DVD Commentary]]: Two - One with Burton, and one with Danny Elfman that combines this with an isolated music track.
* [[Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette]]: Edward.
* [[Elephant in
* [[Everytown, America]]: Save for the castle on the hill, the town is a throwback to 1950s suburbia. ▼
▲* [[Everytown America]]: Save for the castle on the hill, the town is a throwback to 1950s suburbia.
* [[Fairy Tale]]: A throwback to the pre-[[Disneyfication]] era, at that.
* [[Fetish]]:Edward is heavily viewed a some sort of sex [[Incredibly Lame Pun|machine]] by the women of the street.
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* [[Genre Blind]]: A question: if you're an Avon representative and see a big, ominous-looking house on the top of a random mountain, and the sky over it looks overcast, and the inside is empty and dusty, do you go in? 'Cause that's what Peg does in the beginning! Nothing bad comes of it, but if this were the case in a ''horror movie'', she'd be [[Too Dumb to Live]].
* [[Good Scars, Evil Scars]]/[[Scars Are Forever]] : Edward has many small scars on his face, due to his own hands and having no one to tend to him after the Inventor's death. The latter trope is played with: one of the first things Peg does when she meets him and realizes he's friendly is tend to them so they won't get infected. She later uses makeup -- she is an Avon lady after all -- to help conceal them to an extent, as well as to counteract his pale skin.
* [[The Grotesque]]: Edward might be the most famous modern example of this trope.▼
* [[It Got Worse]]: {{spoiler|Edward's rescue of Kevin being mistaken as an attack, and the resulting hysteria, leaves nothing left for Edward to do but, as Kim tells him, "Run."}}▼
* [[Gossipy Hens]]: The women in town can't help themselves from gossiping about Edward.
▲* [[The Grotesque]]: Edward might be the most famous modern example of this trope.
* [[Hold Me]]: One of the most famous lines.
{{quote|
'''Edward''': I can't.
* [[Innocent Inaccurate]]: Edward - who is himself apparently immortal - doesn't understand what's happened to his 'father.' When Peg inquires about him, Edward replies simply, "He didn't wake up."
** There's also the scene following Joyce's attempted seduction in which he pleasantly tells the family that she took him into the back room "and took off all her clothes."
*** Note that none of the family seems particularly surprised by this revelation, perhaps reinforcing this part of Edward's character.
▲* [[It Got Worse]]: {{spoiler|Edward's rescue of Kevin being mistaken as an attack, and the resulting hysteria, leaves nothing left for Edward to do but, as Kim tells him, "Run."}}
* [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]: Variation, when Kim learns Edward knew whose house he was robbing, when he seemed to have been tricked into thinking they were retrieving stolen goods.
{{quote|
'''Edward''': Because you asked me to.
** In a more platonic sense,
* [[Jerk Jock]]: Jim is an especially nasty one.
* [[Kick the Dog]]: A literal version! It's easy to miss, but when Joyce is chatting with Edward in her garden and her dog is
* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]: Esmeralda spends the entire movie accusing Edward of being a satanic creature. When Edward gets pissed {{spoiler|after Jim tells him to go away}} one of the things he does is re-trim her hedges to resemble a devil staring at her window.
* [[Looks Like Cesare]]: Edward. Very, very much.
* [[Love Triangle]]: Kim, Edward, and Jim.
▲* [[Kick the Dog]]: A literal version! It's easy to miss, but when Joyce is chatting with Edward in her garden and her dog is continously yapping over their conversation, she casually back kicks it to shut it up.
* [[Mad Scientist]]: Subverted with the Inventor, aptly described by online critic MaryAnn Johanson as "perhaps the first kindly mad scientist".
* [[Misapplied Phlebotinum]]: You'd think a guy with scissors for hands would do something with his hair...
* [[No Name Given]]: Edward's "father
* [[Nosy Neighbor]]: All of them.
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Though he was in a few scenes, his screen time was still short, but [[Vincent Price]] as the inventor just about steals the film from Johnny Depp.
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** Kim's friend at dinner who won't accept the roast because Edward "...used his hands. I don't think it's sanitary." She's got a point - his clippers have trimmed bushes and hair and are only cleaned with oil out of the garage. No one else at the table seems to mind.
* [[Pinocchio Syndrome]]: Edward's odd hands mean he is unable to touch others physically, which becomes a problem when he falls for Kim. The film suggests there are ways he could gain ordinary hands, but that never comes to pass. Ultimately, it matters more to him that she understands and reciprocates his love.
* [[Please Wake Up]]: Edward tells Peg, when asked about his father, "He didn't wake up."
* [[The Quiet One]]: Edward only speaks 169 words throughout the entire film!
* [[Quirky Town]]: And how! Could qualify as a humorous [[Schizo
* [[Recycled Trailer Music]]: Danny Elfman's much-recycled/imitated music is one of several scores that provided this trope with its name.
* [[Ridiculously Human Robot]]: Edward can eat, bleed, and even fall in love. This despite the fact he's basically the final iteration of a line of machines originally designed to make cookies. Except he is more like a homunculus than a robot.
* [[Snow Means Love]]: The ice angel sequence - {{spoiler|multiplied a hundredfold in the finale}}.
** Which makes the ending even more of a [[Tear Jerker]] when you realize that
* [[Stan Winston]]: The real man who gave Johnny Depp his articulate scissorhands and doll-like appearance.
* [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]]: The artificial being variant,
* [[Torches and Pitchforks]]: The mob doesn't have these items specifically, but as Burton notes on the DVD commentary, they fit this trope otherwise.
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: The trailers gave virtually the whole story away. This may have been to make sure people understood this wasn't a horror movie, but a tragicomic fantasy.
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* [[Truly Single Parent]]: The unnamed scientist who creates Edward.
* [[Twisted Christmas]]: The climax takes place on the night of a Christmas party.
* [[Ugly Hero, Good
** Somewhat debatable, plenty of people find Depp more attractive, even with makeup so he [[Looks Like Cesare]].
* [[Unusual Eyebrows]]: Edward doesn't really have any.
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[[Category:Hugo Award]]
[[Category:Edward Scissorhands]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Cult Classic]]
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