Postmodernism is the period that follows modernism, in the late 20th century, where contemporary artists challenge traditional ideals and perspectives, choosing to comment upon our society and often through political comment, with the use of satire, skepticism, parody, humour and recontextualisation of known stories. In the case of postmodern fantasy, traditional story telling is adapted to highlight the questionable nature of the morals of the story. Postmodernism questions the relevance of the “happily ever after” feature, common in fairytales and challenges it’s idealistic perspective on life. Through a postmodern lens, artists can deconstruct fairytales and rearrange them in order to create a more challenging meaning.
The postmodern practice of appropriation borrows from the known, leaving enough information that we understand the link, however changing enough to create new meanings. The film Edward Scissorhands recontextualises fairytales and stories such as Frankenstein, Pinocchio and Beauty and the Beast. The monster-like creation, that is Edward Scissorhands, becomes part of a peaceful community, disrupting the calm, which is a similar synopsis to the story of Frankenstein. The fairytale of Pinocchio is about a man-made creation wanting to become human and experience true emotions and feelings. This exploration correlates with Edward’s desires and development. In Beauty and the Beast, Belle is repulsed at first by the Beast but grows to love him for his caring and gentle personality. We can see the similar storyline playing out in the relationship between Edward and Kim. Drawing upon the wealth of tradition in fairytales and other stories that postmodern artists have at their disposal, Tim Burton is able to create multiple meanings, comments on our society and layers of depth and insight.
Tim Burton, famed film director, producer and screenwriter, was born on the 25th of August, 1958 in Burbank, California. In his childhood, Burton enjoyed watching classic horror films, many of which featured Vincent Price. He has been described to have “watched them religiously as a child, and knows everything about them. That’s his point of reference. That’s his world.” Having a particular skill in drawing, he enrolled at the California Institute of Arts, majoring in animation. However, in his second year of university, Burton started working for Disney as an apprentice animator. Upon deciding the job was too boring and creatively unsatisfying, Burton decided to strike out on his own and form his own production company. Grasping opportunities for working on films such as Frankenweenie (1984), Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985) and Beetlejuice (1988), Tim Burton soon became recognised for his visual flair and brilliance in the filmmaking industry.
In 1990, Burton was able to create his very own feature film, which he entitled Edward Scissorhands. Edward Scissorhands tells the story of Edward, a creation of an elderly inventor (portrayed by Vincent Price) who dies before he can replace Edward’s scissorhands with conventional hands. He is found living alone in a dark mansion on the top of a mountain. Peg Boggs, an Avon lady, takes Edward under her wing and invites him into her home to live as part of her family. Edward is initially welcomed by the rest of the community and is fought over for attention but when his scissorhands cause danger to the people of the town, he is brutally rejected.
Tim Burton says that: “anybody with artistic ambitions is always trying to reconnect with the way they saw things as a child”, which is even accordingly true for himself. The inspiration for Edward Scissorhands can be traced back to Burton’s childhood in suburban Burbank. While he was growing up, he found the people around him tending to live life on the surface, which he though was unsettling and alienating. It was very difficult for anyone to be different and so Burton used this struggle of conformity as inspiration for Edward Scissorhands. Burton’s feelings of isolation and being unable to communicate to anyone were reflected in his design of Edward Scissorhands. He says of this character “The idea actually came from a drawing I did a long time ago. It was just an image that I liked. It came subconsciously and was linked to a character who wants to touch but can’t, who was both creative and destructive…” Links are also formed between the design of the setting in Edward Scissorhands and Burton’s perspective on Burbank, California. Burton explained that his depiction of suburbia is "not a bad place. It's a weird place. I tried to walk the fine line of making it funny and strange without it being judgmental. It's a place where there's a lot of integrity.”
Conformity and the struggle of it is a prevalent theme in Edward Scissorhands. At the start of the film, Peg Boggs brings Edward down to live with her and almost immediately begins to change him by putting new clothes on him. Attempting to cover up the scars on his face, she says: “blending is the secret”. This positions the audience to feel positive about conformity and how blending into society can make people happier and life easier. Even the setting of a simple yet extravagant pastel-coloured suburban neighbourhood clearly demonstrates the conformity in this community. They wear the same style of colourful clothes, live in similar houses with tidy yards and enjoy the same entertainment. The cinematography used within the film provides an intriguing visual question: Do we all need to have identical manicured hedges? Can we celebrate creative differences? In contrast to modernism’s foundations in industrialisation, where the factory and the machine were glorified, this postmodern film illustrates the plastic superficial atmosphere where the character of Edward Scissorhands provides a stark questioning about similarity and difference and how they are handled.
The perceptions and judgements we, as a society, make based on appearances is a question that postmodern artists challenge in order to break preconceived notions of good and bad. We are challenged through Edward Scissorhands to not judge a book by its cover. Edward’s compassion and generosity is revealed throughout the story, sharply juxtaposed against his harsh and frightening exterior. Within the film, a clear example of a reaction to his appearance is when Kim Boggs returns home late to find Edward in her room, and she screams. Edward Scissorhands is not the princess in this film, or maybe he is? Tim Burton has reinterpreted the classic convention of beauty equals good and ugliness equals bad, by challenging the audience to discover the underlying personality defining a character, rather than appearance.
The film Edward Scissorhands takes characters on a journey of self-discovery. We can see how characters change, as Kim discovers the superficiality of being in a relationship with Jim. After getting to know Edward better, she realises that she has been shallow and now finds attractiveness in the depth of personality. She learns to appreciate a person for who they are rather than what they are. This process of self-discovery is a tool that Tim Burton strategically uses to provoke the audience to question their own ideals.
Tim Burton has a very unique style, which is what makes so many of his works, clearly of his creation. Burton has “always appreciated movies and things that had everything, because that’s the way I feel about life. There’s nothing that’s just funny, just dramatic or just scary.” This is particularly demonstrated in Edward Scissorhands, as there are many moments of comedy, drama and emotion throughout the film. Burton is also described as having a ‘gothic sensibility’, as one of the identifying features of the Gothic is the fascination with the places where two worlds and two kinds of experience meet. It is evident in his works that he echoes themes, images and techniques from the texts that fed his imagination in his suburban adolescence. Burton believes that “the parallel between suburban life and a horror movie was really closer than you might think.”
When Burton was casting for the role of Edward, he wanted “somebody who got the idea of sadness being misperceived.” Many actors auditioned including renowned celebrities Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr and Jim Carrey, however when Johnny Depp read over the script, “I actually wept”. Depp connected to the character as he had similar feelings and emotions throughout his childhood to Burton.
Through the themes explored in the film Edward Scissorhands, director Tim Burton has featured many conventions of postmodern theory. His inspiration from his childhood and conventional stories and fairytales but unique way of recontextualising attests to his brilliance in the art of postmodern filmmaking.
