In association with

Edward Scissorhands [1991]
from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
starring Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker
directed by Tim Burton

Features:

• Anamorphic
• PAL
• Widescreen

Editorial Review:

Edward Scissorhands achieves the nearly impossible feat of capturing the delicate flavour of a fable or fairy tale in a live-action movie. The story follows a young man named Edward (Johnny Depp), who was created by an inventor (Vincent Price, in one of his last roles) who died before he could give the poor creature a pair of human hands. Edward lives alone in a ruined Gothic castle that just happens to be perched above a pastel-coloured suburb inhabited by breadwinning husbands and frustrated housewives straight out of the 1950s. One day, Peg (Dianne Wiest), the local Avon lady, comes calling. Finding Edward alone, she kindly invites him to come home with her, where she hopes to help him with his pasty complexion and those nasty nicks he's given himself with his razor-sharp fingers. Soon Edward's skill with topiary sculpture and hair design make him popular in the neighbourhood--but the mood turns just as swiftly against the outsider when he starts to feel his own desires, particularly for Peg's daughter Kim (Winona Ryder). Most of director Tim Burton's movies (such as Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice and Batman) are visual spectacles with elements of fantasy but Edward Scissorhands is more tender and personal than the others. Edward's wild black hair is much like Burton's, suggesting that the character represents the director's own feelings of estrangement and co-option. Johnny Depp, making his first successful leap from TV to film, captures Edward's child-like vulnerability even while his physical posture evokes horror icons like the vampire in Nosferatu and the sleepwalker in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Classic horror films, at their heart, feel a deep sympathy for the monsters they portray; simply and affectingly, Edward Scissorhands lays that heart bare. --Bret Fetzer

On the DVD: Tim Burton is famed for his visual style not his ability as a raconteur, so it's no surprise to find that his directorial commentary is a little sparse. When he does open up it is to confirm that Edward Scissorhands remains his most personal and deeply felt project. The second audio commentary is by composer and regular Burton collaborator Danny Elfman, whose enchanting, balletic score gets an isolated music track all to itself with his remarks in-between cues. Again, for Elfman this movie remains one of his most cherished works, and it is a real musical treat to hear the entire score uninterrupted by dialogue and sound effects but illuminated by Elfman's lucid interstitial remarks. Also on the disc are some brief interview clips, a "making of" featurette and a gallery of conceptual artwork. The anamorphic widescreen print looks simply gorgeous. --Mark Walker

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0

• Predictable
  His skills and outcome are utterly predictable, but I'll say no more so as not to spoil it.

• cutting through fairytale convention is Burton's creation
  Edward (Depp), born with scissors for hands, is brought into the local village and becomes the talk of the town.
  God bless Tim Burton. Who in their right minds would take a fairy tale and include a man with scissors for hands? Burton's sheer strangeness continues after his beautiful Beetlejuice and Batman in this darkly colourful fantasy drama and throws the fairytale convention out of the window. Burton is an inspiration to the film industry, a man who does everything differently and there is no one... more info

• One of those films you'll be thinking about for days afterwards
  This film is odd. Think of Desperate Housewives. Think of Pinnochio. Think lame love triangle. Think tortured genious. Then mix in Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, and you've got yourself an incrediby moving film you just won't be able to get out of your head for days afterwards. I don't know enough about this film to give it full justice in a review, but I will say that I put off watching this film for many years, and probably would have for many years more had my friend not leant me the DVD, and that's a... more info

• Touching story and a classic Johnny Depp
  This tells the touching story of Edward Scissorhands. Edward was originally a chopping machine, which an inventor used as the template for turning into a human. However, the inventor died before the final part of Edward could be made, his hands. As a result, Edward was left with his original chopping scissors instead of hands, and lived in the inventor's castle all alone. That was until a chance call by a door to door saleswoman, who took pity on Edward, and took him into town to live with her family.more info

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