EDWARD SCISSORHANDS: A Portrait of a Creative Person
Tonight I watched EDWARD SCISSORHANDS for the fourth time in my life. Well, third or fourth time. Somewhere around there. Anyway, outside of BIG FISH, SCISSORHANDS is one of the more moving films Burton has made. The imagery and the score push me to tears every time the credits roll. Throughout the rest of the film, I’ll find myself tearing up at random points just because. It’s odd that a film that features a Cenobite looking motherfucker with a handicap would get at me like that, but it does.
Random thought: does Burton have stock in HOT TOPIC? I feel like that place is royalty central for him. Moving on…
I always saw the film as a re-imagining of FRANKENSTEIN, right? The monster is marginalized and seen as a danger. The town folk run him out and in this film they don’t set him on fire, but they banish him. My takeaway with the subtext was the destruction of the mob mentality around people who were different. The problem with being an introvert came later when I understood that concept. It’s still that, but there was an added layer thrown on during my viewing tonight. It’s about the creative person, the artists in the world. I’m sure many have made this connection before, but not all of them have blogs and I also couldn't figure out what else to do on a Monday night. Well, I could play DESTINY…
Edward’s Home and Father
The “Inventor” played by Vincent Price is man who creates machines to manufacture things for him. He builds himself a son who is also sensitive in nature but lacks the thing that made his father important — actual hands.
Edward has been gifted, but it makes it difficult for him to function in society. He is left to himself in hiding where he is free to use his talents without being judged. Edward has his garden he tends to and in the middle is a hedge done in the form of a hand. That’s because his “hand” is art. It represents what his father was to him and how he viewed his own condition.
To make this a little personal, my father is a mechanic and can build/fix most things his his hands. He has spent his entire life using his hands to create things, physical things that can be used. Me, on the other-hand, can’t use my hands in the same way. I am only able to write and create words on a page. I don’t see myself as a direct comparison to Edward, but we fight the same fight, I guess. He makes art which is a lot more visual than what I do.
The Mother, and The Town
Edward is surprised one day by the kind motherly figure (and mother), Peg. She takes Edward in to nurture and acclimate him to society. Like any good mother, she sees his disposition as nothing but part of who he is and accepts it. Peggy defends Edward and holds off the housewives as they try and claw their way into Edward’s life. Why is he so strange? What makes him different?
Then it happens — the town (mostly women) see the power he has. He is able to create images and evoke feelings with his talent. The novelty grabs all of them and they think Edward is the greatest thing to come to their strange, suburb of a town. The father (oh, Alan Arkin) insists that he turn his talent, something he was born with, into a money maker. That’s the American thing to do and why should he waste his powers? A creative person sometimes doesn't think to use their hobby as a main source of income because it comes so naturally for them.
Rage comes with a sensitive person. When people or critics turn on you and start holding your creativity over your head, it leads to depression. In Edward’s case, his talent was used for evil (the robbery) and causes a rift with those who took him in. When Anthony Michael Hall pushes him and Kim around, he freaks out on the inside. You get that lovely scene where he slashes the walls in the house because he is emotionally paralyzed. Most people who are artistically inclined are introverts and because of that, will explode on the inside.
Anthony Michael Hall’s character becomes scared of Edward. He feels insecure because Kim sides with Edward. Like any jock who is unable to wrestle with emotions or get in touch with who they are, he goes after Edward physically. Of course, at the end, Edward wins out when he finally sees that if he remains paralyzed, Kim might be hurt, too.
The final scene in which Edward is cutting ice to make snow is him still using his scissors for good and people can still get the benefit of it. Sure, people didn’t understand him and they tried to take advantage of him, but it’s a gift he still wants to share.
The very thing that made Edward different brought him fame and it also drove him out. Edward represents the writer, musician, the artist, or whatever other creative outlet. The mob of people who came to Edward to make them feel unique, they also destroyed him based on rumors and misunderstandings. Can a writer bounce back after saying just one wrong thing? Does an actor have to run to the hills just because something they did was taken out of context? This film believes that people will never understand those who view the world differently.
