Question

Discuss how Edward Scissorhands or Blade Runner is visually designed?

Answer 1

Throughout Edward Scissorhands, cinematography is used effectively to engage the audience and make them feel certain ways. First off, Stefan Czapsky, the film’s cinematographer, uses colour and lighting very well to portray an overall feeling in different settings. For example, Edwards mansion up the hill is very dark and mysterious looking. As Peg enters his house and looks around, everything is black and grey. The house feels empty and there is many shadows to give the audience an uneasy and frightened feeling. This is ironic because when the audience meets Edward, he is a gentle and very loving person. This is done by Czapsky to show how people may see Edward from the outside because of his freakish looking nature.

gentle and very loving person. This is done by Czapsky to show how people may see Edward from the outside because of his freakish looking nature.

A photo of Edward Scissorhands remote mansion.

In contrast to Edwards mansion, scenes where it shows the town, the lighting is very bright and warm, and the houses are pastel colours. This is to make the audience feel safe and warm. It feels unnatural at first to see Edward in this neighbourhood, as he is portrayed as some kind of monster. What is interesting about the difference in lighting and colour between Edwards mansion and the small neighbourhood is that the colours displayed don’t reflect how they actually are. Edward’s dark and demented setting does not reflect his personality at all. Also, the soft bright setting of the towns people doesn’t mirror what they are like. By the end of the movie they all turn on Edward and are cruel to him. They do not see him for who he really is, but just judge him on how he is portrayed.

Small Florida neighbourhood in Edward Scissorhands. Oakley Seal, August 7,

Another aspect of cinematography used impressively is the framing. One scene that stands out is the first dinner scene where Edward is struggling to eat his food. Czapsky uses a point of view shot for this. It is very interesting to see because the audience can imagine what it is like to be Edward. It shows how he has difficulty doing everyday things. Also, by the way the family is looking at him, it shows that he is an outcast. The point of view angle is used very well here, as it helps give the viewer an idea of what Edward is going through.

Tim Burton’s 1990 film Edward Scissorhands deals with the humanoid creation of an eccentric inventor who died before the creation’s completion. The inventor leaves Edward, his creation, with razor-sharp scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a kind Avon saleswoman, Peg, and her family. He finds himself transported to Suburbia, a pastel paradise with clean cut lawns and women who all own dogs. He has many talents that impress the neighbors and gives himself a good reputation, however, things eventually take a turn for the worse when several people attempt to take advantage of Edward’s innocence. The film tugs at the heartstrings of the audience, relying on pathos to get the message across. It is told by the standpoint of a woman who was in love with Edward and is recounting her time with him to her granddaughter.

A recurring theme in Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands is the idea that external appearances do not define a person’s internal value. Edward is found in a big, black, and spooky house that greatly contrasts the seemingly perfect suburban neighborhood it is in. Upon closer inspection of the house, however, we see that the gardens are filled with vibrant flowers and intricate hedge sculptures. The same idea is revisited when we meet Edward himself, who is clothed in all-black attire which evokes both the horror genre and the steampunk aesthetic. Regardless of his appearance, his innocence and kind-heartedness are immediately obvious. The opposite is seen with another character named Jim, who is a manifestation of one’s compliance with external and superficial values, yet, ironically, is truly the story’s biggest villain.

An obvious display of this theme is found in the color contrasting seen with the houses. All the bright and vibrant houses are homes to the most conceited and self-centered of people. They are all about appearances. They want to appear perfect to everyone they encounter. So they trim their lawns and pay excessive amounts of money to keep their gardens and hair maintained. And they live off of the gossip that they can spread when someone’s façade peels away even the slightest bit. So when Edward shows up, all the neighborhood women naturally get together and gossip. However, when they discover the talents that Edward possesses — his fabulous hedge trimming and interesting hairstyling — he earns a new popularity with the neighbors. This shows their need for material things because Edward was the same person the whole time, but they only came to appreciate him when they discovered a potential use for him.

Second, we see the internal versus external contrast in the character of Ed himself. He has a pale face and unruly black hair. He is wearing an all black outfit with chains and buckles all on the outside. And of course the obvious, he has scissors for hands. He looks like a dark character. One that should be a villain or a monster. We see in the beginning of the film that a Christian neighbor treats him as such. She says that she sees the devil inside him. This is because he wears an unusual body and attire. Regardless of the external appearance, Edward has the biggest heart. He is constantly seen sacrificing for others. He gives up his time to trim hedges and hair of people over and over again for free. He goes to jail after being tricked into committing a robbery and doesn’t place any blame on those who tricked him. After falling in love with Kim, Peg’s daughter, he goes to extreme lengths to make sure that she is safe. And he constantly is giving up his own self-interests to please others. So needless to say, his dark and macabre appearance is not a representation of who he really is.

It comes as no surprise that Jim, the film’s most abhorrent character and biggest villain, is a perfect embodiment of the movie’s irony. As the handsome, athletic, wealthy, all-American boy, he fits in perfectly with the external standards that prevail in Suburbia. When we first meet him he is Kim’s boyfriend, and, initially at least, we have no reason to doubt that he is anything less than a good person and boyfriend. Yet very quickly, with each new encounter we have with him, his true nature begins to reveal itself. After taking advantage of Edward’s innocence and ignorance by recruiting him for a robbery, Jim immediately abandons him to deal with the legal consequences involved. He is completely remorseless in this decision, as it’s clear that Edward, for him, is merely a pawn to be controlled and manipulated. Later, as Edward is carving an ice sculpture he accidentally injures Kim, which Jim sees. Instead of taking any time to listen to Kim as she pleads with him, he responds aggressively and brashly, attempting to banish Edward. He is extremely possessive and controlling of Kim, dictating at every step of the way how she must behave and with whom she can associate. At the film’s conclusion, we see Jim’s truly violent side come out, as he attempts to kill Edward, and, in the process shows himself perfectly willing to attack Kim as well. He shows himself to be the perfect opposite to Edward’s frightening exterior and innocent inside. While he appears, on the outside, to fit perfectly into society, he is controlling, manipulative, greedy, violent and altogether evil on the inside.

To conclude, the idea that internal and external definers are completely separate and unequal forms of judgement is the main theme of Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands. The reason that this theme was brought into the film was for the same reasons that Frankenstein or Beauty and the Beast were made: to show that what you look like isn’t an accurate representation of who you are and that the true monsters are found within. Societal standards love to tell us that we are only as good as our appearance says we are and stories like Edward Scissorhands exist to stand as proof that such is in fact false. At the end of the day, to find our true worth we need to see more than the skin deep layers. People are so much more than what one might initially think.