Edward Scissorhands 25th Anniversary

When Tim Burton’s film Edward Scissorhands came out twenty five years ago, it was a modest critical and commercial success. Critics praised its gentle, fable-like quality and the chemistry between its leads – the it girl of the day Winona Ryder and an up-and-coming TV actor making the leap to mainstream film named Johnny Depp. It was only Burton’s fourth film, and certainly a departure from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Batman. With 25 years worth of perspective now, it’s easy to see that Edward Scissorhands was filled with all sorts of important firsts and lasts. 

 

Most notably, it was the first collaboration between Burton and his go-to male lead of choice, Johnny Depp. Prior to working together on this film, the only thing Burton knew about Depp was that he has been a teenage heartthrob on the late eighties tv show, 21 Jump Street. Since 1990, the two have worked together on seven more films that have included everything from animation and a Broadway adaptation to a behind the scenes Hollywood bio pic and a couple of remakes of earlier films and tv shows. They are like a gothic Scorcese and DeNiro or Woody Allen and Diane Keaton with black lipstick. They seem to continue to inspire each other, even if the results of their collaborations aren’t always successful. Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood are both great films. Dark Shadows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow? Not so much. 

 

Besides bring the beginning of his collaboration with Burton, Edward Scissorhands was also Depp’s first starring role in a mainstream Hollywood movie. He had a bit role in Nightmare on Elm Street and a lead role in John Waters’ little seen Cry Baby, but this was the first big screen role people would actually see. It began a period of Depp wanting to resist the lure of studio Hollywood while still wanting to be in movies. Depp wanted to be a serious actor and regularly turned down roles in action movies and straightforward love stories because they were too conventional. It wasn’t until Pirates of the Carribean that he truly embraced big budget Hollywood and with a fifth installment of that franchise in the works, it would appear Depp is ready to ride that particular horse into the ground. But before he was Captain Jack, he first was Edward.

 

Another significant element of the film is that it was the final big screen appearance of Hollywood great, Vincent Price. Price has a cameo as the mad scientist who brings Edward to life but then dies before he’s able to finish him, leaving him, obviously, with scissors for hands. Price made his big screen debut in 1938 and worked consistently on tv and in films until the early 90s. His final appearance as a brilliant but misunderstood creator was a fitting final role for someone who been a leading man, a character actor, a voiceover artist, a chef, an art collector, and a dozen other things. Often Price is associated with just the low-rent Roger Corman horror films he did in the 60s, but there was much more to him than that. Edward Scissorhands is important for being the home to his final role if nothing else.

Tim Burton’s films are very hit and miss. Many of them just seem like exercises in style with herky jerky storytelling and thin characters. But when he gets it right like he did with Ed Wood, Big Fish, and Edward Scissorhands, he achieves a dreamy, quirky fairy tale quality that’s both memorable and lovely. Edward Scissorhands is probably his best film and still holds up after all these years. Check out the new 25^th anniversary version available on Blu Ray now.