Sleepy Hollow Review
by Dennis Schwartz (ozus AT sover DOT net)November 28th, 1999
SLEEPY HOLLOW (director:Tim Burton; screenwriter: Andrew Kevin Walker/Kevin Yagher/based on the short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving; cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki; cast: Johnny Depp (Ichabod Crane), Christina Ricci (Katrina Van Tassel), Miranda Richardson (Lady Van Tassel/Crone), Michael Gambon (Baltus Van Tassel), Casper Van Dien (Brom Van Brunt ), Jeffrey Jones (Reverend Steenwyck), Christopher Walken (Headless Horseman), Richard Griffiths (Magistrate Philips), Christopher Lee (NYC Judge ), Marc Pickering (Young Masbeth), Michael Gough (Notary Hardenbrook), 1999)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A "Hollow-wood" production that couldn't be more hollow or Hollywood in style, and to its only benefit, is visually pleasing. It presents a classic mysterious aura about it through scenes of thick fog, horrid decapitations, and framed shots as if it was a period art picture coming off its frame and onto the screen. But the story, that's a different story; it is abominable. It is so ridiculous and incredulous that the filmmaker completely ruins Washington Irving's great short story. It is not the imaginative parable it was meant to be, but a story about a serial killer. So, you can forget the book, obviously Tim Burton did, that is if he ever read it. Here he throws away any imagination derived from the once (a very long time ago) popular book. In the late 1950s, the story's legend was common knowledge across most of America.
The film is not helped by a cast (I might add a rather talented cast of British and Americans) that are sleepwalking through their parts. The two stars, who have inane and unappealing and underwritten roles, and seem to be acting as if they have no idea of what they are saying or doing in this film, but seem to enjoy playing it up for the camera, while showing no chemistry for any romance to be deemed possible between them; which, without the two stars being credible performers, the film has little chance of succeeding.
This film has box office appeal as a date movie for the high school set, comforting each other as they snack on popcorn (which the theater owners will be largely appreciative of), and the teens, in all probability, will be reacting with bemused glee or mock horror to all the packets of ketchup unleashed during the Headless Horseman's romp through the Sleepy Hollow of 1799. Who else this movie should appeal to, is not for me to judge. But, when the audience leaves the theater, no harm is done, this is a totally forgettable film. There is no need to worry about nightmares over the gratuitous violence seen. This one is so obviously just a movie, that it can't even begin to match the book for its eloquence and the great manner of the book's very germane writing style, that is both lucid and thought provoking. If anything good can be said about this film, it would be that it brings back to the public's attention the forgotten writer Washington Irwing, someone who knew how to craft a ghost story back in the turn-of-the-19th-century and is still very readable. It's just too bad that a good movie couldn't result from such an accessible work.
It's best to forget about this movie as in any way connected with the novel, the only thing that seems to jive is the time period, the location, and the character called Ichabod Crane (Depp). But this time Crane is a constable, leaving NYC on orders from his superiors to hunt down a serial killer by using his innovative Sherlock Holmes-like logical detection methods, which are not appreciated by the local police authorities in NYC. So Crane is not the schoolteacher and choirmaster, as he was depicted in the book. From here on, the movie is off on its own tangent, playing havoc with the story. Katrina Van Tassel (Christina Ricci), the wealthy daughter of the local farmer, will be Crane's love interest, though she already has a suitor in the brave but chillingly jealous Brom Van Brunt (Casper Van Dien). In the book, the Headless Horseman is imaginary. It is Brom, who dresses up as one to frighten the naive Ichabod away from his rich and attractive woman, and it is the only way the story can make sense. In the movie the Horseman is real, and the story becomes a vulgar mystery with some inept attempt to bring in an air of magical mystery to it, and it almost completely ignores the romantic rivalry between the two suitors, which was at the heart of Irving's story.
The town fathers, Reverend Steenwyck (Jones), Magistrate Philipse (Griffiths), Notary Hardenbrook (Gough), and including the now wealthiest resident of Sleepy Hollow, Baltus Van Tassel (Michael Gambon), the father of Katrina, married to her stepmother, Lady Van Tassel (Miranda). All the town fathers believe the previous 5 murders to be the work of a legendary Headless Horseman who haunts the area, but the skeptical Crane scoffs at this. It is only after he sees for himself that this is true that he decides there is a motive behind these serial murders, they are not random acts of violence.
Tim Burton ("EDWARD SCISSORHANDS"/" ED WOOD"/"Mars Attacks!"/"Batman") has succeeded in robbing the story of anything but a cursory look at Irving's story. How a film could go so far afield, is not unusual for Hollywood, but in this case the film has gone too far afield from the story to even claim it is based on the book. Burton has made a story about a headless horseman who lives inside a tree trunk and is controlled by a twisted person who uses him to commit murders that will benefit their cause, but he has miserably failed to capture the imagination the story requires in its storytelling.
I would suggest reading the short story (about 40-pages) before or after seeing the film, and then see what you think of the film. I read the book after the film and am grateful that it called Washington Irving to my attention, again. Otherwise, I can't say enough bad things about the film's crass aim to take away the imagination of the story and replace it with not one shred of what Irving was after in his ghost story about romantic jealousy but here becoming a story about jejune classical horror images and a tacked on banal murder story. I'll admit, the movie looked good, better than most horror movies I might have raved about, but even with all the gory murders taking place and an excuse for a who-done-it movie evolving, a tedium set-in and the film seemed to lack suspense, breath and dimension; and, like a beautiful person without much else, what else can you say that is complimentary after you say, you look good!
REVIEWED ON 11/24/99 GRADE: D
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
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