Belonging in Edward Scissorhands
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- Date Submitted: 04/29/2016 05:11 AM
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Edward Scissorhands
Tim Burton’s 1990 film, ‘Edward Scissorhands’ explores the notions of identity, embracing one’s uniqueness, social acceptance within their environment and relationships between characters. The film is based on an invented man named Edward who was left unfinished and isolated. Many techniques are used in all movies to subconsciously convey a message to us without directly telling it to us. They are able to achieve this by using a range of visual techniques such as lighting, camera angels, costuming and dialogue.
Costume: Contrast between black costume of Edward and bright costumes of the citizens in the town
Lighting: Contrast between Edward's dark castle and the bright, sunny town. The town in the movie seems quite peaceful: similar houses, similar cars and similar lifestyle of people - suggest that people in the town get along quite well... contrasted to Edward's castle which is out of place - It reveals the Belonging theme.
Belonging in Edward Scissorhands
Identity is a quality which requires an individual to go through an internal struggle and be able to balance between keeping their own personality and still be able to belong, resulting in conformity. This was demonstrated through the use of a long shot of Edward’s costume contrasting with the environment around him. The long shot establishes Edward’s dark apparel juxtaposed with the brightly coloured house, reinforcing his alienation in the community. However, Peg offers him ‘normal’ clothes to create a new identity allowing him to gain a sense of belonging in his environment. Furthermore, a medium shot of Edward’s reflection in the mirror reinforces the notion of forging of a new identity as a new beginning and a new life. ‘You look fine, just fine’ justifies that Edward is starting to being accepted into society. Belonging within a group creates your identity but it is challenged when the individual is too focused to conform and forgetting who they were. To belong, we need each...
Tim Burton’s 1990 film, ‘Edward Scissorhands’ explores the notions of identity, embracing one’s uniqueness, social acceptance within their environment and relationships between characters. The film is based on an invented man named Edward who was left unfinished and isolated. Many techniques are used in all movies to subconsciously convey a message to us without directly telling it to us. They are able to achieve this by using a range of visual techniques such as lighting, camera angels, costuming and dialogue.
Costume: Contrast between black costume of Edward and bright costumes of the citizens in the town
Lighting: Contrast between Edward's dark castle and the bright, sunny town. The town in the movie seems quite peaceful: similar houses, similar cars and similar lifestyle of people - suggest that people in the town get along quite well... contrasted to Edward's castle which is out of place - It reveals the Belonging theme.
Belonging in Edward Scissorhands
Identity is a quality which requires an individual to go through an internal struggle and be able to balance between keeping their own personality and still be able to belong, resulting in conformity. This was demonstrated through the use of a long shot of Edward’s costume contrasting with the environment around him. The long shot establishes Edward’s dark apparel juxtaposed with the brightly coloured house, reinforcing his alienation in the community. However, Peg offers him ‘normal’ clothes to create a new identity allowing him to gain a sense of belonging in his environment. Furthermore, a medium shot of Edward’s reflection in the mirror reinforces the notion of forging of a new identity as a new beginning and a new life. ‘You look fine, just fine’ justifies that Edward is starting to being accepted into society. Belonging within a group creates your identity but it is challenged when the individual is too focused to conform and forgetting who they were. To belong, we need each...