What do Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas have in common? Christmas of course! Correction, that would be Xmas (or whatever Tim Burton wishes to call it). Is he just obsessed with getting presents? Maybe he enjoys cookies and milk... or maybe he just thinks Americans are missing the point of it.I have noticed the references to Christianity in Edward Scissorhands, such as the piercing of hands. Mr. Burton is definitely trying to tell us something.
In both movies, Time Burton shows the towns preparing for Christmas as if it is a commercial holiday, only meant for parties and getting presents. In The Nightmare Before Christmas the Halloween characters even change Christmas like it is nothing. Jack Skellington manages to recreate the holiday with a ghoulish twist, kidnaps Santa, gets the whole Halloween cast involved, and still fails miserably. Burton is trying to send a message to Americans with these films.
Nowadays, we see Christmas as a time in which the ground is white, we gather for parties and then receive presents on the 25th of December. Tim Burton points out how we have forgotten that the real meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our savior. Although the country may not share the same religion, the true meaning of Christmas has been tainted with media influence and has been lost as generations age. Burton is telling audience that it is not too late to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, we just need to change how we do celebrate now.
This past week, I viewed Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands. Besides the fact that the main character possessed scissors for hands, the film also had many strange aspects. The many bright colors, which would not normally be bright, made the town seem even stranger than it was. The town was so stereotypical, that all the men even left for work at the same time, while the women remained as a housewife. One of the main characters, Peg, actually goes out and has a job. Although she simply makes house calls for Avon, she still is outside the norm because she has a job.
In addition to having a job, Peg also dares to remove herself from the gossiping, and also goes outside her limits to visit the mansion on the hill. The other housewives work around the house, make food, gossip, and plan parties. Peg seems to be the only bright spot in the wolf pack (housewife group) as many of the others display an opinionated, and two-faced personality.
This may be the old way of American suburban life, but i do not think that this was the way when this film was made. The housewife life existed primarily in the 50's, 60's, and 70's, with many women becoming progressive around the time of this movie. Why would Burton make the town act like this? In my opinion, introducing an awkward character like Edward to a normal society would be less entertaining. Without wives home to see the activities of Edward, many scenes, including the barber shop scene, could not happen. Tim Burton intentionally made the neighborhood stereotypical to make the story better for the audience.
What makes Christopher Johnathan
James Nolan- director, writer, and producer- so special? Is it his thrilling,
thought-stimulating writing? Maybe it could be the producing and directing of
such masterful and downright incredible films? This may be my own opinion, but
the Internet Movie Database
has 6 of Nolan's films ranked in the top 250. The evidence is beginning to
stack up; Christopher Nolan makes some good movies. No, he makes great ones.
But what aspects make these so great?
One aspect Nolan's films is the
fact that they are very cerebral. Most plots are multi-layered, meaning more
than one at a time, the plot line is not chronological, and most of his movies
end without us really knowing what happened during the film. His movies make
the audience think, which means more can be gained from the film each time you
watch them. Pair this deep thinking with the action, shots he very specifically
uses, and audio to compliment visual aspects and you have got quite a film. The
most important filmmaking technique incorporated in his films is cross-cutting.
The changing of scenes very quickly builds much anticipation in the viewer.
In Inception and The
Prestige, Nolan shows his unorthodox plot line. The Prestige begins
with the end of the movie, and Inception also begins with a part of the
end of the movie. Both scenes seem to be irrelevant when you first begin to
watch, but as the movie progresses, the scene fits in perfectly and you then
experience an awesome Deja Vu moment.
If we take a deeper look at Inception,
we can see that there is much more to this movie
than meets the eye. We are not even sure what the movie is about. Leonardo
DiCaprio's character is supposed to be a dream thief, stealing ideas from
individual's subconscious. But how do we know for sure the movie is not just
one big dream? We never see the totem (tool for finding out if one is still
dreaming) come to rest or continue to spin. Christopher Nolan does this
purposely to invoke the mind of the viewers. To me, this aspect of filmmaking
makes the viewing very enjoyable.
The viewing of these films may be
enjoyable to me, but some people do not feel the same. Graeme McMillan of Time
wrote a very convincing
article about the pros and cons of Christopher Nolan. After reading, I can
tell where the author is coming from. A viewer must take up a good portion of
the day to watch one of Nolan's movies. But, I believe that is just part of the
Christopher Nolan experience.
The way Nolan makes films has
captivated many. Adam McKay, director of Anchorman, said, "The Dark Knight is the best superhero movie ever made. I've seen
others that try to get all real, and they strip away the fun and the mythology.
And then I've seen movies that go too far towards the cartoon aspect. But
Nolan, with mathematical precision, blended the two. The way he shoots is such a
throwback, and yet so modern. He's using old-fashioned techniques with modern
ideas. Amazing."In reference to the batman
movies, they truly are the best superhero movies. Nolan simply adds the
cerebral aspect to movies that involve beating the pulp out of another man.
Miraculously, this comes out to be excellent.
Fans and critics alike compliment Nolan on the
batman movies, but what does he say about them? After sifting through
interviews, I cannot truly find one that shows his talents as a filmmaker. I
then looked a little deeper, and found this compilation.
Either being humble or just
secretive, Nolan never seems to give away any of his secrets to his success.
After seeing this video, you can almost delve into the mind of Christopher
Nolan, and what he envisions as film excellence.
With Nolan's viewpoints on his
films being so hard to find, we can now turn to what he says through his
characters. In all of his movies, the characters seem to make the movie. The
action and the cerebral aspects of his films do add an important dimension, but
the characters really make it pop. Working with mostly the same cast in all of
his films, Nolan can develop roles and be confident that his actors will fill
them with no problem. In my opinion, the most notable characters in his films
would be: The Joker, Bane, and Dom Cobb. In their respective films, the
characters add a new twist to the movie. The Joker is an unstoppable force of chaos;
Bane is a physical, malevolent character who adds a threat to batman; and Dom
Cobb, who's relatively unknown past factors in frequently to the plot of Inception,
adding something entirely new for the audience to think about. The movie
posters following show the importance of each character to the plot of the
films.
I believe his
characters truly do speak what is on Nolan's mind. Not so much the chaos
aspect, but how much he delves into each of his films, creating a deeper
meaning. For example, in The Dark Knight, The Joker says, "Madness
is a lot like gravity; all you need is a little push." To me, this shows
how an action movie, like Batman, can be turned into much more than fighting
scenes. This is a credit to Nolan's film making skills- an action film combined
with a slant on society as a whole, saying chaos does live within every day life.
Inception's
plot is all about dreams and ideas, just for entertainment right? Not exactly.
It is hard to pinpoint the exact reasoning behind the film, but the plot
definitely plays to one of our most vulnerable areas: sleep. One effect of
seeing this film is wondering: could this happen to me? Nolan is playing to the
audience's senses, and doing a pretty good job. Quotes by characters such as
Dom Cobb saying: "What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus?
An intestinal worm? An idea." Really gets the viewer thinking about what
they are watching. I know for myself, Inception was about the first
movie that blew my mind right after I watched it for the first time.
In
a nutshell, Christopher Nolan appeals to audiences. His perfectly executed
action scenes, his cerebral aspect to each film, and his incredible story lines
and characters make for simply amazing movies. His films seem to go the extra
mile, and add more to a movie than what audiences are expecting. Nolan’s films are definitely much more than I ever
expected, especially with a superhero movie. I can honestly say I will go see
the new superman movie, just because Christopher Nolan is the director. So, what
sets Nolan apart from others? Other directors want to be like him. His approach
to filmmaking is so different than the normal. Adding twists and turns at any
point (especially the endings), making the audience think about what they are
watching, appealing to the senses of viewers, creating characters and stories
that will be topics of discussion for many years after the movie debuts, and,
of course, throwing in some action scenes that blow you away. Christopher Nolan
truly sets the bar, in my opinion, for movie making.
The Great Danton, portrayed by Hugh Jackman, believes he has the greatest trick ever. Enhanced by the inventions of Nikola Tesla, Angiers (Danton's real name) was able to duplicate himself. Every time he duplicated himself, the Angiers that went into the machine was dumped into a water tank, and then drowned. But the question is: did this technology exist at the time?
During the late 1800s, Nikola Tesla was seperated from Thomas Edison, who was now his arch nemesis. Experimenting in New York City and Colorado Springs, Tesla was working Alternating Current. He also believed that electric current could travel through the air or ground to power electrical items. In The Prestige, we see this as the field of light bulbs placed in the ground that light up on command. The bulbs are not connected to a socket, and according to Tesla's assistant, the generator is several miles away.
Tesla, classically known as a mad scientist, was working on wireless transmissions and even a lighting machine while in Colorado Springs. These experiments required large amounts of electricity, which, when released, caused many strange things to happen around the city. What movie goers saw in the film was Tesla's "magnifying transmitter". This device created huge arcs of electricity, in hopes of transmitting it to other places without the use of wires.
Taking these facts into account, we can almost be certain that this machine that he supposedly made for Angiers did not truly exist. However, Tesla was a very sheltered man in his later years, and did a lot of strange things. Nikola Tesla could have created a duplicating device, just not likely in the time of Angiers.
