A genre is a used to understand the
signs and content of a story for the purpose of building an audience. It is a
type or category in which television, film, literature, etc. can be grouped
into.
The question posed to me was “What
is my favorite genre film?” I would say that my answer to this question is
“Edward Scissorhands” as a favorite of the modern fantasy film genre.
The concept alone is a fantasy. An
inventor dies before his creation, a young man with scissors for hands, is
finished, leaving him to live alone in a castle in the suburbs. The creation,
Edward, is brought to live in the suburbs by the local Avon lady and Edward
attempts to adapt to normal life. However, Edward’s inability to do so leads to
disaster and his eventually having to return to the castle to live alone.
The film is original and different,
while incorporating many of the common tropes we find in the fantasy film. We
have familiar characters with the young hero, Edward, the old mentor/Father
figure to the hero, The Inventor (played by the late, great Vincent Price) and Kim,
the beautiful girl that he falls in love with.
Fantasy films often involve a quest
of some sort. The hero has a goal and that goal tends to become the focus of
the movie. Edward may not look to be a not heroic knight on a quest, but his
goal is to win the love of Kim. In the end he takes on this role, winning the
love of the fair maiden and saving her life.
Of course, with this being a Tim
Burton film (and one of the first to showcase his unique and distinct style)
the settings and characters of this film are over the top and fantastical. I adore
the juxtaposition of the dark, lonely expressionistic castle on the hill
against the cookie cutter, pastel-colored Floridian suburbs. The sets featured
in the “real world” are so fantastically exaggerated that they are as fantastic
as the castle where Edward was created in.
“Edward Scissorhands” is one of my
all-time favorite films and my favorite film of the fantasy genre. It plays with
tired conventions and modernizes them, makes them fresh. I love this film and
it inspires me to learn more about fantasy as a genre.
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