Edward Scissorhands

The story of Edward Scissorhands was intended to be much more than your average meaningless film. It is a story that intends to display the problems of today’s society from an outsider’s point of view. Furthermore, the film portrays how society judges others based on appearance and puts the reality second. Tim Burton, the director of the film, develops upon this point, as it is a crucial theme in the film, and exposes the viewer to the true consequences of the bias judgment that occurs in our society. Edward Scissorhands also presents the conformity and social normality that society has been adopted. Tim Burton establishes Edward as an outsider who is physically, socially and sub-culturally very different from the rest of the community in the stereotypical suburban area. Edward lives in a distant mansion, resembling the Gothic architecture located on a mountain that is severely detached from the society surrounding him (and is made clear through camera angles), and his home is Gothic, haunting and features a darker palette of colours, unlike the other houses in suburbia that are presented in mid-shots as colourful, but also similar and never-changing. His physical detachment from society parallels his social isolation as he is marginalized on the bias judgment brought upon by his physical appearance and his disabilities. He is consistently polarized between social conventions and himself, and the pronounced differences are evidently outlined without any attempts made to disguise or deny the anomaly. For example, when Edward enters society in all of his differences in colour to emotions or reactions, Edward’s differences are exposed directly to the viewer. It is put squarely to the viewer that Edward is an outsider that has been marginalized and has been made an alien in the generalized society’s assessment of Edward. During panoramic shots of the garden of Edwards manor, we are shown his creative talents, whilst maintaining the theme of his differences,