LITERAL REMAINS

How about we make it a Johnny Depp weekend?

I can still remember the first time I saw Sleepy Hollow.  Sitting in the movie theater, glued to the screen.  I had drug my girlfriend at the time to the theater; she was sick with bronchitis or pneumonia or something, so she really didn’t want to be there, but I tuned her out.  She may have slept during the movie, or passed out, that parts all a little fuzzy.  But I, I, was wide awake.  And loving every second of it.

Sleepy Hollow differs wildly from the original story by Washington Irving (which I recommend everyone read).  In this Tim Burton directed version of events, Ichabod Crane is a police constable working in 1799 New York City.  As he is studied in the latest scientific investigative techniques, he is sent to the little village of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of grisly murders.  Once there, he is confronted with a townspeople steeped in superstition, believing themselves cursed by the long dead hessian mercenary, killed during the Revolutionary War, who haunts the Western Woods.

Sleepy Hollow is a tour de force mystery.  It’s not scary, but it plays up its horror roots; it’s a Hammer film in overdrive.  And this is what it looks like in my head most times.  I love this movie.

Johnny Depp is, without a doubt, a great actor, there are numerous films to attest to that.  He is good as Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbeantrilogy, but watch him here.  He has subtle mannerism that flesh Ichabod out; he can be outlandish, but the little facial twitches, the slight looks, that really bring the character to life.

This is my favorite Burton film, so if you’ve yet to watch this movie, I ask you, I beg you, I plead with you…see it.  Just check out the supporting cast:  Christina Ricci, Jeffrey Jones, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Ian McDiarmid, Richard Griffiths, Michael Gough, and Christopher Walken.  That’s reason enough to see it right there.

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