Reely Bernie Faves: Edward Scissorhands (1990)

I still remember seeing the trailer with my dad at the now gone Southbridge Theatre in Littleton, Colorado. A man with long, intimidating scissors for hands is welcomed into a neighborhood, falls in love with Winona Ryder, and tries not to slice the locals during the introductory handshake.

After the preview, my dad was quick to respond, “That looks stupid.”

I agreed.

Several months later, our opinions changed when we rented the film on VHS and found ourselves mesmerized by Director Tim Burton’s vision and Johnny Depp’s portrayal of outcast Edward Scissorhands. Both can only be described as hauntingly pulchritudinous.

Believe it or not, in 1990, no one really knew who Johnny Depp, aka Jack Sparrow, was. Burton just broke eccentric ground with Beetlejuice (1988), and Hollywood ground with Batman (1989) directly after. Winona Ryder turned down the role of Michael Corleone’s daughter in Godfather Part III (1990) to play Edward’s unlikely lover—a decision that would forever haunt Francis Ford Coppola.

My middle brother and I grew up on Tim Burton movies, starting with Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985). They’ve always been oddball style over substance, visual panache over screenplay, and weird over normal. If anything, they are consistently “Tim Burton.”

Edward Scissorhands is the Ugly Duckling story set in the pastel suburbs, pitting Edward’s topiary gardening and hair styling skills against the bullies of society. It’s also the perfect Christmas movie.

Aside from taking place during Christmas, there’s the monumental scene that won me over: Edward carves an angel out of an ice block with his scissors, shedding small snowy fragments over Winona as she dances in her backyard. Danny Elfman’s wondrous motif climbs to an apex, Winona smiles out of an unleashed innocence, and the darkness of the night doesn’t seem so dark anymore.

As with any Tim Burton film, it’s better to watch and listen than to analyze the oddball plot line. Rest in peace, Alan Arkin, who started his gruffly naive but lovable dad filmography with this one.

Edward Scissorhands would later be turned into an unfortunate musical parody, Winona has been revitalized through Stranger Things, Tim Burton is now a household director name among the greats, and Johnny Depp…

Who knows where his head has been for the last decade.

Perhaps Edward could help sew it back on.

Reely Bernie Faves:

1. Amadeus (1984)

2. Magnolia (1999)

3. Poltergeist (1982)

4. Pulp Fiction (1994)

5. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

6. The Godfather Part II (1974)

7. Weekend at Bernie’s (1989)

8. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

9. Goodfellas (1990)

10. Nosferatu (1922)

11. Pollock (2000)

12. Kicking and Screaming (1995)

13. Jaws (1975)

14. Fargo (1996)

15. Citizen Kane (1941)

16. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

17. The Endless Summer (1966)

18. Back to the Future (1985)

19. Angel Heart (1987)

20. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

21. The Goonies (1985)

22. Trainspotting (1996)

23. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

24. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

25. Bambi (1942)

26. The Paradise Lost Trilogy (1996-2011)

27. Psycho (1960)

28. Parenthood (1989)

29. Swingers (1996)

30. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

31. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

32. Smoke (1995)

33. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

34. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

35. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

36. City of God (2002)

37. 1917 (2019)

38. Black Swan (2010)

39. School of Rock (2003)

40. Mulholland Drive (2001)

41. Groundhog Day (1993)

42. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

43. The Greatest Showman (2017)

44. National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

45. The Florida Project (2017)

46. Cinema Paradiso (1988)

47. So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

48. Shadowlands (1993)

49. Steve Jobs (2015)

50. ¡Three Amigos! (1986)