Dupuis: Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow

The film Sleepy Hollow by Tim Burton takes the original short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” by Washington Irving and puts a new spin to it, well, a few spins to it. I like both versions of the story of Ichabod and the headless horseman. I think Burton takes the elements of the story individually and creates a whole new story with those elements. He takes the character of Ichabod Crane and gives him a back story that we do not get in the story, which I like. By changing that Ichabod’s mother was a witch and that she died before his eyes, it created a whole new story for that character. In the story we assume that Ichabod had a normal childhood considering there is no special attention given to it in the story. He creates a Batman-like character by adding the element of Ichabod’s mother dying before his eyes in his vivid dreams of his mother. After that he clings to science and technology. There has to be a logical explanation for everything, and there is a reason behind everything. Those are two philosophies of the two characters: Batman and Ichabod. They are both absent of greed, which is unlike the character of Ichabod from the short story, because they know what greed does to the soul.

In the short story, it is not stated directly if Ichabod was in fact chased by the headless horseman, and whether or not the horseman even exists, which I like. But I like Burton’s version of this legend better. He made the horseman real, but he is controlled by someone else, a soul greedy for vengeance. I like how Burton incorporated Irving’s original idea of the greedy soul in the villain, giving the horseman a greedy soul also. The themes of the short story are still there, just in different ways. Both stories have a happy ending, in which the unclean soul is expelled and the people of Sleepy Hollow live on in peace. I do not think Burton just uses the character names to enhance a horror story because the themes of story are still there, just in a different way that, I think, is more accessible to film. If Burton would have kept the original plot the movie would not be as enjoyable I think because I feel the main character is flat. He does not seem to change in the story whereas in the film he leaves Sleepy Hollow with a new outlook on the supernatural and love seeing as he falls in love with the beautiful Katrina Van Tassel, and not for her money.