The movie Big Fish (Burton 2003) is about the life of Edward Bloom (Ewan McGregor) as he told it. Edward is a charming story teller and everyone but his son loves his tall tales. It is a series of fairy tales about Edward as he grew up. The viewer also gets an insight into the personality of Edward’s son Will who is not enamored with these fanciful tales but wants to know the truth about his dying father’s life.
Overall this film follows Tim Burton’s signature style with a blurring of the line between fantasy and reality. However, unlike most of Burton’s films the underlying mood of the story light and comedic. It does not contain dark, gothic scenes and is more of a feel good movie. One of the darkest scenes in the movie is when the young Edward Bloom confronts an old witch who lives on the edge of town. In her glass eye the kids see how they were going to die. The scene is done in all low key lighting with eerie music and a close up on the “creepy” glass eye, but it fails to instill any sense of discomfort in the viewer as most of Burton’s horror scenes due because of the characters’ either comic fear or acceptance of the witch. To watch the youtube video of this scene go here (for some reason it has prohibited me from uploading the video directly).
Burton has a strong visual style and his images stick in the mind and help tell Edward’s fanciful stories better than the nearly constant narration. One that particularly sticks in my mind is when Karl (Matthew McGrory), a gentle giant that Edward helps find acceptance in society, and Edward are walking off to meet their destinies. The looming, but hunched over and awkward giant is juxtaposed sharply with the confident but much smaller Edward. Somehow they seem to be walking together in harmony as if they belonged with each other and the idyllic background. This picture encapsulates the relationship more than the narration could.
Burton also makes a reference back to his other movie Eduard Scissorhands (in addition to both main characters having the same name) with the town of Specter, a town that Edward accidentally stumbled across on his way to the city. This town is a lot like the city in Eduard Scissorhands with vibrant green lawns and a seemingly perfect small town life where everyone is happy and idyllic. Both Edward and Eduard are unable to find happiness there and move on, leaving behind one who loves them.
The film does include several typical Tim Burton themes like the child’s imagination of fantasy and horror. This particular theme is actually the basis for nearly the entire movie which includes such memorable scenes as a man turning into a fish, the stopping of time, and a werewolf. Also like a lot of Burton films it relies heavily on special effects. However it doesn’t include a central character that is ostracized from society and a dark and mysterious undertone as a lot of Burton films do. It also fails to answer or even to forcefully get the viewer to consider the question of what is better the truth or an exciting story?
Overall I agree with the film critique by Arran McDermott. The film takes a while to really get interesting, but once going it is very relaxed and a funny collection of tall tales. A lot of what the film relies on is the absurdity of the tales bringing a smile to the viewer’s face and this sense of surprise and disbelief may be lost on repeat viewings. However, I do believe that it is worth seeing at least once.
8 comments:
Even though there were many special effects, I felt that they didn't overcome the story. Instead, they seemed like a nice little footnote that helped the story make more sense.
Yeah, I agree with Drew. The special effects add a lot to the movie, and they're not cheesy or fake like a lot of special effects are in some movies. Burton definitely relies on them to portray his fantastic worlds. Is there any special theme/message portrayed by the special effects in this movie?
The special effects were used to enhance the fairy tales, and make them seem more real to the viewer. To me they seemed to represent that anything is possible as long as you are willing to believe. I agree with you, Drew that they were done expertly with the one exception of when Edward Bloom turns into a fish. I couldn't help but think how much like a rubber fish it looked... Overall though the special effects helped the viewer identify with the Edward Bloom over his son, even though most viewers would share similar opinions as Will if put in a similar situation.
I agree with Drew as well. This movie uses special effects in a way that helps you understand the emotions and thoughts of Edward through out the movie, rather than just being in the movie for the sake of being in the movie. I also agree with Sarah that they didn't come off cheesy and fake. To me, they were well done and didn't take away from the story and made it seem more real to me.
How do you think this movie fits in with the typical Tim Burton films? I thought that it captured the magical/surreal essence of his films very well, but seemed a lot more lighthearted than most of his films. Admittedly I am not an expert on Tim Burton's films, but Sweeney Todd showed more violence and had an overall pessimistic tone.
I think Big Fish was definitely fantastical at certain points, but perhaps less so than other Burton films. This movie still had reality in it, which, I think, most of his movies lack. Also, this film wasn't as dark as his other films. He used brighter colors in most cases and there was less violence and evil aspects. It is difficult to make any super significant observations because I'm also not an expert on Burton's style. Maybe someone else will be able to make a more significant statement.
Instead of taking place in a world completely seperate from ours such as in Sweeny Todd, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride, I felt that Big Fish showed us the exact same world that we live in, with just a few "exaggerations" that mirror those of Edward Bloom's stories.
I have to say that when I first watched Big Fish, I assumed since it was by Tim Burton that it would be a very dark comedy looking at the imperfections of people and the sort of gloomy aspects of life. But I was surprised when I viewed it. I really like the fact that while it did fall into that common Burton pattern of including fantasy with a part of reality, it was on a much more uplifting note. Not that I think all of his films are dark and depressing, but if you look at his others like sweeny todd, sleepy hollow, batman, etc., you can tell there is more of a happy theme to this movie than the others. He's definately works fantasy and happiness together well.
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