Sleepy Hollow

In this adaptation of Washington Iving's novel The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Johnny Depp plays the smart yet skidish Constable Ichabod Crane. The movie starts out at the turn of the 19th century on the streets of New York City where Ichabod, who is not appreciated for his scientific theories of examining the dead, is commissioned to go to Sleepy Hollow and solve a course of murders there. When he arrives he heads to the Vantassel's house and meets Katrina Vantassel, a love interest. The mystery begins here in this small where Ichabod will have to face some of his childhood fears and witness the evil doings of a headless horseman. Tim Burton brings this small Dutch town to life as well as bringing this classic legend alive.

Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" begins with a story that would not have distinguished one of the lesser films from the Hammer horror franchise and elevates it by sheer style and acting into something entertaining and sometimes rather elegant. It is one thing to see a frightened lawyer being taken for a ride in a carriage by a driver who has lost his head along the way. It is another to see the carriage bouncing down roads that have been modeled on paintings from the Hudson River School. This is the best-looking horror film since Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula."

It is not, however, titled "Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow," perhaps because the story has been altered out of all recognition from the Irving classic. Perhaps not. No power on earth could persuade me to reread the original and find out. What it depends upon is Burton's gift for bizarre and eccentric special effects, and a superb performance by Johnny Depp, who discards everything we may ever have learned or thought about Ichabod Crane and starts from scratch.

Depp plays Crane at the "dawn of a new millennium," he says, confusing the roll-over of 1799 to 1800 with the transition from the 1000s to the 2000s. It is time to discard the barbaric torture of the past, he believes, and bring the legal system up to date with improved methods of investigation and justice. He sees himself as a detective of the new order, and a New York judge, impatient with his constant interruptions, banishes him to the upstate hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, where there has been an outbreak of decapitations. Let him practice forensics there.

As Crane journeys north, the movie casts its visual spell. This is among other things an absolutely lovely film, with production design, art direction and cinematography that create a distinctive place for the imagination. Not a real place--hardly a shot looks realistic, and some look cheerfully contrived--but a place in the mind. I loved the shot where mist extinguishes the torches that have been lit by the night watch.

Burton's Sleepy Hollow is a dour place, the houses leaning together for support, the shutters slammed against newcomers. There is never a sunny day here. The faces of the village fathers are permanently frozen into disapproval. And the body count is mounting, while the head count stays at zero. The Horseman, it appears, not only decapitates his victims, but takes their skulls with him. "The heads were not found by the bodies?" exclaims Ichabod after his briefing on arrival. "The heads were not found--at all!" says a village elder. Another snarls: "Taken! By the Headless Horseman! Taken--back to hell!"

We meet some of the locals. Old Baltus Van Tassel (Michael Gambon), richest of the burghers. His comely daughter Katrina (Christina Ricci) and her shapely stepmother Lady Van Tassel (Miranda Richardson). And other local citizens, including one played by Jeffrey Jones, who always seems to be regarding us dubiously from above, at an oblique angle. The magistrate (Richard Griffiths) seems to know a good deal, at one point whispering to Crane that there are "four graves--but five victims!"

Crane dismisses it all as a case of superstition. He comes equipped with cases full of bizarre instruments of his own invention, including a set of eyepieces that make him look like the optometrist from hell. It becomes clear fairly quickly, however, that Ichabod is stronger on theory than practice, and has not much stomach for disinterring bodies, performing autopsies or examining wounds. One head was "cut off--and the wound cauterized!" he exclaims, looking a little sick to his stomach. The locals explain that the Horseman's sword was forged in the fires below.

Johnny Depp is an actor able to disappear into characters, never more readily than in one of Burton's films. Together they created Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood, and now here is an Ichabod Crane who is all posture and carefully learned mannerism, attitude and fastidiousness. It's as if the Horseman gallops ahead in a traditional horror film, and Depp and Burton gallop right behind him in a satire. There's a lot of gore (the movie deserves its R rating), but it's not mean gore, if you know what I mean--it's gore dictated by the sad fate of the Headless Horseman.

The ending is perhaps too traditional. We know the requirements of the genre absolutely insist on struggle between Crane and the Horseman, followed by an explanation for his strange rides, and harsh justice for those who deserve it. Burton at least does not linger over these episodes, or exploit them; he's too much in love with his moody setup to ruin the fun with final overkill. The most astonishing thing for me about the movie wasn't the Horseman anyway, but the fact that I actually found myself drawn into this old Classics Illustrated material--enthralled by a time and place so well evoked that the Horseman almost seemed natural there.

Note: No power on earth could drag from me the identity of the unbilled actor who plays the Horseman when he has a head. But you will agree he is the only logical choice.

Johnny Depp reportedly based his portrayal of Ichabod Crane on Withnail, from Withnail and I (1987), as played by Richard E. Grant.

The scene where Ichabod Crane crosses the covered bridge and hears the frogs underneath croaking "Ichabod" and "Headless Horseman" is a tribute to Disney's 1949 animated version of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (featured in Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, The (1949)), in which Ichabod Crane, crossing a bridge, hears the frogs croaking the same words. Director 'Burton, Tim' , a former Disney animator, has cited the Disney version of the tale as his main inspiration for the look and style of his film. The scene of Ichabod Crane riding the Horseman's horse backwards is also taken from the earlier film.

Christopher Walken, who plays the Headless Horseman, played a schoolteacher in Dead Zone, The (1983), in the beginning of which he tells his class to read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

The town Sleepy Hollow was created from the ground up in three months. Which is the largest set built, in England, which was built in record time. The last set that held this record was set in 1995 was Billy Elliot. It was built in 3 1/2 months.

The Horseman's horse is named Daredevil, the same name of Brom Bones' (Brom Van Brunt) horse in Irving's original short story.

In The 39 Steps (1935), the professor shoots Hannay in the chest, and it appears that he is dead. However, the bullet was stopped by a hymnbook in the breast pocket of the coat he was wearing. In Sleepy Hollow (1999), Ichabod is shot and saved in a similar manner; this time the bullet lodges in a book of magic spells.

The scarecrow in the scene where magistrate Phillips gets his head cut off by the headless horseman is Jack Skellington, from Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

Christopher Walken's character has no speaking lines, aside from a couple of "HAA"s to his horse and "shhhh."

When the Headless Horseman (portrayed by Ray Park) battles Brom Van Brunt (Casper Van Dien) near the covered bridge, the Horseman kills Brunt by cutting him in half at the waist. Ray Park also portrayed Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I, and was killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi by being cut in half at the waist.

According to Tim Burton, the opening shots of Peter Van Garrett were shot by Conrad L. Hall, who was a friend of the film's director of photography, Emmanuel Lubezki.

Although Tim Burton claims the windmill scene was a reference to Frankenstein (1931), a stronger link can be made to Will Hay's _Oh, Mr Porter! (1937)_ which also featured a windmill and but not a headless horseman.

The dress worn by Katrina Anne Van Tassel (Christina Ricci) in the last shot of the movie has the same pattern as Micheal Keaton's outfit in the climactic scene of Beetlejuice (1988) also directed by Tim Burton

Tim Burton and the crew of the movie built the small town Sleepy Hollow complete with rooms, floors, and stairs. The town was dismantled after filming was completed.

Walken often talked about Sleepy Hollow as his first movie with a kissing scene. But he already had one in _The Dead Zone (1983)_ ".

Star Johnny Depp adopted Goldeneye, the horse that played Gunpowder, Ichabod Crane's horse in the film, when he heard it was going to be put down.

The writer Tom Stoppard, as script doctor, did a uncredited re-write on the script.

At the start of filming the three-way axe battle, Casper Van Dien broke a thumb. Although extremely painful, he carried on without telling anyone as he didn't want his part cut short.

A mechanical horse, an updated model of one used in earlier films, was used for studio shots.

You can lock the doors. You can bolt the windows. But can you survive the night.

"Katrina, I might have killed you. Why have you come?"

Who will get Katrina's kiss?

What could come from a tree of the dead?

The mystery is slowly unveiling