O'Connell: Sleepy Hollow

Ichabod and his special glasses.

Burton takes certain elements from the story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and expands on them. He stretches it into a more substantial narrative, creating a completely new story in the process. Almost nothing is the same except for the setting and the names of the characters. Unlike the Ichabod Crane in the book, you know so much more about the Johnny Depp version of the character. Burton’s Ichabod has a tragic backstory that gives his character so much more dimension. By showing his mother’s gruesome demise and the reasons behind it you get a much more broad view of Ichabod’s character. Similar to Burton’s previous films, Ichabod is an orphan and this is an aspect that you do not even think about when reading the story. After witnessing this, Ichabod’s personality becomes so much more understandable. He relies on science and the rational mind because his mother was persecuted by the hands of his religious father. Depp’s character also becomes more relatable to audiences because you sympathize with his childhood. He is vastly different from the Ichabod in the story who is a superstitious and greedy man. Ichabod does not disappear at the end of the movie like he does in the story. Instead he is the hero who saves the day and gets the girl. This makes the film much more appealing to mainstream audiences who probably would have been disappointed if Katrina and Ichabod’s romance wasn’t expanded upon. (Like in the story) The Headless Horsemen remains a mystery in the story which hints the he may not even exist at all. In the film he is totally real and decapitates more than a few people. There wasn’t a single death in the original story which probably wouldn’t have made a very exciting movie. Another addition the film makes that wasn’t included in the story is the little boy who becomes Ichabod’s side kick. He has many qualities that Burton relates to because both of his parent’s lives are claimed while he is still a young boy. He becomes an orphan and a sort of outsider. This is probably what draws him to Ichabod, who is also an outsider with in the town of Sleepy Hollow.