People around the world are, thanks to Hollywood, often more familiar with American than with their own nations’ literatures. Hollywood adaptations, however, tend to have very little in common with their literary source. This happened with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, 1820 short story by Washington Irving which is considered one of the earliest American literary classics and which was extremely loosely adapted in 1999 into Sleepy Hollow, horror film directed by Tim Burton.
The plot is set in 1799 and the protagonist is Ichabod Crane (played by Johnny Depp), New York police constable convinced that at the turn of new century law enforcement must apply modern methods based on science. His superiors aren’t enthusiastic about him and his ideas, so they are happy to send him to Sleepy Hollow, small town in upstate New York where local population became prey of vicious murderer that decapitates victims. When Crane inquires about possible suspects among town elders, he is much surprised to find that they believe that the perpetrator is Headless Horsemen, Hessian mercenary who apparently rose from Hell to restore his own head severed by townsfolk during Revolutionary War. Crane considers this a product of superstition and starts working hard to prove superiority of modern science to frightened people. But, soon Crane finds that some problems can be solved by science alone. One is the love he began to feel towards Katrina (played by Christina Ricci), daughter of town elder Balthus Van Tassell (played by Michael Gambon). The other is increasing evidence that the murderer actually isn’t from this world.
The original script for Sleepy Hollow was written by Andrew Kevin Walker, screenwriter made famous for his extremely dark thriller Se7en. Walker based his work on the idea of makeup effects master Kevin Yagher, who was supposed to direct the film. In the end, Paramount Pictures hired Tim Burton to direct and had British playwright Tom Stoppard rewrite the script, forcing Walker to disown his work. Burton, on the other hand, was very interested in turning Sleepy Hollow into combination of dark comedy and horror film like those made by British studio Hammer Films few decades ago (and whose star Christopher Lee briefly appears in cameo at the start of the film). Burton was also very keen to be reunited with Johnny Depp, actor with whom he had collaborated with some of his best films.
This time, however, Burton and Depp didn’t produce another classic. The main issue was Burton’s tendency to put style over substance and the script of Sleepy Hollow often suffers because of lack of balance between horror and humour. At times, the film is too infantile to work even as Gothic horror, while it is too bloody and disturbing to function as quirky comedy. Some glaring errors – like Crane’s bold claim that in 1800 begins new millennium – don’t help impression either. On the other hand, Burton, with the help of cinematographer Emanuel Lubezki establishes impressive look of the film, while English locations are put to good use in recreating late 18th Century America. Burton’s old associate Danny Elfman also provides another good music score. The cast, led by always dependable Depp, is also very good. Christine Ricci, on the other hand, represents exception because of her lack chemistry with Depp. However, those viewers who don’t complain about lack of faithfulness in Hollywood adaptations of literary work or those who are fans of Burton’s work probably would probably like this film.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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