More ear to tradition might have made it a masterpiece, but wonderful film

Rating: Null/10 (1 July 2000)

As a serious classical musician, I am an elitist. As a lover of old films and literature, not, but far from today's mainstream. That's why my opinion of this movie is different than most. Everbody talked about (and awarded) the art direction, visuals, style etc. But even though I was as mesmerized as anyone with how the film looked, how it looked wasn't what caused me to truly love this film, which I do.
The reason is that looks aren't everything. That is, the director succeded excellently with the extremely stylish/satirical film, Edward Scissorshands; but when I heard Burton was making Sleepy Hallow I thought, Hmmmmm... here's going to be a challenge. For this is a classic 19th century horror tale, therefore traditional methods of approach and application are necessary to accomplish respect for the story and attitudes of the period. In fact, the real satire here is reading the opinions of idiots who went to see Scissorshands II and were disappointed, as if a director should stay true to a narrow form in order to please the narrowminded of his fans.
This would be true if the director wasn't capable of broadening. But in Burton's case, he has proven himself quite capable of leaving the cult behind and achieving greater horizons. It's a matter of shedding one's stylistic trappings and allowing the rest of the crew, in this case the writers & actors, to shine. This was done and well to the director's credit.
But, there were moments when it was questionable if this was going to be achieved. That's why I frown when repeatedly hearing of the perfect fog effects, set designs etc. We have to pay respect to the director's special talent, but in this film we should also pay respect to how the director has evolved. In Burton's case here, it is a losing of contemporary jadedness/cynicism and a converse gaining of respect for traditional drama, literature and humane optimism.
We may wonder why the story was never before made in to a film? (perhaps it was, but never released) It certainly was worthy of the kind of treatment Yagher and Walker gave it here. On the other side of the muse, however, was a musical soundtrack that lacked the depth of earlier 20th century film compositions. Though Elfman is an extremely talented orchestral composer, one wishes for music more keenly related to Rachmaninoff's deeply subtle chromaticism, from which much of film music is derived. Indeed, the lack of a more deeply Hitchcockian psychological noir/drama is what keeps this film from reaching higher levels of dramatic quality.
The result is a combination of all the beautiful visuals of modern cinematography with a somewhat overly fast moving old English/New England styled horror/mystery story. That said, the question remains: Do we get the wonderful romantic/optimistic/intelligent characters so necessary to this old genre? Yes, we do! But most importantly, do we get the "feeling" that the detective is an intelligent hero such as Sherlock Holmes? Yes, again! Wonderfully cast, Depp draws us to his intelligence, human imperfections, rebellious/romantic verve, all the emotions that made the period such a wonderfully important time and place to be a scientific liberal, as in H.G. Wells, Thomas Huxley, Shaw etc. These names are from a later time, but that makes it even more exciting: In this story, Ichabod Crane is one of the first! For this was the dawn of the Romantic age, that spawned the great 19th century novel, the detective mystery, and of course Darwin. All of this is about to become the world while the superstition still haunted the age. It seems it was Crane's (Depp's) charge to lead in stamping out the old ignorance while bringing in the new intelligence. Meanwhile, it appears to have been Burton's job to constantly remind us that satanic evil persists; and all the while you're thinking, yes, those stick-like, black & white horror drawings of the period (the "Dear Dead Days" stuff) is what I love most about Burton's visual personality.
All of the great, intricate plotting of a classic mystery was utilized well and Crane/Depp became the kind of Sherlock Holmes detective hero that makes you want to see a sequel. I love the period, the detective mystery, the classic literature - but most of all I loved the scene when Crane says to Young Nesbath upon entering New York City (circa 1800) "You'll get your bearings soon enough. All you need to remember is that the Bronx is up, the Battery is down, and home is THIS WAY." That's the kind of hospitable homecoming we all need after a fortnight of head butchering.