Choi Edward Scissorhands

The world today is full of violence that comes in many different forms. People exercise violence against other people not only in real life, but also through Internet, phone and other means of telecommunication. Because modern technology made the world more connected as a whole than ever, it has become that much easier for people to abuse such connectivity and exhibit violence against others. It seems, in these modern days, that people are being violent just for the sake of being violent, without much sense of purpose or morality involved.

Tim Burton did an excellent job at criticizing such aimless, irrational violence of the contemporary world through Edward Scissorhands. Edward is abused and exposed to violence in several ways throughout the movie, being taken advantage of by people around him. Joyce used Edward’s innocence to sexually manipulate him, and Kim’s boyfriend, Jim abuses Edward’s exceptional lock picking skills to break into his own house, leaving Edward behind when the alarm went off.

Burton’s hatred for suburbia is also cleverly integrated into the movie. Although the neighborhood the story takes place in seems neat and clean on the outside, people are incapable of thinking or behaving independently, and blatantly follows what everyone else is doing, just like sheep in a herd. Such downside of suburbia is clearly portrayed in the scene where all the men goes golfing at the exact same time, with the exact same outfit and the exact same cars. The women in the town is very caught up with gossiping, with exception of the religious fanatic Esmeralda, and are easily manipulated by words of others because they don’t want to feel like they are falling behind, and they want to belong in a crowd. In other words, the residents of that neighborhood don’t like or want changes, and no one wants to be the odd one out.

Furthermore, Burton showed how contemporary technology could be abused to aid violence. Most of the women in the story are always on the phone gossiping and spreading words that might not necessarily be true, and later on the movie such misuse of telecommunication contributes to the widespread misunderstanding of Edward’s ‘misdemeanor’.

Shredding dat hair....!!

The town’s un-accepting attitude towards change and difference made Edward into a ‘monster’, and such reckless silent violence showed the audience that the only lesson that can be learnt from this contemporary violence is non-violence.