Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1578 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-11-27
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Edward Scissorhands achieves the nearly impossible feat of capturing the delicate flavour of a fable or fairy tale in a live-action movie. The story follows a young man named Edward (Johnny Depp), who was created by an inventor (Vincent Price, in one of his last roles) who died before he could give the poor creature a pair of human hands. Edward lives alone in a ruined Gothic castle that just happens to be perched above a pastel-coloured suburb inhabited by breadwinning husbands and frustrated housewives straight out of the 1950s. One day, Peg (Dianne Wiest), the local Avon lady, comes calling. Finding Edward alone, she kindly invites him to come home with her, where she hopes to help him with his pasty complexion and those nasty nicks he's given himself with his razor-sharp fingers. Soon Edward's skill with topiary sculpture and hair design make him popular in the neighbourhood--but the mood turns just as swiftly against the outsider when he starts to feel his own desires, particularly for Peg's daughter Kim (Winona Ryder). Most of director Tim Burton's movies (such as Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice and Batman) are visual spectacles with elements of fantasy but Edward Scissorhands is more tender and personal than the others. Edward's wild black hair is much like Burton's, suggesting that the character represents the director's own feelings of estrangement and co-option. Johnny Depp, making his first successful leap from TV to film, captures Edward's child-like vulnerability even while his physical posture evokes horror icons like the vampire in Nosferatu and the sleepwalker in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Classic horror films, at their heart, feel a deep sympathy for the monsters they portray; simply and affectingly, Edward Scissorhands lays that heart bare. --Bret Fetzer

On the DVD: Tim Burton is famed for his visual style not his ability as a raconteur, so it's no surprise to find that his directorial commentary is a little sparse. When he does open up it is to confirm that Edward Scissorhands remains his most personal and deeply felt project. The second audio commentary is by composer and regular Burton collaborator Danny Elfman, whose enchanting, balletic score gets an isolated music track all to itself with his remarks in-between cues. Again, for Elfman this movie remains one of his most cherished works, and it is a real musical treat to hear the entire score uninterrupted by dialogue and sound effects but illuminated by Elfman's lucid interstitial remarks. Also on the disc are some brief interview clips, a "making of" featurette and a gallery of conceptual artwork. The anamorphic widescreen print looks simply gorgeous. --Mark Walker

Video Description
DVD Special Features

1.85:1 ratio enhanced for 16:9 widescreen TVs
Dolby Digital 4.0 Surround
Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired

Synopsis
In Tim Burton's EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, a suburban fairy tale with incredibly imaginative sets, an Avon lady, Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest), discovers the half-finished experiment--a man/monster named Edward (Johnny Depp)--of a mad scientist (played magically by Vincent Price) living in the neighborhood's old abandoned castle. The scientist died before replacing the shy man's large shears with real hands. When Peg attempts to bring Edward into her suburban world, to live among her skeptical family (husband Alan Arkin and daughter Winona Ryder) and gossipy neighbors, his hands--dangerous yet capable of creating things of great beauty--make for some awkward, funny, and poignant situations: Edward as a topiary gardener, Edward as a cutting-edge hair stylist. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS is a story about tolerance, difference, and creativity as much as it is a story of a young man's coming of age (the young man in question is, of course, a monster). In the ironically surreal world of Edward's suburban community, he must try to find his place in it, and in the world at large.

Customer Reviews

One of those films you'll be thinking about for days afterwards
This film is odd. Think of Desperate Housewives. Think of Pinnochio. Think lame love triangle. Think tortured genious. Then mix in Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, and you've got yourself an incrediby moving film you just won't be able to get out of your head for days afterwards. I don't know enough about this film to give it full justice in a review, but I will say that I put off watching this film for many years, and probably would have for many years more had my friend not leant me the DVD, and that's a choice I highly regret. A must see film for everybody, yes it's odd, quirky + off-beat but it's humour and heart and also undeniable. Excellent.

Touching story and a classic Johnny Depp
This tells the touching story of Edward Scissorhands. Edward was originally a chopping machine, which an inventor used as the template for turning into a human. However, the inventor died before the final part of Edward could be made, his hands. As a result, Edward was left with his original chopping scissors instead of hands, and lived in the inventor's castle all alone. That was until a chance call by a door to door saleswoman, who took pity on Edward, and took him into town to live with her family.

Despite initially startling the townspeople, Edward quickly wins their affection. He provides free hair cuts, free hedge trimming and free dog grooming, something he is naturally suited to give, and quickly becomes a local celebrity. However, one person who does not warm to him is the boyfriend of the family daughter he lives with. The boyfriend routinely teases Edward, and resents the soft spot his girlfriend has for Edward. He also accuses Edward of causing trouble, and Edward's naivety and social clumsiness from years living alone in the castle makes him unable to counter these attacks. This leads to dramatic consquences.

The acting is extremely good. Johnny Depp was arguably made by this role, and it is impossible not to be moved by Edward's tenderness and timidness. Also, a young Winona Rider makes an appearance, as the daughter of his adopted family. The sound track is haunting, and the film has a real Tim Burton "feel" to it, especially the scenes in the inventor's castle. Fans of Nightmare Before Christmas will readily recognise this!

The film does not have any major weaknesses, although the brutish boyfriend is very dull and one dimensional and at times not very believable. The films premise is also built on a fairy tale, and some viewers may find this lack of "realism" and plausibility detracts from the film. There is some blood as well, often caused by Edward accidentally scratching himself or other people, so squeamish viewers be warned!

All in all, the film is strongly recommended.

I LOVE THIS FILM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When I first saw a trailer for this film, I thought it looked quite scary. Even so, when I found it in my local video shop, I rented it. I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO wrong about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is not scary at all!! In fact, it is the exact opposite.
My favourite scene of all in the film has to be the scene where Kim is dancing and Edward is creating the ice Angel.
When I saw this film, it immediately went to the top of my list of favourite films, it is that good. I still watch it and every time it makes me laugh and cry without fail.
If anyone says it is a bad film, well, they're MAD!!!!!
If you haven't seen it yet, WATCH IT!!!!!!!!