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| Johnny
Depp, Christina Ricci, Casper van Dien, Miranda Richardson,
Michael Gambon, Michael Gough, Christopher Walken |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Ichabod Crane: Did you move
the body?
Dr. Lancaster: Yes.
Ichabod Crane: You must NEVER move the body!
Dr. Lancaster: Why?
Ichabod Crane: [pauses to think] Because.
Constable Ichabod Crane travels to
the small town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate killings reputed
to have been committed by a headless horseman.
 After
the commercial failure of the brilliant Ed Wood and the funny
but messy and unpopular Mars Attacks!, things were starting
to look somewhat dire for gothic wunderkind Tim Burton. Audiences
and critics alike therefore must have heaved a deep sigh of relief
to see Sleepy Hollow not only receive respectable reviews,
but also become one of the major commercial hits of the year. And
while this may not be his finest work to date, it certainly displays
many of his unique talents to fine effect. The director's visual
panache and his predilection towards silliness and movie references
combine to make Sleepy Hollow an extremely enjoyable piece
of contemporary horror pastiche.
Christina Ricci once again forfeits an opportunity to prove herself
her generation's finest actress, but Johnny Depp shines in his third
Burton picture, striking a perfect balance between leading man and
wimpy fall guy. The various character actors strolling around are
sadly underused and serve mostly as window dressing, while Christopher
Walken makes the strongest impression in a silent but stunning cameo
performance. The whodunnit plot is rather too obvious, but can be
read as hommage to an old brand of horror movie, and isn't as jarring
as it could have been as Burton is clearly taking none of this at
all seriously. |
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Region 1 and Region 2 versions have
somewhat different covers but are otherwise identical.
 Emmanuel
Lebezky's gorgeous cinematography is stunningly rendered on DVD
in its original 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. The DVD image
does full justice to the award-winning production design, a brilliant
mix of soundstage footage and location work. The picture is intentionally
drained of color, making details like the red bird and blood droplets
virtually leap off the screen, and it is rendered with fine detail
and good deep black levels.
The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack offers a deep and wide soundstage for effects
work and Danny Elfman's magnificent score, creating a truly immersive
home theater experience.
The DVD is not presented as a Special
Edition, but comes with quite a few excellent special features that
add to the movie. First off, there's an audio commentary from director
Tim Burton. It's engaging but not exactly exciting, as Burton picks
up details he finds amusing and adds a lot of ironic undertones
to what's going on. He is almost apologetic about casting such fine
actors in what he refers to as 'a really bad Merchant Ivory movie',
'a dark Bonanza episode' and 'a Scooby Doo story'. Burton clearly
never took Sleepy Hollow all that seriously.
A 'making of featurette' is better than most, revealing how the
nifty special effects were done, and there are some interviews with
cast and crew about what they like about the movie that don't add
very much. The
menu screens use poster art and movie stills for background images,
and are disappointingly flat and dull. Navigation is clear and simple.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on Sleepy
Hollow .
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to return to the front page.
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