Sleepy Hollow: Video: Amazon.ca: Video

Product Details

Format: Special Edition, NTSC
Language: English, Latin
Number of tapes: 1
MPAA Rating:
Studio: Paramount
VHS Release Date: April 1 2004

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (146 customer reviews)

ASIN: B00004WIBW
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #7,269 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)

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Product Description

From Amazon.co.uk

The secret to "getting" Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow is appreciating that it's the film he's wanted to make his whole life. After the intimately expressive Edward Scissorhands, this is his most personal venture. Burton's Gothic style--apparent through all his work--stems from a childhood misspent watching the horror movies of Roger Corman, Hammer studios, and anything featuring his idol Vincent Price. For Sleepy Hollow Burton surrounded himself with his usual collaborators and friends; the production was almost entirely shot on location outside London to reunite him with key members of the crew he'd used a decade earlier in Batman, and also to capture the atmosphere of Hammer horror on its own turf.

Johnny Depp's Constable Ichabod Crane warmly emulates the mannerisms and enunciation of Peter Cushing. In a prologue scene Burton plays out a long-held fantasy by pitting Depp against Christopher Lee. And it is fantasy that categorises the film throughout, from the mythical fireside telling of the Hessian Horseman's origin (a mesmerising Christopher Walken), to the bright spots of colour saturating Crane's childhood dreams (featuring Burton's real-life love Lisa Marie). These moments literally shine out amid a meticulously crafted look for the film, which underwent a bleaching process to tone things down to an almost monochrome hue. The Scooby Doo-like whodunnit plot, concerning family lineage and petty vengeance, is naturally secondary to what Burton is aiming to achieve through photography and performance, which includes expressive cameos from Michael Gambon, Michael Gough, Jeffrey Jones, and Iain McDiarmid. Yet despite all these subtleties, it's also his best action movie: the swordplay betters anything from his earlier work, while the windmill escape and subsequent coach chase is truly breathtaking in choreography and execution. If you find a cheesy grin on your face for most of the film, you've "got" it. If not, see Hammer's Dracula at once! --Paul Tonks

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

Poor transfer Jan 26 2012

By peterhorner TOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Blu-ray

I love this movie! But why 2 stars? This transfer is one of the worst I've seen. I have the DVD and the difference is not worth the purchase of this blu ray version. There is an unnatural level of grain and loss of detail in the blacks that is not the same in the DVD. This one needs to be remastered, for sure.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Tim Burton's take on the classic Washington Irving story Oct 21 2008

By Frances L. Arsenault TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:DVD

I get a nack for literary movies (as I said many, many times), even from the classic horror novels, with literature's famous monsters : Count Dracula, The Frankenstien Monster, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, The Phantom of The Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and...The Headless Horseman; and also I love Tim Burton's films (a few of them actually).

Out of the versions of this classic Washington Irving story, I love both the Disney animated version narrated (and sang) by Bing Crosby, and this gruesome, Gothic film version starring two of my favorite actors - Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci. In this version, Ichabod Crane is a constable from New York in 1799, who is most concerned with all the new scientific gadgets that will allow him to do his job better. However, he is quite squeamish about his latest assignment: traveling to the town of Sleepy Hollow, where there have been a series of murders involving people whose heads have been cut off. Upon his arrival, the four town elders informs him that the three victims were killed in open ground, and the heads had disappeared - taken by a headless ghost that is supposedly responsible. Ichabod is unconvinced of this, but learns more about the ghostly horseman - it is the ghost of a vicious Hessian sent by the British during the revolutionary war, and he was caught by redcoats and decapitated with his own sword. When Ichabod sees the ghost kill one of the town council members, his skepticism evaporates - and he soon discovers that the horseman's ghost has an unholy connection to Baltus Van Tassel, a wealthy farmer - and whose daughter (named Katerina), Ichabod is falling in love with.

Overall, this is an awesome film, Johnny gives it wit, humour and charm; this film is also great for the October month, close to Halloween (or any month).

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Sleepy Hollow Is a Genuine Fright-Fest Jun 30 2004

By Scott Kolecki

Format:DVD

Tim Burton's films, often praised for the intensity of their mood, bring with them a glimpse of the darker side of the human psyche. His characters are often dis-jointed, dark, but at their core, always human. Often, his films are as centrally located around an individual, quite often the title role of the story....such examples include the title characters of films like "Edward Scissorhands, Jack Skellington of "A Nightmare Before Christmas", and Bruce Wayne in "Batman". It is his central character that the story seems to evolve around, and it is often seen from that perspective, providing the audience a narrative thread that they can relate to throughout the film. The same is true of "Sleepy Hollow".

Loosely based on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving, Burton's "Hollow" is seen from the perspective of Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp (formerly seen in Burton's "Edward Scissorhands")), a New York detective/criminal investigator who is sent to the farming community of Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of several of the local townsfolk.

Burton weaves elements of the original "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" into his story, while creating backstory to further develop all the characters, from the families in Sleepy Hollow, to Ichabod Crane, even to the Horseman himself, centralizing the narrative of this story around Crane's investigation into the murders. While in Sleepy Hollow, Crane quickly learns of a conspiracy that seems to exist amongst the principals of the townfolk. With the aid of Young Masbeth (Marc Pickering), whose father was murdered by the Horseman, and Katrina Anne Van Tassel (Christina Ricci), Depp's love interest and daughter of the town's acting governor, Crane's investigation quickly leads him on a hunt that will take them to the very heart of evil, as they learn the fate of the Horseman, a Hessian Mercenary sent to fight in the American Revolution before falling to the sword when betrayed by two mysterious little girls many years before.

Filled with rich imagery, lavishly created special effects, and plenty of genuine frights, "Sleepy Hollow" promises to bring thrills, chills, and plenty of scares. Moreover, though, the story uses horror to aid the story, not replace it. Unlike so many horror movies released in the past ten years, Hollow does not rely on gore to create thrills, but instead, (as with most of Burton's work), it uses subtle mood, growing tension and human vulnerability to really bring the story home in a way that is both terrifying and immensely engaging.

Rated R for violence, gore and brief sexuality, this is not a film for the young. However, for anyone looking for a good scare with a great story, this is the film for you. (NOTE: This film is a departure from the original story by Irving.)

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