Edward Scissorhands

About Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands (1990) drew from the director’s own feelings of isolation growing up in suburban Burbank, creating a modern fairy tale about an artificial man with scissors for hands who struggles to find acceptance in a pastel-colored cookie-cutter neighborhood. Johnny Depp, who took the role over Tom Cruise, spent hours each day getting the scissorhand prosthetics applied and couldn’t feed himself, use the bathroom, or pick anything up during filming—a limitation that informed his delicate, heartbreaking physical performance. The film’s production design by Bo Welch created one of cinema’s most striking visual contrasts, juxtaposing the dark Gothic castle on the hill with the candy-colored suburban tract homes below. Winona Ryder’s performance as Kim earned her a Saturn Award, and the film’s exploration of otherness and conformity has made it one of Burton’s most enduring and personal works.