Renz
An Army of One
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Cast: Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, Jeffrey Jones, Christopher Walken.
Synopsis: Based on the Washington Irving story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Sleepy Hollow tells the story of Ichabod Crane (Depp), a New York City constable sent to the isolated village of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a number of strange murders. All the victims have been decapitated and the heads taken by the killer. Constable Crane attempts to solve the crimes scientifically and is contemptuous of the villagers' belief that the townspeople were slain by a "headless horseman" (Walken). He soon witnesses the horseman in action, however, and he then must discover the reasons behind the ghastly murders and what must be done to stop them. The conspiracy that is uncovered leads him to suspect just about everyone in the town, including the daughter (Ricci) of Sleepy Hollow's leading citizen with whom he has fallen in love.
I really love the look of this film. Director Tim Burton really makes the story come to life and the cast, led by Burton favorite Johnny Depp, is also first rate. Depp's Crane is squeamish and eccentric and exceedingly funny as he investigates the killings, disinterring corpses and performing autopsies along the way. Walken is also great as The Horseman. One of Tim Burton's most entertaining projects.
Trivia: The scene where Ichabod Crane crosses the covered bridge and hears the frogs underneath croaking "Ichabod" and "Headless Horseman" is a tribute to Disney's 1959 animated version of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (featured in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)), in which Ichabod Crane, crossing a bridge, hears the frogs croaking the same words. Director Tim Burton, a former Disney animator, has cited the Disney version of the tale as his main inspiration for the look and style of his film. The scene of Ichabod Crane riding the Horseman's horse backwards is also taken from the earlier film.
Christopher Walken, who plays the Headless Horseman, played a schoolteacher in The Dead Zone (1983), in the beginning of which he tells his class to read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."
There are 18 decapitations in this film.
The town Sleepy Hollow was created from the ground up in three months. At the time of filming, it was the largest set built in England and was put up in record time. The last set that held this record was built for Billy Elliot (2000).
The Western Wood was built on a sound-stage so everything, the weather, light, could be controlled.
The Windmill was too large to be constructed on a sound-stage because it was over five stories high. The sails alone weighed over 2 tons.
The final chase sequence on the coach in the Western Wood took three weeks to film.
It was really Johnny Depp who was being dragged after the coach. He wore a type of protective armor under his costume.
The Horseman's horse is named Daredevil, the same name of Brom Bones' (Brom Van Brunt's) horse in Irving's original short story; the horse was purchased in Seville, Spain.
In The 39 Steps (1935), the professor shoots Hannay in the chest, and it appears that he is dead. However, the bullet was stopped by a hymnbook in the breast pocket of the coat he was wearing. In Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod is shot and saved in a similar manner; this time the bullet lodges in a book of magic spells.
The scarecrow in the scene where magistrate Phillips gets his head cut off by the headless horseman is the opening pumpkin/scarecrow from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).
Christopher Walken's character has no speaking lines, aside from a couple of "HAA"s to his horse and "shhhh."
The dress worn by Katrina Anne Van Tassel (Christina Ricci) in the last shot of the movie has the same pattern as Michael Keaton's outfit in the climactic scene of Beetlejuice (1988) also directed by Tim Burton.
Tim Burton and the crew of the movie built the small town Sleepy Hollow complete with rooms, floors, and stairs. The town was dismantled after filming was completed.
Historically, Ichabod Crane was a very unattractive man. Johnny Depp wanted to add prosthetics to his face to make himself look ugly, but Tim Burton wanted to base the character on Crane's more unattractive personality traits - his reported squeamishness and eccentricity.
Although Tim Burton claims the windmill scene was a reference to Frankenstein (1931), a stronger link can be made to Will Hay's Oh, Mr. Porter! (1937) which also featured a windmill but not a headless horseman.
Walken often talked about Sleepy Hollow as his first movie with a kissing scene. But he already had one in The Deer Hunter (1978) in which he kisses Meryl Streep and in The Dead Zone (1983).
Star Johnny Depp adopted Goldeneye, the horse that played Gunpowder, Ichabod Crane's horse in the film, when he heard it was going to be put down.
The writer Tom Stoppard, as script doctor, did an uncredited re-write on the script.
Ichabod Crane faints six times in the movie.
At the start of filming the three-way axe battle with 'Ray Park' , Johnny Depp and Casper Van Dien, Van Dien broke the index finger of his left hand. Although extremely painful, he carried on without telling anyone as he didn't want his part cut short.
Ichabod Crane and Katrina Van Tassel were, reportedly, real people
A mechanical horse, an updated model of one used in earlier films, was used for studio shots.
This film features three sith lords from the Star Wars prequels, Ray Park (Darth Maul), Christopher Lee (Darth Tyranus) and Ian McDiarmid (Darth Sidious).
During the last scene Ichabod, during his explanation to Katrina and Young Masbeth of how easy New York is to navigate, says, "The Bronx is up and the Battery's down." This is a line from the song "New York, New York" which is featured in the movie On the Town (1949).
Casper Van Dien in real life is related to the Van Tassels (Christina Ricci's character's family; she is his love interest in the film).
Casper Van Dien gained 30 pounds for his role of Brom.
Depp based his characterization of Ichabod Crane on Richard E. Grant (Withnail and I (1987)), the late Roddy McDowall (Fright Night (1985)), Angela Lansbury (The Mirror Crack'd (1980)) and Basil Rathbone (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) and others).
