When Will receives information that Edward is very ill, he travels back to his home town in the hope to reconcile and find out the truth about who his father was and what he did in his life, and it is at this point when we begin to see flashbacks as Ed retells and relives his life.
The first flashback we see is a young Edward with friends in a dark and scary location where there is witch, and if the children wish to see how they are going to die, they must look into the witch's eye. Ed explains that he looked into the eye and saw his fait, however this was never revealed in the story. Due to finding out his fate, it was shown through the narration of Albert Finney (old Edward) that he would go on many adventurous and exiting journeys with many risks because he knows they could not kill him. This sets the theme for the rest of the movie because it shows and tells us that a common theme in it will be to do with taking risks and new exiting ventures, that for any ordinary man could be harmful.
The quote "a goldfish will remain small if kept in a small bowl, but will grow bigger if kept in a larger area" is used to show the ambition young Edward had, and meant that he felt he needed to leave to a bigger area to match his big ambition. Here, a giant is brought into the story who is eating livestock in the night, Edward volunteers to talk to him and when he solves the issue, is seen as the local hero and moves out of town with the giant as they were both destined for 'bigger things' either literally or metaphorically.
As Edward and the Giant approach a forest, Ed decides to take the dangerous short cut as he knows it can't kill him. At the end of this road he reaches a town called Spectre, a perfect town, where he meets a little girl Jenny who is very disappointed but hopeful as he states that he needs to leave and carry on with his journey.
Edward then tells his daughter in law, Josephine about how he came to meet his wife. He explained that him and the Giant came across a circus where the giant was immediately employed by them. Ed then catches his future wife, Sandra, in his eye and says he fell in love at first sight. He explained that Sandra was a student and already engaged to one of Edwards rivals, Don Price, however this did not stop him from openly declaring his love for her which ends in Don brutally beating Edward as Ed promises Sandra that he wont fight back. It is at this point where Sandra leaves Don for Ed after seeing just how cruel he could be.
It is at this point where Will begs his father to be himself and just tell the truth about his life and background and to simply be himself. Edward is hurt by this and tells his "I've been nothing but myself since the day I was born, and if you can't see that, it's your failing, not mine!" - making us question if all these stories do have truth to them or that there is a chance they really are fact, and did happen.
Old Edward then goes on to tell a story about at the recieval of war enrolment letter, even though he was sad to leave his new wife, he decided to take the most dangerous position as he knows nothing can go fatally wrong. He parachutes into an army camp during a performance for troops and tells his daughter in law a story about meeting two Siamese twin singers who he offers to help break America if they can get him home. As they escape, the US army believe Ed is missing and a flashback of Sandra getting an MIA letter in the post is shown before Edward finally re-joins his wife, becomes a travelling salesman and buys them a better house.
Ed has yet another flashback and tells a story about bumping into an old friend from spectre at a bank one day, Nother, who was robbing it. Edward said he didn't have much choice but to help in this robbery and Norther later sends him £10,000 in which he uses to buy a new house for his family.
Many years later, Edward is becoming a middle ages man. He reconciles with Jenny who is the little girl who lived in spectre, and he decided to save their town by buying it out but letting them keep their houses. Jenny doesn't want to sell her home so instead Ed redecorates it and fixes it with the help of his giant friend. Jenny misinterprets this action and leans in to kiss Edward however he tells her Sandra is the only one for him. - again, in a flashback.
Back in the present day in Ashton, Edward is only getting weaker, but he continues to tell everyone that this death was not the one he saw in the eye of the witch. Will is saddened as, as they spend time alone he believes he will never really know who his father really is and he slowly, but resentfully, begins to accept this. Shortly after this Edward has a stroke and is taken into hospital. Will asks his family doctor the real story of his birth, as he has only ever had the exaggerated version and at hearing that it was a regular birth he decided his fathers story was more comforting and entertaining, and decides to reconcile with Edward, who is in the later stages of dying.
Just before Edward dies, he asks will to tell him the story of how he dies however Edward never shared what he saw in the eye so Will couldn't. After he pleas Will takes his fathers place and begins a spontaneous story. He finds himself telling a heart warming, comforting and entertaining story to make his dad happy, just like his father used to do. He tells his father that he regains strength, crazily escape the hospital and fastly drive to a river where all Edwards family and friends are, including characters Ed had spoken about in stories to his son. He tells him instead of a funeral they host a goodbye party and as Will places him into the river he is happy and content, turning into a big fish, swimming away. Edward is pleased with this story and is at rest, shortly after he passes away.
Will feels like him and his father finally connected, and he finally understood all of these stories and why his father delivered them the way he did. Will goes on to find a letter to his mother from the army that his dad was MIA, this brings Edward comfort in the fact there was genuine truth within his fathers stories. At Edwards funeral Will can not believe to see the people/characters from all of the stories Edward had told him, he saw the man Ed described as a giant to see he wasn't actually a giant, but very tall. He also saw Ping and Jing, the korean twins however not conjoined as well as seeing Jenny, Norther and many others from what he believed to be lies. Will is very comforted and feels at rest that all along he really did know his dad , he realised Edward combined his passion for telling stories and bringing joy to people with his real life events, and when his son is born he carries on the family tradition and passes on the stories.
The storytelling in this film delivers us a story, through telling many little ones. Tim Burton directed this film and showed us a whole life story and a transformation of relationships in under 2 hours by showing us flashbacks of the main character Ed, and the realisation Will came to that after all, his dad really was himself. I really like the idea of flashbacks used and realisation from these flashbacks with a form of truth, as I feel like it is something that warms the audiences heart especially at the fact in the end it was a happy ending, therefore I may take inspiration from this film when I come to plan my own and make an opening for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment