I have never been a big fan of Tim Burton after having seen
his reincarnation of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and ‘Edward Scissor
hands’ however this film has completely changed my point of view when it comes
to Tim Burton.
The film follows a father and son relationship. Ed Bloom has
falling out with his son after his son claims that all the stories in which he
told are myths and are not precisely true. However, the stories in which Ed
tells of himself are ore inspiring and magical. Ed is now old and narrates his
story in the form of flashbacks, his younger self played not by Johnny Depp but
Ewan McGregor.
The film is extremely motivational as its message is one
which depicts the meaning of life. One great thing about the character of Ed
Bloom is that he deliberately makes himself scared or puts himself in dangerous
situations. His motivation behind this is that he has seen the way he dies,
something that is kept a mystery from the audience but then revealed at the end;
therefore he knows he will not come to harm. He even says something along the
lines of ‘the more difficult something became, the more rewarding it became at
the end’. This I felt was extremely motivational but also strengthens the
character. Not only this, but Ed seeks to find his destiny for himself at the
age of 18, not that this can be done in this modern age, almost becoming a coming of age film of such.
The best way to experience life.
Ed’s stories are extremely magical with the meeting up of
giants, mermaids, a two headed lady and a weird little town where the habitants
were more than happy. This almost leads us to believe that Ed is an unreliable
narrator as these things can’t possibly be real. However, by creating this
fictional world allows us as the audience to interpret the fact that a
fictional world created in our mind is better than any real life world. We end up wanting this story to be true whereas
his son does not. It is only at the end, where all these mythical creatures
actually appear at Ed’s funeral begging the question, was his story actually
true? One way which I believe suggests the story is true is by using real life ‘freaks’.
Matthew McGrory is a real life giant and he plays Karl the giant in the film, Deep
Roy is a real life dwarf and plays a midget in the film. The fact that these characters
are like this in real life takes away the mythological context suggesting that
Ed’s story is in fact one of truth. It is a great ending as we are In denial
that Ed can be such a great character and that these characters don’t actually
exist however the revelation at end suddenly hits us that it is all true and Ed
is in fact a great man, we just didn’t appreciate it. He comes across as a
great man and the phrase ‘Big Fish’ is repeated throughout, he is a very big
fish trying to find his big pond. Reasons
why a spectator may have found it hard to believe Ed’s story is that some
scenes suspend our disbelief. Ed seems to get through too easily at times with
some comical moments such his invasion of a Japanese camp during the war and
even the bank robbery scene.
Ed’s death must go down as one of the saddest moments in
cinema history. After his stroke we see his son become the new story teller and
tells us Ed’s final story. He saw his
death in an old woman’s eye. He turns into a fish; however his imagination
stays with him to the end. On his death bed he has to imagine himself being
taken to the river by his son and dropped in the river. The parallel between
the real world and the fictional world is just amazing. At the river, all of
his old encounters have come to see him off, a great compelling and emotional
scene.
With this amazing story it is easy to forget about the cinematography
and acting. The film contains some amazing visual images like the one above. Some
great colour like we see in the small town where people wear no shoes, instead
the shoes are thrown up high.
McGregor is a great casting choice, his happy, cheerful way gives
the film a much or magical and positive feel to it.
A great motivational and magical movie with one of the greatest
endings of all time 10/10
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