Big Fish | |
---|---|
Directed by | Tim Burton |
Screenplay by | John August |
Based on |
Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Daniel Wallace |
Produced by |
Richard D. Zanuck Bruce Cohen Dan Jinks |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Philippe Rousselot |
Edited by | Chris Lebenzon |
Music by | Danny Elfman |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 125 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $70 million [1] |
Box office | $123.2 million [1] |
Big Fish is a 2003 American fantasy drama film directed by Tim Burton. It is based on the 1998 novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Daniel Wallace. [2] The film stars Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Alison Lohman, Robert Guillaume, Marion Cotillard, Steve Buscemi, and Danny DeVito. It tells the story of a frustrated son who tries to distinguish fact from fiction in the life of his father, a teller of tall tales.
The screenwriter John August read a manuscript of the novel six months before it was published and convinced Columbia Pictures to acquire the rights. He began adapting the novel as a screenplay while producers negotiated with Steven Spielberg about directing the film. Spielberg eventually left the project to focus on Catch Me If You Can (2002). Tim Burton and Richard D. Zanuck took over after completing Planet of the Apes (2001) and brought McGregor and Finney on board.
The film's theme of reconciliation between a dying father and his son had special significance for Burton, as his father had died in 2000 and his mother in 2002, a month before he signed on to direct. Big Fish was shot on location in Alabama in a series of fairy tale vignettes evoking the tone of a Southern Gothic fantasy. The film premiered on December 4, 2003, at the Hammerstein Ballroom and was released in limited capacity on December 10, 2003, by Columbia Pictures, followed by a wide release on January 9, 2004. It garnered mostly positive reviews from critics. The film received award nominations in multiple categories, including four Golden Globe Award nominations, seven BAFTA nominations, two Saturn Award nominations, and an Oscar and a Grammy Award nomination for Danny Elfman's original score. A musical adaptation of Big Fish premiered in Chicago in April 2013. [3]
At William Bloom's wedding party, his father Edward recalls the day Will was born, claiming he caught an enormous catfish using his wedding ring as bait. Will has heard his father's fanciful tales many times, and believes they are lies. Fed up by the stories, Will has a falling out with his father. Three years later, Edward is diagnosed with cancer, prompting Will and his pregnant wife Joséphine to spend time with him in Alabama.
Edward's life is chronicled through flashbacks, beginning with his boyhood encounter with a witch. She shows Edward how he will die, which does not faze him. As he reaches adulthood, he finds his home too confining, and sets out into the world. He meets a giant named Karl, and they begin traveling together. When they find a fork in the road, they take separate paths. Edward traverses a swamp and discovers the hidden town of Spectre, where he befriends the poet Norther Winslow and the mayor's daughter, Jenny. Not ready to settle down, Edward leaves Spectre, but makes a promise to Jenny that he will return.
At Joséphine's request, the bed-ridden Edward tells her how he met his wife, Sandra. In more flashbacks, Edward and Karl visit the Calloway Circus, where Edward falls in love with a beautiful woman. Edward and Karl get jobs in the circus, and the ringmaster Amos Calloway reveals to Edward one detail about the woman each month. Three years later, Edward discovers that Amos is a werewolf, but shows no ill will towards him. In gratitude, Amos reveals the woman's name as Sandra Templeton. Edward confesses his love to Sandra, but she rebuffs him despite his romantic gestures. Sandra's fiancé Don Price beats Edward in a fight, which prompts Sandra to break off their engagement and marry Edward instead.
Shortly after, Edward is conscripted into the army and fights in the Korean War. He parachutes into the middle of a North Korean military show, steals important documents, and persuades the conjoined twins Ping and Jing to help him escape in exchange for making them celebrities. Upon returning home, Edward becomes a traveling salesman. In the present, Will investigates the truth behind his father's tales. He meets an older Jenny, who explains that Edward rescued Spectre from bankruptcy and rebuilt it with help from his circus friends. Jenny reveals that although she loved Edward, he remained loyal to Sandra.
Edward has a stroke and Will visits him at the hospital. Unable to speak much, he asks Will to narrate how his life ends. Will tells his father a fantastical tale of their daring escape from the hospital. They travel to a lake, where everyone from Edward's past is there to see him off. Will carries his father into the river, where he transforms into a giant catfish and swims away. Satisfied by Will's story, Edward dies peacefully. At the funeral, Will and Joséphine are surprised to see all the people from Edward's stories, although they appear slightly less fantastical. Later, Will passes on Edward's stories to his son.
About six months before it was published, the screenwriter John August read a manuscript of the 1998 novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Daniel Wallace. [4] In September 1998, August convinced Columbia Pictures to acquire the film rights on his behalf. [5] [6] He worked hard to turn the episodic book into a cohesive screenplay, which he decided needed multiple narrators. [7] In August 2000, the producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks began discussions for Steven Spielberg to direct the film. Spielberg planned to have DreamWorks co-finance and distribute Big Fish with Columbia, and intended to start filming in late 2001, after completing Minority Report (2002). [8] [9]
Spielberg courted Jack Nicholson for the role of the older Edward Bloom. He felt that the script did not give Nicholson enough to do, so he asked August to write new sequences. [6] Spielberg eventually left Big Fish when he became involved with Catch Me If You Can (2002), and DreamWorks also backed out of the project. [8] [10] With Spielberg no longer involved, August and the producers restored the script to its previous version. Spielberg later admitted that he made a mistake by asking August to alter the screenplay. August took his favorite elements from the previous drafts and came up with what he called "a best-of Big Fish script". August, Jinks and Cohen considered Stephen Daldry as a potential director before deciding to approach Tim Burton. [6] [11] At this point, August felt the script was the best it had ever been. [6]
Burton had just finished directing the big-budget film Planet of the Apes (2001), and was ready for a smaller-scale project. He liked the Big Fish screenplay, feeling that it was the first unique story he had been offered since Beetlejuice (1988). The script's combination of an emotional drama with exaggerated tall tales allowed him to tell multiple stories of different genres, which he enjoyed. [7] Burton's father had died recently, and he found that he could process emotions related to his father's death by making the film. He signed on to direct in April 2002, which prompted Richard D. Zanuck, who worked with Burton on Planet of the Apes, to join Big Fish as a producer. [12] [6]
For the role of Edward Bloom, Burton spoke with Jack Nicholson, Spielberg's initial choice for the role. Burton had previously worked with Nicholson on Batman (1989) and Mars Attacks! (1996). In order to depict Nicholson as the young Edward, Burton intended to use a combination of computer-generated imagery and prosthetic makeup. Jinks and Cohen, who were working with Ewan McGregor on Down with Love (2003) at the time, suggested that Burton cast both McGregor and Albert Finney for Edward. [7] After viewing Finney's performance in Tom Jones (1963), Burton observed similarities between him and McGregor, and coincidentally found a People magazine article comparing the two. [6] The Scottish McGregor found it easier to perform Edward's Southern American accent than a standard American accent. He said of the Southern accent: "[Y]ou can really hear it. You can get your teeth into it. Standard American is much harder." [13]
The same dual casting applied to the role of Edward's wife, Sandra, who would be played by Jessica Lange and Alison Lohman. [7] Both Burton and Zanuck had been impressed with Lohman's performance in White Oleander (2002), and felt she was the ideal candidate for the role. [14] Burton's girlfriend, Helena Bonham Carter, was cast in two roles: Jenny and the Witch. Her prosthetic makeup for the Witch took five hours to apply. She was pregnant during filming and experienced morning sickness, which was exacerbated by the fumes from the make-up. [15]
Burton personalized the film with several cameos. While filming in Alabama, the crew tracked down Billy Redden, one of the banjo players from Deliverance (1972). Redden was a co-owner of a restaurant in Clayton, Georgia, and he agreed to appear in the Spectre sequence. As Edward first enters the town, Redden can be seen on a porch plucking a few notes from " Dueling Banjos". [16] [17] Daniel Wallace makes a brief appearance as Sandra's economics teacher. [18]
Principal photography began on January 13, 2003. [8] Big Fish was shot entirely in Alabama except for one week of filming in Paris in May. [7] Most of the Alabama scenes were shot in Wetumpka and Montgomery. [20] [10] Some filming also took place in Tallassee and on the campus of Huntingdon College. [21] Scenes in the town of Spectre were filmed on a custom-built set on Jackson Lake Island. [22][ better source needed] Principal photography continued until the first week of April and is estimated to have generated as much as $25 million for the local economy. [b] The Spectre set can still be found at its original location.[ citation needed]
Burton filmed all the hospital scenes and most of Finney's scenes first, before moving on to McGregor's scenes. [6] [7] Scenes with Karl the Giant were created using forced perspective filmmaking. Helena Bonham Carter's prosthetic makeup was designed by Stan Winston Studios, which also created animatronics for the production. [19] [24] Flooding on the set interrupted filming of the circus scenes for several weeks, but Burton managed to deliver the film on budget and on schedule. [c]
Although Burton limited the use of digital effects in Big Fish, he employed color grading to achieve a Southern Gothic aesthetic. [7] The film's musical score was composed by Burton's frequent collaborator Danny Elfman, and Burton approached Pearl Jam to request an original song for the closing credits. [7] After viewing an early print of the film, the group's vocalist Eddie Vedder wrote the song " Man of the Hour". He completed a demo within a day, and the band recorded the song four days later. [27] Pearl Jam's guitarist Mike McCready stated, "We were so blown away by the movie ... Eddie and I were standing around talking about it afterwards and were teary-eyed. We were so emotionally charged and moved by the imagination and humanity." [27]
The world premiere of Big Fish took place on December 4, 2003, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan. [28] Columbia Pictures had initially planned a November wide release for the film in the United States, [29] but ultimately decided on a December 10 limited release. [30] The US wide release occurred on January 9, 2004, with the film appearing in 2,406 theaters and earning $13.8 million in its opening weekend. It eventually grossed $66.8 million in the United States and $56.1 million in other countries, for a total of $122.9 million worldwide. [31]
Big Fish received positive reviews from film critics. Based on 219 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 75% of critics positively reviewed Big Fish, with an average score of 7.13/10. The site's consensus states: "A charming father-and-son tale filled with typical Tim Burton flourishes." [32] Metacritic calculated an average score of 58/100, based on 42 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [33] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. [34]
Critics compared the film to Forrest Gump (1994). [35] [36] "Big Fish turns into a wide-eyed Southern Gothic picaresque in which each lunatic twist of a development is more enchanting than the last," Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote. "It's like Forrest Gump without the bogus theme-park politics." [2] Peter Travers from Rolling Stone magazine praised Burton's direction, feeling it was a celebration of the art of storytelling and a touching father–son drama. [35]
Mike Clark of USA Today commented that he was most fascinated by the casting choices. "Equally delightful is the Alison Lohman character's evolution into an older woman (Jessica Lange). It's a metamorphosis to equal any in screen history." [36] Internet reviewer James Berardinelli found the fairy tale approach reminiscent of The Princess Bride (1987) and the films of Terry Gilliam. "Big Fish is a clever, smart fantasy that targets the child inside every adult," Berardinelli said, "without insulting the intelligence of either." [37] Roger Ebert, in a mixed review, wrote "there is no denying that Will has a point: The old man is a blowhard. There is a point at which his stories stop working as entertainment and segue into sadism." [38] Richard Corliss of Time magazine was disappointed, finding the father-son reconciliation storyline to be over-dramatically cliché. "You recall The Boy Who Cried Wolf? Edward Bloom is the man who cried fish." [39] Big Fish was No. 85 on Slant Magazine's best films of the 2000s. [40]
The Region 1 DVD was released on April 27, 2004, [41] and Region 2 was released on June 7. [42] The DVD features a Burton audio commentary track, seven featurettes and a trivia quiz. A special edition was released on November 1, 2005, with a 24-page hardback book entitled Fairy Tale for a Grown Up. [43] The film was released on Blu-ray Disc on March 20, 2007. [44]
Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
---|---|---|---|
Academy Awards [45] | Best Original Score | Danny Elfman | Nominated |
BAFTA Awards [46] | Best Film | Nominated | |
Best Direction | Tim Burton | Nominated | |
Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Albert Finney | Nominated | |
Best Adapted Screenplay | John August | Nominated | |
Best Makeup and Hair | Jean Ann Black and Paul LeBlanc | Nominated | |
Best Production Design | Dennis Gassner | Nominated | |
Best Visual Effects |
Kevin Scott Mack, Seth Maury, Lindsay MacGowan, Paddy Eason |
Nominated | |
Golden Globe Awards [47] | Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actor | Albert Finney | Nominated | |
Best Original Score | Danny Elfman | Nominated | |
Best Original Song |
Pearl Jam For " Man of the Hour" |
Nominated | |
Grammy Awards [48] | Best Score for a Motion Picture | Danny Elfman | Nominated |
Saturn Awards [49] | Best Fantasy Film | Nominated | |
Best Actor | Albert Finney | Nominated | |
AARP Movies for Grownups Awards [50] | Best Actor | Nominated | |
Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards | Best Foreign Film, Not in the Spanish Language | Tim Burton | Nominated |
Awards Circuit Community Awards | Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Albert Finney | Nominated |
Best Adapted Screenplay | John August | Nominated | |
Best Cinematography | Philippe Rousselot | Nominated | |
Best Original Score | Danny Elfman | Nominated | |
Best Visual Effects | Nominated | ||
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards [51] | Best Picture | Nominated | |
Best Director | Tim Burton | Nominated | |
Best Writer | John August | Nominated | |
Best Composer | Danny Elfman | Nominated | |
Best Song | Eddie Vedder | Nominated | |
Casting Society of America Awards [52] | Best Casting for Feature Film, Drama | Denise Chamian | Nominated |
Big Fish is about what's real and what's fantastic, what's true and what's not true, what's partially true and how, in the end, it's all true.
—Tim Burton [53]
The reconciliation of the father-son relationship between Edward and William is the key theme in Big Fish. [54] [55] Novelist Daniel Wallace's interest in the theme of the father-son relationship began with his own family. Wallace found the "charming" character of Edward Bloom similar to his father, who used charm to keep his distance from other people. [56] In the film, Will believes Edward has never been honest with him because Edward creates extravagant myths about his past to hide himself, using storytelling as an avoidance mechanism. [57] Edward's stories are filled with fairy tale characters (a witch, mermaid, and werewolf) and places (the circus, small towns, the mythological town of Spectre), all of which are classic images and archetypes. [7] The quest motif propels both Edward's story and Will's attempt to get to the bottom of it. Wallace explains: "The father's quest is to be a big fish in a big pond, and the son's quest is to see through his tall tales." [56]
Screenwriter John August identified with Will's character and adapted it after himself. In college, August's father died, and like Will, August had attempted to get to know him before his death, but found it difficult. Like Will, August had studied journalism and was 28 years old. In the film, Will says of Edward, "I didn't see anything of myself in my father, and I don't think he saw anything of himself in me. We were like strangers who knew each other very well." [58] [59] Will's description of his relationship with Edward closely resembled August's own relationship with his father. [58] [59] Burton also used the film to confront his thoughts and emotions concerning the death of his father in 2000: [55] "My father had been ill for a while ... I tried to get in touch with him, to have, like in this film, some sort of resolution, but it was impossible." [7]
Religion and film scholar Kent L. Brintnall observes how the father-son relationship resolves itself at the end of the film. As Edward dies, Will finally lets go of his anger and begins to understand his father for the first time:
In a final gesture of love and comprehension, after a lifetime of despising his father's stories and his father as story-teller, Will finishes the story his father has begun, pulling together the themes, images and characters of his father's storied life to blend reality and fantasy in act of communion and care. By unselfishly releasing the anger he has held about his father's stories, Will gains the understanding that all we are is our stories and that his father's stories gave him a reality and substance and a dimension that was as real, genuine, and deep as the day-to-day experiences that Will sought out. Will comes to understand, then, that his father—and the rest of us—are our stories and that the deeper reality of our lives may, in fact, not be our truest self. [60]
Burton connected to its central theme of a son trying to reconcile with his dying father, and the script gave him a means to address his feelings about the death of his own father, who had died in 2000.
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