New article in Splice (Auteur Publishing) the Tim Burton issue – Sleepy Hollow – a must see and a must read – Puritans, Witches and Hessian!
If There’s Only One Film …. Make It Sleepy Hollow
EXTRACT
The Story: History and the Horseman
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the general myth of a headless horseman, that is so much a part of the legend of Sleepy Hollow, a real town1 in New York state, has been adopted by American cultural history and associated very strongly with the history of itself as the emerging independent US of A. The origins of Sleepy Hollow’s Headless Horseman may date back much further than the story told by Washington Irving, but since then, he has become an integral part of American mythology, a true monster of their own. Washington Irving’s initial short story, has engendered a true modern myth, with films based on the story and the place dating back to 18962. Thus, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Tim Burton’s interpretation of that story have done much to put the Headless Horseman on the American mainland’s map.
However, no self respecting myth is confined by the boundaries of nationality and the Headless Horseman has himself a history in European culture, Dutch culture, in fact, which is why Washington Irving to set his classic in the Dutch community of Sleepy Hollow some few miles north of the city of New York.
Read more in Splice
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