© Anna-Karin 2000
The film is to quote Tim Burton "about a man who lives inside his head versus a man without a head."
I fell in love with the film as soon as the music began to play. And it got better when the principal characters got onto the screen. Johnny Depp as constable Ichabod Crane, Christina Ricci as Katarina van Tassel, Michael Gambon as Baltus van Tassel, to mention just a few members of the cast.
Then there's the atmosphere, the eternal mist, the eerie village and the haunted woods. Perfect for the mood of this film about the past coming back to haunt the present and to taint the future.
This is an essay about the slashy possibilities of this film. I will write the essay like Montaigne did; my personal thoughts on a chosen subject and why I feel the way I do about it.
Let's take a look with dirty eyes, let's put on those slash glasses
that detect the merest whiff of unspoken possibilities.
As for a start there are three guys in this movie worth looking
closer at:
Ichabod Crane: The constable who cares more for Justice than for the Law, who faints in tense moments and are afraid of spiders. But he is also brave enough to stand up for what he thinks is right, even when the rest of the world disagrees.
Brom van Brunt: Big burly farm boy who thinks he has first dibs on the lovely Katerina. Attractive, in a hunky way, and a prankster. He is also the one who won't listen to reason and who gets himself sliced in half.
The Hessian Horseman: Unknown mercenary, dead since twenty years, brought back to life through magic. Don't get more to say in the whole film than 'AAaaaaaaaRRggggh! He is more expressive with his sword and axe though, and somehow he manages to harpoon a guy inside a church even when he can't get onto Holy Ground. Shows that there are some brains somewhere.
For some reason I have had some trouble even liking Brom. In my
opinion he is mostly in the way. There are a couple of
Brom/Ichabod fics out on the 'net though and I think they are good.
They even managed to get me to like Brom, a little.
But he's out. Of the game anyway.
The leaves Ichabod and the Hessian. Rather unlikely, right? Every time they have a scene together Ichabod always faints at the end of it, and someone always ends up hurt or dead. Not exactly promising. The only time they ever see each other face to face is in one of the last scenes and they do not exactly exchange any words then.
Ever heard of the attraction of opposites?
But are they really opposites?
If we take a closer look at the pairing, then one can notice a few
similarities between them:
The looks; they both have dark hair,
which appears to be rather uncooperative. They both have pale
skin, and both are dressed in black throughout the whole film.
All the other characters have clothes in gray or in earth tones,
except for Katerina of course who is dressed in bright colors,
setting her apart from all the others.
Both the mercenary and the constable are sent to Sleepy Hollow by their superiors, and they are both strangers, easy to put the blame on if something goes wrong.
They are also creative; Ichabod's strange tools that he has designed him is a proof of his creativity, but one have to think for a while to find any example of the Hessian's creativity. But in my opinion the design of his uniform is a very valid example. None of the other soldiers have such a uniform.
The leather harness is decorated with a design that matches the hilt
of the sword. The saddle have a decoration that also matches the
sword. The boots go well with the other garments.
One can see that his appearance is designed to frighten his
opponents, and the filed teeth is just the icing on the proverbial
cake.
So they are alike in more ways than it seems, but they also differ from each other.
Their respective reactions to fear, and to be trapped in a corner for
example: The Hessian fights, to the end, and Ichabod just faints.
Ichabod is eloquent, where the Hessian just roars.
The Hessian and Ichabod mirror each other; gentleness and force, mildness and fierceness, peaceful and martial.
But Ichabod is brave sometimes, and the Hessian show
gentleness towards his horse, Daredevil. Thus their personalities
are given a few more facets, and becomes less one-dimensional.
This adds to the chemistry between them.
As a pairing they complete each other, the Hessian's strength to back up Ichabod's brains.
This is why I like this pairing.