My Favorite Films: Big Fish

Big Fish (2003)

Director: Tim Burton

Context:
In 1998, fantasy author Daniel Wallace wrote Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions which chronicled a young man's attempts to get to know his dying father's true life story, having only grown up hearing tall tales from his old man.  The manuscript for the then unfinished novel found its way into the hands of the screenwriter John August who, while dealing with the death of his own father, found it to be the perfect basis for a film.  Steven Spielberg was initially attached to direct as fantastical metaphors dealing with father-son relationships are his bread-and-butter.  But eventually, after many script rewrites and other projects taking up much of Spielberg's time, the script was passed to Tim Burton.

Burton, known for his dark gothic style and quirky original films, had recently come off of two moderately successful big budget adaptations (Sleepy Hollow and Planet of the Apes) and was looking for a smaller return to form with his 10th directorial feature Big Fish.  As with August, Burton had also recently lost his father and he found the story to be the perfect method of handling his emotions "better than any therapist."  With the main structure of the story grounded in reality and the "tales" within offering opportunities for exaggerated fantasy, Burton was able to make this his most personal film thus far.

What resulted was a Forrest Gump meets The Princess Bride story, filled with charm, magic, wonder, and tears.  And it's my personal contender for Burton's best.

Plot:
Edward Bloom has a penchant for telling epic stories about his life, much to the growing dismay of his son Will.  When an elderly Edward starts deteriorating due to illness, Will travels home to learn once and for all who his father actually was.  Along the way, the tales of Edward's life are depicted in fantasy vignettes, each one being larger than life.

Analysis:
Big Fish is, secondly, a story about storytelling.  While the initial novel focused mostly on Greek mythology as it's inspiration, the film pulls in more sources from Arthurian legend, American tall tales, German fables, and fantasy literature such as Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz.  While no one tale of Edward's is specifically based on any singular story, there is a general familiarity to each set up that it all seems like some long lost story we heard in our childhood.

Creatures like giants, witches, and werewolves rub elbows with more realistic affairs like bank robberies, grand romantic gestures, and foreign espionage.  There is no limit to what Edward Bloom can weave into his life.  If it makes for a good story, it's included.  But if the movie were only just random tales strewn about haphazardly, it wouldn't have as much oomph to it.  Rather, each tale challenges the audience to determine the meaning behind each falsehood and to extract the nugget of truth buried within each one.

Because Big Fish is, firstly, a story about how we view our own lives.  If we look strictly at the truth (i.e. Will's point of view), we see Edward as a liar, a coward, a deadbeat father, and an adulterer.  And each story Edward tells does its best to hide his faults, but in doing so, reveals more than they intend to.  We all see ourselves as the hero of our own story and thus, tend to downplay our own bad behavior and rationalize our negative qualities.  And as moviegoers, we are trained to trust the protagonist of the story and in this case, Edward is our "hero" for a majority of the time.

In fact, the first time I saw this movie, I strongly disliked Will for being such a spoilsport and not enjoying his father's stories.  He seemed to be the "villain" of the movie.  But after looking at each story in detail, we see that Edward actually is not as great as he is trying to get us to believe.

When presented with the truth and the contradictions there-in, we get a more accurate portrayal of Edward's life.  And, thanks to the unique chronology of the film, we miss some integral character development upon the first viewing.  If we are to believe Edward's own versions of the truth, we get the following chronology of his life:

• Edward's Birth
• The Encounter with the Witch (Seeing How He Will Die)
• The Growth Spurt and Teenage Achievements
• The Visit to Spectre
• The Circus
• Meeting and Wooing Sandra
• The Korean War
• Becoming a Traveling Salesman
• The Bank Robbery (Sandra Is Pregnant)
• The Big Fish Story (Will Is Born)
• Buying His Dream House (Will Is a Child)
• Rebuilding Spectre and Buying Jenny's House (This story is told by Jenny)

It is after hearing Jenny's story that Will notes that the story contradicts the oldest story he knows in which Jenny's house is the witch's house, making Jenny the old witch from Edward's youth.  Now, this is interesting, because even though Jenny's story is told like an Edward tale, it's one that Will has never actually heard.  It's almost as if she's telling it this way to hide the truth.  She explains that while she did have feelings for Edward, he only saw two women in the world: Sandra and everyone else, so she might as well be the witch.

But let's think back for a moment to the earliest "factual" flashback in the movie.  It's when Will is a child and he is about to hear his favorite "witch" story.  In that moment, we learn that Will's mother doesn't like Edward telling that story.  But if, in Edward's version of events, he already knows that Jenny is the witch, we can see this not as a contradiction, but a deliberate attempt to shield Will from the truth at a young age.  What better way than to keep your child from snooping around your mistresses' place than by saying it's an old witch's haunted house?

It's also in the witch story that we get the "Edward sees his own death" characteristic that allows him to walk through the rest of his stories without fear and make it seem like Edward is aware of his own destiny.  He knows he'll survive dangerous events and he knows he'll marry Sandra.  This is narrator Edward speaking with the confidence of hindsight, allowing him to tell each tale with the best dramatic effect.

Changing gears before my final wrap up, I just want to point out that the care that Burton brings to each story is part of what makes this movie work so well.  The werewolf/witch portions are shot like a horror movie, the bank robbery is shot like a '70s heist, and the circus...well, the circus is just completely magical.  Nothing has stuck with me as much as the moment Edward falls in love with Sandra.  Whether or not Jenny actually factors into his love life is a debate for the next section, but the entire time-stopping sequence can only be described as pure movie magic.

When it comes down to it, I love this movie because it offers me so much to love.  It uses magical realism and the Southern Gothic landscape to pick at universal feelings.  We see those feelings of infatuation, determination, curiosity, loss, confusion, excitement, and a longing to be bigger than oneself play out with visual metaphors every step of the way.  But most importantly, this is a movie about inclusivity.  For as much as Edward Bloom is a solitary character, it is the people he meets that enrich his life.  He'd have no stories to tell if he didn't have people.  And that's what makes this story magical.

The Ending (Who Was the Big Fish Really?):

Now, I'm not saying we should walk away from this film viewing Edward as a lying blowhard.  He is a very unreliable narrator, to be sure.  I'm just pointing out that life is complicated and these stories help us to better ourselves and make sense of it all.  As I said, this movie is about how we view life and with that, I want to focus on one more thing:  What does the big fish represent?

This is the first story we hear, and it's told to explain why Edward wasn't present for his son's birth.  When Edward wraps up the story, he finishes it with a moral about how you can't catch a woman without a wedding ring, as that is what he uses to catch the fish.  Okay, so the fish represents Sandra, right?  But throughout the film, Edward notes that he's always thirsty, and he knows he's a big fish destined for a bigger world and at the end of his life story, Will returns him to the river and he becomes the fish and swims away.  Oh, so the fish represents Edward?  Huh.... BUT WAIT!  The fish appears two other times in Edward's story, both times it takes the form of a nude woman and both times, it precedes an appearance of Jenny and one of those times is after he married Sandra.

Let's look at the first story again and remember what happens.  Edward doesn't just use a wedding ring to catch the uncatchable fish.  He uses HIS wedding ring.  And who else goes after Edward even though she sees HIS wedding ring?  Jenny!  So, what does the big fish represent?  Well, from Edward's eyes, Jenny was uncatchable.  From Will's eyes, Edward was uncatchable.  The witch/Jenny's advice early in the story is that "the biggest fish in the river gets that way by never being caught."  And that's where we have to leave it.

Final Thoughts:

As you can see, I got carried away with the nitty-gritty of the film, but I love a movie that's able to allow me to do that.  Even one as deceptively simple as this one.  I didn't even get to mention the amazing cast this film has going for it.  Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney are perfect as Edward Bloom, having the necessary charm demanded by the role.  Burton rounds out the minor cast with many of his favorite actors (in very funny minor roles), but he doesn't let them steal the show from Edward, Sandra, and Will.

In watching this film, I thought a lot about the people in my life and by the full ending, seeing Edward surrounded by everyone he had ever met (even that milkman is there), I couldn't help but weep.  It made me appreciate everyone who has made my life what it is.

If there is one message to take away from this film, it's that our lives are made up of the people in it.  We are able to control how it goes, but only others are able to see the full picture.  We may never completely understand the big fish in our life, but it's important to love them for who they are.  Rewatching this film made me fall in love with all the people in my life all over again.  They are a part of my life story, they are a part of me.  Good, bad, and everything in between.

Remember those who are apart of your life story and remember those whose life story you are a part of.