I’m not sure what happened or when, but somewhere down the line I firmly believe that Tim Burton was able to get some blackmail material on the once great and versatile actor known as Johnny Depp. Hear me out a moment before you threaten to goth me to death (I’m not even sure what that would entail, but I doubt it is all that pleasant and probably a little depressing). There was a time that I was a huge fan of Johnny Depp and his work, he gathered a large fanbase for some of his early work, and certainly Edward Scissorhands is a big film in his filmography that garnered him a huge cult following. However, he continued to evolve as an actor and make some of the best biopics out there today. He also played some highly recognizable characters and became considered one of the most talented young actors in Hollywood long before he played the head turning role of Jack Sparrow in the Disney movie based on a theme park ride (It was good, and based on the source material, it had no right to be).

I was a fan of his work ever since I saw the great work he did shortly after Edward Scissorhands in the quirky and touching romantic comedy Benny & Joon where he managed to catch the attention of audiences by playing a socially awkward man with a deep fascination for the Vaudeville style of comedy that gained popularity thanks to the likes of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. It is still a great movie to this day and I have shown it to new age Depp fans as an example of his early career, and to prove my point when I say his older moves are much better then the ones since Pirates. Even though Benny & Joon could be blamed (or praised?) for introducing the world to The Proclaimers “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).”

Now maybe Johnny Depp really enjoys working with Tim Burton, he has said in interviews that he does (but the blackmail theory still holds). Yet, I can’t help but wonder what exactly is going on. Shortly after Depp made his way to the top and became one of America’s favorite actors after his scene stealing role in Pirates of the Caribbean, it appears the one consistent job he could get is paling himself up for some role in a Tim Burton film. It is likely that Johnny Depp could be using his new found fame to keep the Beetlejuice director relevant, and while it has kept Burton from slipping away into obscurity (and instead firmly secured himself in our minds as the man who fucks up classics), it has also locked Depp into a particular role as Hollywood’s wacky eccentric, and for the first time in the man’s long and respectable career, he has been typecast. So much so, that his role as a rather regular man in 2010′s The Tourist (a movie that also starred the equally strange actress Angelina Jolie) was near laughable, because we as an audience just wont accept that anymore.

At this rate, Depp will never be able to play a role like this ever again. It wouldn't be taken seriously, and that's a damn shame.

It really is too bad to see the man that at one time played FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone in the 1997 biopic mafia film Donnie Brasco, and the now incarcerated drug lord George Jung in 2001′s Blow be typecast into a certain type of role, his versatility was one of his best qualities as an actor. Both of these films had interviews with the real men Johnny Depp portrayed where they talked about their impressions of the actor and how dedicated he was to these roles. The real Joe Pistone even said in an interview on the DVD for Donnie Brasco that he was a bit creeped out by how well Depp was able to get down his mannerisms. For his role in the fantastic 1993 film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Depp was even able to portray the role of a regular guy living around extraordinarily unusual people; Gilbert Grape is also well knows as a film that showed the incredible range of a very young Leonardo DiCaprio (who has gone on to become one of the most respected and versatile actors in Hollywood, a role he should be sharing with his co-star in question).

Even in the more quirky films like Benny & Joon and the 1994 Jeremy Leven film, Don Juan DeMarco (where he played a mental patient that believed he really was the fictional character of Don Juan, and was able to make those around him honestly want to believe it) there was a heart and earnestness to the characters he portrayed that are sorely lacking in the newest films that he has been part of. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, and Sweeney Todd all lacked that charm he exhibited in the eccentric roles he played in the movies above, or even in the old (and good) Tim Burton film, Edward Scissorhands.

This isn't even the same man is it? The one on the right is some weird Depp clone and the real Depp is being held in Burton's basement. That has to be it.

I can not help but feel saddened and disappointed by many of the recent roles of Mr. Depp, and especially anything he has turned out with Tim Burton. If he had instead continued making imaginative and interesting films, like the Marc Foster directed Finding Neverland, after the success of Pirates of the Caribbean, perhaps he could have used that new found fame to continue to work with relevant and good imaginative directors and scripts, and brought that expertise he showed in his early career to the eyes of many more people. Instead, however, he has used that exposure to try and push a director that has long since seen his days in the limelight, and has become an actor that no one can possibly see cast any other way, he has turned one note, and he is much better than that. Hell, even his role recently in another Hunter S. Thompson story in the Rum Diary went off with a resounding “meh” from movie goers, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is one of the most loved films in Depp’s early catalog.

Alright, onto the director in this equation, Tim Burton. Why all the love for this man? honestly? I can look through this man’s career and see some good movies, but also a lot of aesthetic over substance crap. Sure, he directed Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, the two good Batman films (before Christopher Nolan made better ones), Ed Wood, Big Fish, and I guess we can put Mars Attacks! and Sleepy Hollow on the list of good movies, but all of those films were done in the 80′s and early to mid-90′s (except for one). It would appear that the beginning of his career was his best, and his most consistent.

Tim Burton is also the man that completely raped everything worth loving out of Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Alice in Wonderland. This is not a man that should be trusted with classic works, he will only Burton all over them and make them all creepy and weird.

Does your franchise feel violated now!?

The reason I can’t get behind Tim Burton, even with all of his achievements, is because the guy is so one note. He really does only appear to be able to make one type of film, and it has gotten to the point that it is hard to take him seriously. The only movie that broke that mold was Big Fish, and that movie is beloved because of its imagination and originality. Outside of that one film though, the only color we get from the man is in remakes of classic stories retold in this strange artistically violating sort of way that devours the charm of the original story in the process. It is all heavy blacks with an accent of white or red and at this point his name has come with this inexplicable need to roll your eyes. Dark Shadows is the next movie in the tale of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton and well,

Depp looks like f*@#ing Michael Jackson!

Rant Out.

For related articles

alice in wonderland, benny & joon, charlie and the chocolate factory, edward scissorhands, jack sparrow, johnny depp, no more, pirates of the caribbean, the proclaimers, tim burton Movie Editorials