The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1999)

hyped garbage

Admirable film.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

As one who has read and greatly enjoyed the book and having seen the other films of this story, I must say it is head and shoulders above the others. I particularly mention Brent Carver, his performance as Crane was first class. He evoked the character very well, unlike Johnny Depp who for once was cast in a role he could not handle. May I also say the settings and costumes were excellent.

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW is a cheap Canadian TV movie version of the short story. It came out in the same year as Tim Burton's blockbuster SLEEPY HOLLOW, which of course had a much bigger budget and is therefore a slicker and better realised production. Saying that, I did like the way this film presents a more traditional, anchored, and realistic fairy tale, in which the cheesy ghostly stuff is kept to a bare minimum.Needless to say that unknown actor Brent Carver gives a much better performance as Ichabod Crane than Johnny Depp did in the Burton film. Depp played it as all quirk, a desperate attention-seeking performance that turned my stomach. By comparison Carver is nervy and mild-mannered, much closer in realisation to the Ichabod of the book. I'm still holding out on seeing Jeff Goldblum in the role though (he made a film of the story in 1980) as I can imagine he'd supply the definitive portrayal.Elsewhere, THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW suffers from the usual issues associated with the TV movie genre, namely lots of padding which only serves to drag the pacing down when it should be snappy. That's one of the perils of adapting a short story for a feature length movie. The romance stuff is quite horrible as is the acting of Rachelle LeFevre, later the star of TV's UNDER THE DOME. Burton's is the better version due to the budget and supporting cast alone, although I'm still waiting to see the definitive version of the story.

When this movie came out, there were 2 other versions of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow released as well. One was --like this version -- a made-for-TV movie, which had Luke Perry, supply the voice of Brom Bones(it was a computer animated version), & the other one was the Tim Burton one, which totally did its own thing, with the story.The one we have here, shows Ichabod's true colours: he is only interested in marrying Katrina Von Tassel in a bid to inherit her father's estate, whereas Brom Bones truly loves Katrina. Of all the film versions, this one is the most sympathetic to the character of Brom Bones.It appears in this movie, that all the women appear to be enamoured with, and admire Ichabod Crane, while the men view him as an overblown fake. They can see past his claims to be very brave, & know that deep down, he is a coward underneath who will jump at the slightest thing.Thoroughly enjoyed it.

This version wasn't any too good. There was just nothing special about it. And what I couldn't stnad was that Ichobad was not likeable. Although Brent Carver did a good job with the acting, the character was not that of a loveable teacher, but of a snobby educated man, who looks down on people who aren't. The problem I think that a lot of people run into when they are making this film is that they are trying to expand a short story into a full length movie. I still prefer the Disney version the best. Tim Burton's version comes second.