Beetlejuice (1988)
Director: Tim Burton
Stars: Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Winona
Ryder, Catherine O’Hara
Short Review, no spoilers
There’s never a bad time to revisit one of Tim Burton’s best
films, but no less so than when a 36 year later sequel is soon to be released.
Full Review (spoilers)
Beetlejuice is one of those peculiar films that were beloved
by kids of the ‘80s that were actually pretty adult – certified 15 - but still recorded
off the telly at whatever time of day and repeatedly watched thereafter. Naturally
the few swears and adult moments of humour were cut out but this didn’t take much
away from the experience and in fact, seeing the uncut version in later life
only slightly upscaled what was already a blast of a movie.
Who knew Beetlejuice was Batman?! Micheal Keaton shows his capability
to be darkly suave in one moment and a filthy nut in another - the ‘Let’s get
nuts!’ moment in Batman is a hint – kudos to Tim Burton for recognising it as a
director. In Beetlejuice, Keaton is unrecognisably costumed and made-up but
unleashed to be at his most comedically manic. As the self-proclaimed
‘bio-exorcist’, he epitomises an excellent villain in a darkly cartoonish
celebration of the dead and not quite – he’s rude, naughty, and chaotically
rebellious. As fine foils to this however, is cult favourite Geena Davis and
also Alec Baldwin - himself nearly unrecognisable by being fair-haired and a
serious goof - as a loving couple who are desperate to remove some hideous
yuppies from their house. They’re dead by the way, and stuck in some kind of
weird purgatory, which is why it becomes an issue.
Another star is an original Burton muse in Winona Ryder, a
dark-haired, doe-eyed sweetheart that nevertheless infiltrated Hollywood by way
of a rare moment in the ’90s that was less interested in generically and
sunnily attractive heroes and heroines. As Lydia, she’s charitably called a
little girl by Davis’ character Barbara, even as she drifts gothically around
in funereal dress and comments dryly on matters of death and her sense of self
as ‘strange and unusual’. Performances are excellent all round, including
Catherine O’Hara as Lydia’s stepmother, an ‘artist’ who is overwrought and
megalomaniacal even as the commonly held opinion of her ‘work’ is that it is appalling.
Husband Charles is in some ways more complex – seemingly desperate for a
quieter life, it’s not long however before his own greed for wealth and
validation emerges and he spies the opportunities for real estate development
in the small town they land themselves in.
The fate of childless couple Adam and Barbara Maitland is
really rather sad. We find them very much in love and embarking on a vacation
to perfect their house in the country, however they die abruptly in a car
accident and have to deal with all that apparently comes with it when you don’t
simply go to heaven or hell. Nevertheless, Burton keeps the tempo up and never
allows us to dwell too long on the downsides of mortality before charging on to
the variously humourous misadventures of their new undead life. With playfully
grim jokes and Burton at his creative best in terms of effects, we travel with
the Maitlands on their journey through the complications of being ghosts who
are sometimes seen but mostly ignored, even as the Deetz family move in and trample
their dirty city feet all over the quaint life the couple were building before
they were rudely interrupted.
Where the sequel will go narratively is yet to be seen
however, any tale of dastardly gentrification by morons couldn’t be more
relevant in today’s era as any other. As Charles Deetz declares to his former
boss: ‘These people don't know the value of their property, I can buy the whole
town‘. A joyful poke at these moneyed types is the wonderful scene when the
Maitlands attempt a big scare by possessing the Deetz’s dinner party guests,
accompanied by calypso music and a terrifying shrimp starter. Very funny but
the cynicism of the invited guests ends up renewing the Deetz’s determination to
scrape nothing but a full investment from their purchase. The true ghouls are
revealed when the Deetz family and an idiotic hanger-on Otho rabble up the
stairs to the attic and speculate on how the Maitlands’ deaths can be
capitalised – any possibility of human empathy can just be hung out the window
as far as they are concerned…
What none of them count on though is Beetlejuice’s
ruthlessness when invited to the fold. They all end up attempting to rely on
him to get what they want done however, this rancid, wild card pest turns out
to be very difficult to contain. When the Deetz’s manage to get Charles’
ex-boss to the house, Otho performs a séance/exorcism which ends up nearly
exterminating the Maitlands, so even Lydia herself turns to Beetlejuice in
desperation. Henceforth, more delirious chaos and an almost marriage between
the young girl and the fiendish, troublemaking ghost - a deal made to keep him
permanently rampaging in the land of the living. After the yuppies are
dispensed with circus-style, including Delia caged by her own hideous sculpture
and Otho sent screaming in white-suited horror, the Maitlands recover and manage
to intervene, rescuing Lydia and sending Beetlejuice to the bureaucratic
purgatorial hell that is the living dead waiting room.
A settled compromise has come about by the end with the two
families learning to live together in an arrangement that seems to suit
everybody. Delia’s sculpting now has inspiration from their recent ordeal,
Charles has something to read, and Lydia’s favourite kind of people – dead -
take a heartfelt interest in her. In an original version of the script online,
Charles reassures Lydia that in a couple of years, the town will be filled with
people like them. Fortunately, their supernatural experience teaches them that
they don’t have to destroy what came before them to suit their purposes, and
can live harmoniously if they restrain their investment developing impulses.
Sadly there will be many towns and cities the world over who will wish they had
Beetlejuice to call on.
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