A Big Fish Film Analysis: “William, evolution and maturity of the son and reconciliation with his father "The Big Fish"

“William, evolution and maturity of the son and reconciliation with his father "The Big Fish"

Movie title: BIG FISH
Director: Tim Burton
Year: 2004

Introduction

The storyline of the movie is about the reencounter of William and his father Edward Bloom, who is suffering a terminal disease. William wants to know the truth about his father’s life in order to separate fiction from reality behind the stories Ed used to tell his son since he was an infant.

In this lovely fairy tale the audience can find the important issues of mankind such as love, family, forgiveness, courage, adventure and death, and how the head of the family loves more than anything: his wife and only son. Unfortunately, his longer absences through the years and the “lies” he told his son, have affected their relationship. Father and son remain distant to each other since Will’s weeding day, and only with Edward’s near death, they will return to talk and settle their issues and so William may accept the philosophy of his father's life in order to raise his unborn son.

Argumentation

Sequences of the movie according to my thesis:

Sequence 1: In the credits; The story of “the beast”, the big fish, told by Ed to his little child, then Ed tells the same story to the kids of a camp.

Sequence 2: Will travels by plane Ed remembers the tale of the witch.

Sequence 3: Will arrives home; Ed remembers his friend “the giant” and how he spent three years in bed, he remembers also his arrival to Spectre, the mystery town.

Sequence 4: Will, Ed, his wife Sandra and Josephine are having dinner. Ed tells the circus story to Josephine, his daughter-in-law.

Sequence 5: Will and Josephine in bed, Ed tells to Josephine about that time his father served the country in war while William talks to Ed sincerely.

Sequence 6: Will, Ed, Josephine and Sandra together, Will remembers when his father comes back from the war and starts to sell hand-form paperweights.

Sequence 7: Ed in the bathtub, Will goes to Spectre and visits Jenny, she tells her vision about Ed and how he saved Spectre of bankruptcy.

Sequence 8: Ed in the hospital, Will tells Ed a tale about Ed’s dreamed death, and continues to carry on Ed’s legacy of storytelling.

Thesis: “William, evolution and maturity of the son and reconciliation with his father "The Big Fish"


Sequence 1:
The search of greatness represented by the big fish on the sea, the search of opportunities is delineated by hundreds of rings hanged by fishing rods. We can only see the back of the father; the son’s body language says that he is getting bored of dad’s stories.

On Will graduation day, Ed is telling the same story to a girl and, on the screen we see the separation between father and son, different rooms, different body positions, Ed’s face cannot be seen. On Will’s weeding day, they fight near the water, which represents the element that Ed is comfortable in. So we see that the father always had the power between their relationship until they stop talking for three years.

Sequence 2:
William is in an office in Paris, working as a journalist. He took a different path from his father steps by working in a safe and modern place. Sandra is kind of Ed’s guardian angel because she looks up for him while he swims in the pool. Her image is double as she plays the role of wife and guardian, and we can see her, as she was a giant compare with Ed (she is the most important person in Ed’s life). Ed is the big fish because he observes the world underwater and he was the one who spent his life searching for something big. When Ed is fishing we see a double image of him; half is outside the water and half is on the water, while his reflection creates the illusion as he belongs on both parts.

Sequence 3:
William arrives home with Josephine, his wife, when he asks to Sandra about his dad health he feels that the house he grew up in still remains huge, even though he is an adult. When he goes upstairs to make his dad eat, we can see the camera in a high-angle shot while he sees in disappointment the pictures in the wall. The emotional weight of confronting his dad makes him feel small and childish. On the other hand when he enters to his dad’s room, the camera angle changes to a low-angle shot, now the son is above the sick father.

At this point we can see all of the marvelous things Edward Bloom did for his town, in a very fantastical and heroic way, like confronting the giant. Also Edward goes by accident to “Spectre”, a town that may represent heaven (all the people are beautiful and dressed in white) but also hell, the lagoon by the town is dark and sinister. In Spectre Edward meets 10 years old Jenny and made a promise to her, “I will come back”. As Ed leaves the town, we see a cord full of hanged shoes, the idea of death appears again, is not time of Edward yet.



Sequence 4:
After dinner Ed talks to Josephine; he tells her the story of how he met Sandra. This part of the movie is very romantic and the staging is full of color and fantasy, we see as if the sequence was a dream, the search of Ed for the love of his life; however, difficult it may be, Edward gets to know and conquer Sandra, eventually they got married.

William begins to understand his dad’s view because he listens to this conversation; Josephine plays an important role as mediator, being the caring and devoted wife, as his mother Sandra was always for Edward.

Sequence 5:
William reclaims to Edward when he is on his bedroom, he breaks Edwards heart by saying that he listens only lies during his whole life. But when Will is cleaning the pool, a big fish appears to him, he starts seeing the world as his father, even though he is “cleaning” the pool, the father’s natural habitat.

Sequence 6:
When Sandra, Josephine and Will enter to Ed’s garage to clean it, we can see a dirty and cluttered space, then Will throw most of the stuff away, but when Sandra finds the letter of the government notifying Edward’s mistaken death, suddenly Will changes his attitude toward his father and realize that not all the things he told him were a complete lie, the hand (a novelty product Ed used to sell) is toward Will, so the hand of his father is reaching his son.

We see the son growing up in giant steps, the son who will soon become a dad.


Sequence 7:
In one of the many life memories of Ed, we see how he accidentally helped a poet to rob a bank and in return, the poet gave him money, which he used to buy a house. When the camera shows this house, we see the same high-angle shot, like when Will arrived home after three years. The big white house with backyard and lovely wife and kid, represents the fulfilled “American dream”. As different from Edward, Will don’t fit in this dream because he is in the search of answers and his dad creates the moments and enjoys life.

Although William feels he doesn’t have enough time to learn more about his father, Ed remains calm about his death, he is immersed in the bathtub while his wife Sandra enters like a siren to merge with, in his natural habitat.

In the meantime Will goes to Spectre and looks for Jenny, the little girl that fell in love with Ed years ago. But Will finds out a terrifying and destroyed little town, nothing like the stories of his dad. He confronted Jenny, as she denies never having an affair with his father.

This woman, Jenny represents the good, the bad and the ugly of Edward’s life, as she plays the role of the witch who told him his death when he was a kid, Jenny was in love of Edward since she was a kid, but that love was not returned, then he helped her to recover the now ghost town Spectre. In this period he got confused, but in the end, nothing happened between them.



Sequence 8:
When Ed is in the hospital, Will stays with him, although a hospital is a cold, distant building, both are fenced in one place, father on the bed, as in most of the movie, and son in the chair, as the guardian of his final hours. The papers changed, his mother and Ed’s guardian said goodbye to him earlier to let spend father and son the final moments in order to fix their situation with love.

Edward asks his son to tell the story of his end, then, William becomes the storyteller and recreates the final path of Edward Bloom. As they get out of the hospital, we can see the trees in the winter, dry with no leaves, dying, like Edward, but when they arrive to the river, everyone important in Ed’s life are there, celebrating like in a party. Josephine throws Ed’s sandals to a cord between the trees, like Jenny did in Spectre. Until he is on the river, Sandra is half way down waiting for him; he returns his wedding ring to her as a sign of giving his love forever.

In a very emotional way, William throws Edward down to the river, as he converts himself in the Big Fish, the son remains in the water and finally understands his father way of live.

In the funeral William sees all of the characters he’s been listening all his life: the giant, (not so much), the circus guy, and the Siamese Chinese twins, who in fact, are twins. We see the “real” people, magnified by Edward Bloom.

After a period of seven years the narrator is still William, in the moment we see his son in the pool of his house telling his friends the stories of his grandfather; then, a big fish is swimming around and taking care of his people, Ed the immortal fish.


Conclusion:
We saw the story of the son of a very particular man, and how his way of life really affected their relationship as father and son. This movie taught us acceptation and forgiveness. Edward Bloom spent his whole life knowing about his way of die, and that made him feel big and immortal in so many aspects.

To William wasn’t easy to have such a charismatic, liar and distant father, so he became a journalist because he wanted to know the facts rather than fiction.

When he really understood his father, not only that he forgave him, but he continued Ed’s tradition of storytelling, as he realized that there is nothing wrong with that, more than embellish the truth, which is boring and common, nothing like Edward Bloom.