Cullen Whisenhunt

Release date: December 10, 2003

Directed by: Tim Burton

Produced by: Dan Jinks, Bruce Cohen, Richard D. Zanuck

Screenplay by: John August

Based On: Big Fish: A Novel of Epic Proportions by Daniel Wallace

Music by: Danny Elfman

Distributed by: Columbia Pictures

Running Time: 125 minutes

Ewan McGregor Albert Finney

Young Edward Bloom Old Edward Bloom

Billy Crudup Helena Bonham Carter

William Bloom Jenny Hill

Alison Lohman Jessica Lange

Young Sandra Old Sandra

Steve Buscemi Matthew McGrory

Norther Winslow Karl

Marion Cotillard Tim Burton

Josephine Bloom Director

Released in 2003, Big Fish is Tim Burton’s film adaption of the 1998 Daniel Wallace novel of the same name, which incorporated elements of both Homer’s Odyssey and James Joyce’s Ulysses(most notably the lead character’s last name).

Using a series of flashbacks interspersed between “present-day” events, it tells the story of Edward Bloom’s fantastic adventures as a young man. All the while, his son William tries to determine the truth of his father’s past in among the embellished tales.

William Bloom returns to his childhood home with his pregnant wife to visit his father Edward, who has been diagnosed with cancer and is effectively on his deathbed. The two haven’t spoken in 3 years, ever since William accused Edward of upstaging him at his wedding. William, now a published journalist, feels compelled to investigate his father’s history to attempt to understand his “real” father, as opposed to the man his father built himself up to be in his many stories, which William proceeds to relate to us.

The tales begin with Edward as a young boy who, along with some friends, sneaks up to a “witches” house deep in a swamp near his hometown of Ashton, Alabama. Dared to go inside the house, Edward approaches the door and is confronted by the witch, who shows him how he will die (her glass eye serving as a crystal ball). He then is confined to his bed (hooked up to a large amount of medical machinery) because his body is growing too fast. It is there he reads about goldfish in an encyclopedia, and notes that some fish, given a small habitat, will stay small, while some given a larger habitat will grow. Using this to influence his outlook on life, he decides to leave town after graduating high school, despite being very successful as both an athlete and in managing his own business. First, however, he must rid the town of a rogue giant that steals and devours the farmers’ sheep. He does this by simply convincing the giant (actually a kind-hearted soul named Karl) to leave town with him, as it isn’t large enough for either of them.

A few miles into their journey the two come upon a crossroad, and Edward decides to take the harder path that runs through a dark forest, saying that he’ll meet Karl on the other side. While the path proves to hold many dangers, it eventually comes out in a small idyllic town called Spectre. There Edward finds Norther Winslow, a poet formerly from Ashton who had gone missing some time ago. Norther had stumbled upon Spectre in his own travels and had decided to settle down there permanently, just like all the other inhabitants of the town. Despite the peace and tranquility of Spectre, Edward soon decides to leave (something that no one had ever done before) and continues on through the forest, meeting Karl on the other side, just as he said. The two then begin working at a circus, where Edward first sees his future wife Sandra Templeton. After working three years and being paid only in information about Sandra by the circus ringmaster (a friend of the family), Edward is told her name and where to find her. He then ventures to Auburn University where she is studying and is confronted by her fiancé Don (a high school rival), who beats him mercilessly after Edward promises not to fight back. Sandra calls off the engagement and instead marries Edward (an aside explains that Don eventually died of congenital heart failure, as seen in the witch’s eye).

Edward is then drafted by the military and sent to North Korea, where he undertakes a dangerous mission to steal important enemy documents, succeeds, then persuades a pair of conjoined twins to help him smuggle himself back into America. Edward soon returns to Sandra (who had been told he was dead), and takes up a traveling sales job. While on the job, Edward runs into Norther (in the middle of a bank robbery), who tells him that Spectre has become a ghost town in his absence. This revelation leads Edward to begin buying the different buildings and homes in Spectre so he can rebuild the town.

Back in present-time, William finds the deed to the home of one Jenny Hill (a resident of Spectre) in his father’s shed. William journeys to Spectre to interview Jenny, who he assumes had an affair with his father. Jenny informs him that while she harbored romantic feelings for Edward, when she attempted to act on them during Edward’s rebuilding of her home, he rebuffed her, insisting that Sandra was his only love. Upon returning to his father’s house, he finds that his father has had a stroke and is in the hospital. William stays the night with his father, during which time his father asks him to “tell [him] how it ends.” William tells his father an imaginative story about an escape from the hospital that ends with the two at a river surrounded by all of the characters from Edward’s stories, where William drops his father into the water, only to have him transform into a giant fish. Edward then dies, and at his funeral William sees these same characters (without his father’s embellishments), proving that his father’s stories were at least partly true.

Plays the role of Telemachus

Son of main character

Both characters searching for information about fathers

Both have spent extended periods apart from their fathers

Obvious similarities to Polyphemus

Eats sheep

Cave littered with bones of previous meals

Edward initially tries to trick Karl into leaving, similar to Odysseus’ tricks

Friendship with Edward emphasizes Edward’s charm and geniality (his defining traits) in the same way as the Polyphemus episode emphasized Odysseus’ cunning

• Combination of Phaeacia and the Lotus eaters

• Peaceful, lethargic citizens resemble Lotus people

• Spectre holds a dance during Edward’s stay, just like the Phaeacians

• Both Spectre and Phaeacia fell to ruin after the departure of our protagonists

• Many characters in Spectre similar to Phaeacia.

• Mayor, wife, and young Jenny akin to king, queen, and Nausicaa

• Not to mention…

Parody of the Phaeacia’sgreatest poet Demodocus

Townspeople’s attitude towards Norther mirrors the admiration of the Phaeacians

However, as Edward would point out, his poetic abilities were lacking

Character would serve as comic relief not only in Spectre, but also later as an unsuccessful bank robber

Implied to be the witch that prophesied Edward’s death, despite being younger than Edward (“circular logic”)

Believed to be a witch by many younger denizens of Spectre

Not only does she play the role of Nausicaa (as the younger Jenny), she also resembles both Calypso and Circe

Edward spends a large amount of time with Jenny, like Odysseus with both Calypso and Circe

Unlike Odysseus, Edward chooses to remain faithful

Interestingly enough, not only does this choice go against The Odyssey, it also goes against Wallace’s novel

Reminiscent of Odysseus’ journey into the Underworld

Idea of death present in both depictions

We also see a veritable parade of old friends in both works

Odysseus’ war comrades

Major figures from Edward’s adventures

Both protagonists renowned in their home towns

Sandra’s fiancé Don represents Penelope’s suitors

Edward refuses to fight Don, Odysseus refused to fight the suitors (for a time)

Both men were drafted into war, were a part critical missions during those wars (Edward’s mission versus the Trojan Horse), and were assumed dead before returning home

Edward’s drive to keep searching for new adventures is a nod at Joyce’s Ulysses (“Ulysses” being the Roman name for Odysseus) The Roman’s believed that Odysseus was in constant pursuit of new places and experiences

Water is an ever-present element in both works. Odysseus is at sea for most of his journey, while Edward says that he was always thirsty (perhaps a pun on “thirsting” for adventure, another reference to Ulysses)

As you can see, Big Fish borrows heavily from the plot of The Odyssey. However, this modern interpretation of the epic emphasizes the reconciliation of father and son and the importance of story telling, instead of simply chronicling the hero’s exploits. Just as Telemachus grew up knowing his father only through stories told to him by others, William Bloom feels as though his father uses fantastic stories to distance himself from others, thus leaving William believing that he has never known his real father. William searches truth in the same way that Telemachus journeyed to Nestor’s realm to find information on his father. Both even question their relations to their fathers, with Telemachus being told he is too immature to be his father’s child, while William admits that “I [don’t] see anything of myself in my father.” In the end, however, both are reconciled and live up to their father’s legacies, Telemachus by dealing with the suitors, and William by finishing his father’s story. This is the other important theme of the movie. Despite William’s original disdain for his father’s fantastic stories, in finishing his father’s tales he finally realizes the one fact that his father had been trying to teach him all along. We are our stories. His father told larger-than-life stories because he was larger-than-life.