The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1999)

A Major Disappointment

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

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.

Not as good as the Disney animated version, but much superior to both the Jeff Goldblum and Johnny Depp versions. What makes any live action adaptation of Washington Irving's classic is the choice of Ichabod Crane (The Disney version is judged based on it's narrator, Bing Crosby, who's self-mocking "hip" style, carries the story). Certainly Brent Carver dominates this role from the start when we see him perched upon a hill looking like a scarecrow, it is a startling shot by the director. In the early TV film version, Jeff Goldblum certainly looked the part, but he was too dull. In Tim Burton's spoofy version Johnny Depp (a favorite of mine, especially in Tim Burton films) is just poorly cast (as was Wednesday Adams as Katrina, give me a break puleeeze!). This version is the closest to capturing the flavor of the classic short story. If you want to see Disney's Sleepy Hollow or Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow then the choice is obvious, however, if you want to see Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow check out this obscure cable channel version.

Washington Irving's classic tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman is apparently one that doesn't lend itself to feature length film translation. This version of "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow" comes closer than anyone else has before (certainly closer than the Jeff Goldblum version of 1980). Brent Carver is ideal as the ill-fated school headmaster, and his run-in with the classic ghost is quite well-filmed. The padding needed in the script to get it to run to feature length just slows the movie down. Basically, an okay TV-movie adaptation that suffices on an unexpectedly rainy Sunday afternoon.