Tuesday, December 17, we’re showing Edwards Scissorhands with a special menu. Scroll to the bottom to buy tickets. Here’s a little something to think about:

Down In History: The Quiet Triumph of Edward Scissorhands

Christmastime is rife with heroes, the most obvious of whom is Christ himself. The story of Jesus is so ungraspable, even in its world-winning religious sense, that since time immemorial we’ve created hazy and miniature imitations of the tale that we could hold in our minds without fainting. On your own time, make a long list of the misfit/sacrifice/hero stories but for now consider only Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer and Edward Scissorhands. We’re screening the latter, a Tim Burton film, on Tuesday, December 17, at 7pm, on the big screen at Popolo.

We’re given little information about Edward’s beginnings: a crazy spooky-mansion-dwelling inventor, played by Vincent Price, makes a boy. He does so in the lonely and creepy Gepetto style. But instead of giving the boy a growy nose to betray his freakishness some of the time, Edward gets scissors for hands all the time. From the narrative, we learn that Edward has these hands because he “isn’t finished.” We keep asking ourselves why in God’s name did Price’s character put the scissors on him to begin with. The ungraspable logic of his decision allows us to thankfully suspend not only disbelief but logic, period. As it turns out, that’s the best way to tell a good story: break the audience’s grip on reality.

You see, in the case of Rudolph, a young reindeer whose only deformity is a shiny nose, we’re asked to feel pity, even indignance, when his peers ostracize and make fun of him. In short, he has a bad day or two until, owing to inclement weather and the fearfulness of puffed up reindeer with names like Thunder and Lightning, the shiny-nosed adolescent saves the day and becomes a hero to the jubilant cheers of “You’ll go down in history!”

Me, I have a hard time relating to this character even while rooting for the underdog.

As it happens, and this is no joke, Rudolph’s image and all the rights entailed, are owned by The Rudolph Company, L.C., who have themselves gone down in history. Created by Robert May for his young daughter while her mother lay dying of cancer, the story of red-nosed abnormality was given away in book form by Montgomery Ward – 6 million copies in the first six years! The attendant song, composed by May’s brother-in-law and sung by Gene Autry, is the second biggest selling single in the history of the music business, the first is “White Christmas.” May’s descendants continue to own the Rudolph Company and have grown rich beyond Santa’s wildest dreams. The glory bestowed upon this mythical reindeer borders on hegemonous and threatens to unseat the biggest players in the pantheon of Holiday Heroes.

Not so with Edward Scissorhands. Without giving away too much, this cult film about the small-mindedness of suburban America and the cost of difference does not end well for its protagonist. One could certainly make the argument that Burton depicts everyone as a freak, least of all Edward, whose simple understanding of Holiday Heroism teaches a lesson more lasting than the victory of a momentarily snubbed minor oddity. In the end, dressed in ridiculous holidaywear, the villagers march to the spooky mansion; they’re brandishing cigarettes, not pitchforks and torches like other monster hunters we’ve known. You can’t help but laugh as the love interest, Kim Boggs, in a frigid performance by Winona Ryder, saves the day and lives to tell the tale.

If you’re looking to rekindle some of your Christmas spirit but can’t bear to sit through another showing of It’s A Wonderful Life, we recommend you embrace your inner freak at our showing of Edward Scissorhands. We’re not saying you’ll find that candy-coated wonder that gets us through the holidays but you’ll take away a sense of what’s important in ways that might not normally go down in history.

Tickets to Edward Scissorhands are available in the restaurant and online at popolomeanspeople.com. Prix Fixe Meal and The Movie cost $25.00. Menu to be announced.

For more information call 802.460.7676.