Fear and trembling: Johnny Depp in Sleepy Hollow

"I have conquered my fear."

I recently caught Sleepy Hollow on telly the other night. It's a beautifully rendered film, and although I don't normally respond to Tim Burton's brand of grotesque humour and gothic vision, this film is an exception.

I love cowards, and even more so when they're male. Johnny Depp's Ichabod Crane is "all posture and carefully learned mannerism, attitude and fastidiousness". He's a "detective of the new order", as Roger Ebert puts it, who believes in scientific method, but finds his emotions—chiefly fear—getting the better of him.

The battle between intellect and fear pulls the character in opposite directions, and this conflict is pleasurable to watch.

To see him jump on a chair in panic at the sight of a spider and screech to a twelve year old boy, "Kill it! Kill it! No—don't kill it—stun it!", really drives it home: Depp-Crane is a coward of the first water.

This is all a preamble to sharing my favorite scene. Crane has been scared out of his mind, and spends days holed up in his bedroom in his pajamas. Suddenly, inexplicably, he violently flings open his door, fully dressed, and announces dramatically:

"I have conquered my fear."

The scene is at once comical and a serious turning point.

How did he conquer his fear? We don't know, but it is implied that in his exile, he fully embraced his fear and that this, paradoxically, allowed him to move towards a liberating realization.

I have conquered my fear.