In yesterday’s Sun-Times review of Sleepy Hollow, Roger Ebert writes:
No. He can’t mean who I think he means, can he?
Well, I called the psychic hotline to try to figure out who you were thinking of, and they told me to avoid Libras and to fear death by water. Some help they were.
If you don’t want to know who the actor is, skip this posting…
It’s Christopher Walken. I know because Roger Ebert was the only critic who DIDN’T give this away in the reviews.
Interestingly (to me, anyway), Christopher Walken is ALSO an Astorian. That is, he was born and raised in my old neighborhood of Astoria (Queens), New York. His family owned the nicest bakery around, and my family often got their birthday cakes there. (No, I never knew him personally!)
Actually, how Ebert concluded that Walken was ideally suited to play a Hessian soldier is beyond me.
In any case, I suspect Washington Irving would be either amused or aghast at how seriously film adapters have taken the headless horseman aspect of the story. Irving was, first and foremost, a humorist, and it’s pretty clear in his story that there ISN’T a real headless horseman. Ichabod Crane was a superstitious dork who was scared out of town by Brom Bones, the town’s resident practical joker.
Thanks, Astorian. I agree, I don’t get Ebert’s reference either.
And here I thought he meant… Oh well, never mind. If I had been right, it would have been seriously twisted. Appropriate, but twisted.
Walken always plays a great maniacal madman.
I love Walken’s psychotics, but he also used his masklike face superbly in the TV movies Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991) and its sequel Skylark (1993), both with Glenn Close. (They did another “installment” this year, but I haven’t seen it.)
Tom~
Well, I saw it last night, good movie if you’re into that sort of stuff, like me. Yes, it’s to be taken as a serious ghost story, it is Timothy Burton after all. He must’ve found Washington Irving too monotonous 
Larry
Irving based his story on a real legend. huh? an authentic folk tale how about that? That’s brtter,thanx. So i guess burton’s is based on the legaend as reported by Irving. Come on Random WHO were you thinking of? It can’t be as twisted as some of the guys I have come up with. BTW What is it with Washington Irving how come his name is backwards? I mean his last name is a first name and… I guess upper new york is back east but is it that oriental?
“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx
I saw it last night too, and for me the ridiculous makeup they had poor Walken (and I’m a fan of this great American actor) wearing was one of the very few low points of this movie. The guy was supposed to play a Hessian; they should have had him all pale and Aryan-like.
In an interview with a SF magazine, Walken was asked what his best role was, and his answer:
Puss In Boots. Nobody has seen this movie.
Well, I’ve seen it, and he’s right - it is his best role ever! He is so effing brilliant in it! Watch it, I guarantee you’ll love it, if you’re into Fairy Tales made real that is.
-PIGEONMAN-
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Thanks for the suggestion Guanolad, I am always on the lookout for quality obscure movies. And yes, I agree that Walkens’ makeup was overdone,
Larry
I actually know the husband and wife team who wrote and directed Puss in Boots. In addition to Walker, it also has Sean Connery’s son it in. Interestingly, much of it was shot in Israel.
If you like Puss in Boots, theres also an adaption of Beauty and the Beast made by the same husband and wife team.
Oh, I don’t know where these movies are available anymore. But if anyone wants to try to get a copy, email and I will contact the director to see if he knows where one might obtain a copy.
Well, then, DB, guess I’ll just sit on the opposite side of the bar on the 11th, huh?
And the problem with small furry animals
in corners is that, just occasionally,
one of them’s a mongoose.
Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad
I haven’t seen the film, but I’ve seen the billboards advertising it. Christina Ricci is showing a LOT of cleavage in that ad. She’s certainly grown since The Addams Family. 
Fighting my own ignorance since 1957.
I have not seen the movie, but have read the story and saw the preview last night before American Beauty – Constable Ichabod Crane? In from New York to investigate a string of murders? What is that, Die Hard In Sleepy Hollow? I had to laugh. I’ll bow to the wisdom of those of you who have seen the flick, but it sounded a little too much like a hatchet (ha!) job of the real story, a la Demi Moore’s The Scarlet Letter.
Jodi
Fiat Justitia
Well, Jodi, it’s Tim Burton taking an American folk tale and turning it into a ghost story. If you’re not cool with that you probably won’t like it, but, IMHO he did a pretty good job for what he was trying to do. I was skeptical too as I knew enough of the story to know they were WAY out in left field, but Johnny Depp was great!
And yes, Jab1, the cleavage wranglers earned their money on this one.
Larry