Beetlejuice is a film directed by Tim Burton, first released in the USA on March 30, 1988, and produced by The Geffen Film Company for Warner Bros. Pictures. It features two recently deceased ghosts, Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) and his wife, Barbara, (Geena Davis), who seek the help of an obnoxious bio-exorcist, Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), to remove the Deetz family — metropolitan yuppies who recently moved from New York City and now occupy their old house. The Deetz family consists of Charles (Jeffrey Jones); his second wife, Delia (Catherine O'Hara); and teenage daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder). This marks the first time Keaton and Burton have teamed up, the second and third being Batman and Batman Returns.

The name of the film is Beetlejuice, and the character is called "Beetlejuice" in the credits, but in the film itself the character's name is always spelled "Betelgeuse", like the star. Repeating this name three times is all that is required to summon him and also makes him leave. Adam and Barbara are not his only victims, for scams are his specialty. He used to be an assistant to Juno (Sylvia Sidney), the Maitlands' case worker, before getting into trouble (he tried exorcism on the living instead of the dead, hence his nickname the bio-exorcist). Betelgeuse is rude, vulgar and lecherous, eats insects, and loves to terrify people.

The film was originally titled The Maitlands, as Adam and Barbara are much more the protagonists than Betelgeuse is, and was originally meant to be less humorous than it ultimately became, but Tim Burton decided to go for a more humorous approach after Michael Keaton came on board as Betelgeuse.

In this typically dark and humorous Tim Burton film, most of Keaton's lines were apparently improvised on set. Notable guest appearances include those of Robert Goulet and Dick Cavett (Delia's art agent). Songs from Harry Belafonte are featured quite heavily in the movie, especially in a scene in which Delia starts belting out "Day-O" (The Banana Boat Song) in Belafonte's voice (thanks to some spectral trickery) at a dinner that she and Charles are hosting. The movie paints a picture of the afterlife as stuffy and bureaucratic rather than Dantean, with waiting rooms, oceans of red tape, and required reading (The Handbook for the Recently Deceased). People who commit suicide, for example, have become bored civil servants. Adam and Barbara are trapped in their house. The world outside is a parched nightmare of sand dunes and a sandworm (Betelgeuse calls this place Saturn, but it is clearly a reference to Frank Herbert's Dune). When exorcised, spirits are trapped in the room of lost souls. Lydia is the only living character who sees the couple, and is tapped to help them deal both with her obnoxious parents and with the crass and impetuous Betelgeuse.

When characters die in the world of Beetlejuice, they apparently always return as ghosts. When first appearing as a ghost, characters do not seem to be able to understand what has happened to them. As time goes on, and characters become more and more aware of their ghost nature, they become more and more powerful. (Adam and Barbara make themselves look scary, but are apparently unseen by the new family. Adam and Barbara possess the new family during dinner and cause them to dance. Adam and Barbara allow Lydia to levitate at the end.) Betelgeuse has been dead for a very long time (he claims to have "lived through the Black Plague"), and has almost limitless powers. He is seemingly banished to the model town in the attic of the house, where his powers are greatly reduced. When released, he is able to control inanimate objects to attack people, create or transform objects (which he mostly does with clothes), shrink and enlarge people, imitate other people, summon objects and people at will, and banish people to ‘Saturn’.

[edit] Portrayal of the afterlife

Beetlejuice seems to be inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist novel Les jeux sont faits (1952), which prominently features death as meaningless bureaucracy, albeit presented in a much less morbid fashion. Another, although not as extreme, example is the 2004 TV series Dead Like Me, in which the characters need to work as grim reapers before they can leave limbo. Also, in the LucasArts adventure game Grim Fandango, people who commit crimes in life are forced to work off their time at the nightmarishly bureaucratic "Department of Death". An interesting contrast can be made with Burton's later work Corpse Bride, where the afterlife is vibrant and exciting, and the land of the living is grey and boring. All these are examples of Bangsian fantasy. Various esoteric and magical elements, such as exorcism, incantations, and seances, are prevalent in the afterlife as portrayed in this film. Religion occupies almost no identifiable role in the film, aside from fleeting references to Heaven and Hell.

[edit] Effects work

Beetlejuice was not granted an extravagant budget, particularly after Little Shop of Horrors ended up costing more than expected. As a result of this—and of the director's improvisational style—some of the effects work may seem cheap and old-fashioned, especially by today's standards. Sometimes, however, the need to produce effects quickly and cheaply added to their quality. Scenes like the sand worm scene were shot in stop motion animation. And the shot of Barbara lifting up a toy horse in front of a mirror (demonstrating that while it cast a reflection, she did not) was achieved entirely in-camera, using an empty mirror frame, a partial set built beyond and two toy horses bolted together. The resulting shot is an illusion with no matte work or consequent loss of image definition.

Maybe because of the limited budget, the film features some notable inconsistencies and bloopers, some more obvious than others. One remarkable example is a scene where the deceased character draws a door on the wall with chalk.

[edit] Critical Reaction

Time Out London was massively impressed by the film, declaring that "the off-the wall humour and some sensational sight gags make the movie, maddeningly disjointed though it sometimes is, a truly astonishing piece of work."^[1] Roger Ebert took a different view, wishing the film had been more character-driven and had "cut back on the slapstick."^[2]

Beetlejuice
[1988]

Jedná se o originální příběh novomanželů, kteří se zabijí jednoho krásného dne v autě. Vrací se domů jako duchové, anž by si to uvědomovali. O něco později to zjistí a seznamují s novým způsobem "života". Jejich údělem je zůstat ve svém domě, z kterého nemohou odejít (za dveřmi číhají velikánští červi). 
Nic by se asi nestalo, kdyby se do jejich domu nepřistěhovala šílená rodina - bláznivá sochařka, manžel a dcera, která věří v duchy a její oblíbená barva šatů je černá. 
Nešťastní duchové hledají pomoc, Jejich sociální pracovnice v záhrobí jim dává užitečné rady, a tak začínají strašit. Coby poletující prostěradla se pohybují po chodbách a děsivě houkají. Podobně jako strašidlo Cantervillské nemají úspěch. Všichni se je snaží ignorovat a ani nevylezou z pokojů. Jen ta nejmladší se s nimi setkává a seznamuje. 
Její rodiče jsou zprávami o duchách potěšeni. Ještě více však Oto, manažer její matky, který hned pomáhá plánovat obchodní využití duchů. 
Manželé povolávají Beetlejuice, vymýtače lidí, který je sice zčásti úspěšný, ale jeho metody jsou nebezpečné životu. Proto ho opět odvolávají (stejný způsob - stačí říct třikrát Beetlejuice). 
Vymýtač lidí se nakonec vrací, aby zachránil manžele-duchy, kteří jsou ničeni Ottou, jenž se zmocnil jejich záhrobní příručky. Za jejich záchranu chce svatbu s dcerou manželů.
Konečný souboj s Beetlejuicem, při kterém Adam a Barbara (duchové) Maitlandovi zachraňují Lýdii, dopadne dobře a obě rodiny pak žijí společně v jednom domě. 
Tento film je plný skvělých triků a neotřelých nápadů. Nejsou v něm žádné klasické vtipy, ale naopak množství originálních scén, které je třeba vidět několikrát, aby člověk pochopil autorův záměr. Kromě inteligentního (místy ztřeštěného až černého) humoru, je film plný masek a originálního zobrazení záhrobního života. 
Režisér Tim Burton (mj. Batman) zde pracoval s Michaelem Keatonem, kterého o rok později obsadil do role Batmana. 
Jeho herecký výkon v obou filmech je skutečně pozoruhodný. 


BEETLEJUICE - USA 1988, 92 min 
Hrají: Alec Baldwin (Adam Maitland), Geena Davis (Barbara Maitland), Michael Keaton (Beetlejuice)
Rodina Deetzových- Charles (Jeffrey Jones); jeho druhá žena, Delia (Catherine O'Hara); a jejich dcera, teenager  Lydia (Winona Ryder).
Režie: Tim Burton 
Scénář: Michael McDowell, Warren Skaren 
Kamera: T. Ackerman