...
Stephen Sondheim wrote a dark stage musical about Sweeney Todd.
Add to this mix one of the most versatile and daring young actors around and some wonderful characters and you end up with one incredible musical film.
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," Mr. Burton's ... Read review
It was surely only a matter of time until Tim Burton turned his dark attentions to the ... more
19th century tale of Sweeney Todd, the cutthroat barber whose tales of murder and most grisly commerce on the streets of London became the stuff of an award winning 1979 musical. Here, a cast including longtime Burton collaborators Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter--plus Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and Sasha Baron-Cohen-breathe new life into Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheelers musical tale with a special gothic relish for the simmering horror within. Depps accomplished, haunted "No Place Like London" sets the scene for whats to come, the nations capital introduced as a moral abyss ("There's a hole in the world like a great black pit/And the vermin of the world inhabit it"), while Bonham-Carter brings Cockney energy and a squirt of sauce to the "The Worst Pies in London". A neat comic turn, meanwhile, comes courtesy of Baron-Cohen, who plays the role of Italian barber Adolfo Pierelli-inventor of a fraudulent anti-balding lotion-with humorous gusto ("The Contest"). -Louis Pattison
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It was surely only a matter of time until Tim Burton turned his dark attentions to the ... more
19th century tale of Sweeney Todd, the cutthroat barber whose tales of murder and most grisly commerce on the streets of London became the stuff of an award winning 1979 musical. Here, a cast including longtime Burton collaborators Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter--plus Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and Sasha Baron-Cohen-breathe new life into Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheelers musical tale with a special gothic relish for the simmering horror within. Depps accomplished, haunted "No Place Like London" sets the scene for whats to come, the nations capital introduced as a moral abyss ("There's a hole in the world like a great black pit/And the vermin of the world inhabit it"), while Bonham-Carter brings Cockney energy and a squirt of sauce to the "The Worst Pies in London". A neat comic turn, meanwhile, comes courtesy of Baron-Cohen, who plays the role of Italian barber Adolfo Pierelli-inventor of a fraudulent anti-balding lotion-with humorous gusto ("The Contest"). -Louis Pattison
Postage & Packaging:Free! Availability:Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
The Best of British CollectionOdeon Entertainment is proud to release some of the ... more
forgotten classics from the Golden Age of British Cinema. Comedies, thrillers, murder mysteries and films that entertained the post-war generation will be available on DVD for the very first time.The Demon Barber of Fleet StreetIt is England in the 1830's. London's dockside is teeming with ships and sailors who have made their fortune in foreign lands. Sweeney Todd, a Fleet Street barber, awaits the arrival of men whose first port of call is for a good, close shave. For most it will be the last time they are seen alive. Using a specially designed barber's chair, Sweeney Todd despatches his victims to the cellar below, where he robs them of their new found fortunes and chops their remains into small pieces. Meanwhile, Mrs Lovett is enjoying a roaring trade for her popular penny meat pies.
Production Year: 1999 - Music / Performing Arts - Original Language: English - Classification: Exempt - Starring: Donny Osmond, Joan Collins, Richard Attenborough
Advantages: Everything about the film Disadvantages: None for me
== SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET ==
=== 2007 ===
=== FILM ONLY REVIEW ===
=== INTRODUCTION ===
Tim Burton makes fantasy movies.
Stephen Sondheim writes stage musicals.
Tim Burton deals mainly in the land of the gothic and the grotesque, turning comic books and children's tales into scary, nightmarish shadow plays.
...starts with a white faced Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) as he steals up the Thames in the dead of night, in true Burton manner.
The bitter Benjamin Barker, who has changed his name to Sweeney Todd, is returning to London after 15 years of hurt, he has been falsely imprisoned in Australia, a feat engineered by the Judge (Alan Rickman) who stole his wife and infant daughter.
Sweeney has all the looks of a truly demented character, ... more
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
2007
FILM ONLY REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Tim Burton makes fantasy movies.
Stephen Sondheim writes stage musicals.
Tim Burton deals mainly in the land of the gothic and the grotesque, turning comic books and children's tales into scary, nightmarish shadow plays.
Stephen Sondheim wrote a dark stage musical about Sweeney Todd.
Add to this mix one of the most versatile and daring young actors around and some wonderful characters and you end up with one incredible musical film.
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," Mr. Burton's film adaptation of Mr. Sondheim's musical, is dark and terrifying It is in fact as much a horror film as it is a musical.
This is the film version of Stephen Sondheim's musical that debuted on Broadway in 1979, and is about an hour shorter than the stage version. Based on a London legend of a murderous barber in 19th-century Fleet Street, Sondheim's musical is a spine-tingling blend of melodrama, throat-slashing, overwhelmingly lovely music and one lonely man's revenge against the world - and the film certainly doesn't disappoint on any level.
THE STORY
This incredible film starts with a white faced Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) as he steals up the Thames in the dead of night, in true Burton manner. The bitter Benjamin Barker, who has changed his name to Sweeney Todd, is returning to London after 15 years of hurt, he has been falsely imprisoned in Australia, a feat engineered by the Judge (Alan Rickman) who stole his wife and infant daughter.
Sweeney has all the looks of a truly demented character, with his pale face and wild hair featuring a shock of white and his dead eyes rimmed in black, he wears his grief like a suit of armour.
We then hear his painful life story emerge in hollow songs with haunting, off-key melodies; he sings about a barber and his beautiful wife, a barber who had been convicted of a crime he didn't commit On his return he hears that his wife has committed suicide and his daughter (Jayne Wisener) is now a ward of the judge, isolated in a room of his house.
With his mind set on revenge, Sweeney partners with Mrs. Nellie Lovett (a pasty-faced Helena Bonham Carter) - he as a barber, she as the pie maker who's delicacies are filled with the flesh of the victims he slaughters. It is amazing just how much their characters resemble their puppet characters in the Corpse Bride.
Mrs. Lovett had been struggling to keep her pie shop in business - maybe because she made the worst pies in London. She really wasn't too concerned when Sweeney started murdering people, especially once she thought up her unique idea for dealing with the bodies.
Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett settle into their one-way love affair - she wants him, he wants blood.
At the same time, Depp's young sailor friend from the homeward voyage - Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower) - tries to rescue Sweeney's daughter, Johanna, from the lecherous control of Judge Turpin.
Sweeney's attempts at revenge meet several obstacles along the way - an intrusive Italian barber (Sacha Baron Cohen) a wicked beadle (Timothy Spall) and a beggar woman (Laura Michelle Kelly) who claims dark knowledge of Todd's deeds
Nothing though stops Sweeney going on his homicidal rampage, slicing customers at random to supply meat for Mrs Lovett's ever more admired pies. And as the story moves to its warped, wrenching conclusion, the watcher is left to intensely feel the demonic barber's anguish.
CHARACTERS
SWEENEY TODD
This was Johnny Depp's sixth film with Burton, . His absolutly stunning performance combined horror, black humour and genuine heartache, he was in fact very much like an evil version of an earlier Depp/ Burton character -Edward Scissorhands. Depp was sallow yet dark and bleakly compelling as the wounded barber, who goes off into demonic, vicious frenzies. Depp manages to turn a character of immeasurable evil into something sombre and quite sad, and he deservedly received an Oscar nomination for this role.
While Depp may not be the greatest of singers, his singing voice is both distinctive and perfectly suited to the role.
NELLIE LOVETT
Helena Bonham Carter is terrific as the grim and separate Mrs Lovett and, despite her dark role, she does provide several good laughs. Carter was fiendishly fetching, and she instilled as much pathos as possible into such an unsavoury (rather like her pies!) character. Her singing in the role, although a very small voice, seemed very natural, I just loved her shattering solo, the hilarious "By the Sea'.
JUDGE TURIN
Alan Rickman was perfectly as the sinister Judge Turpin. The crooked judge whom wrongly convicted Benjamin because he lusted after his wife. Turpin saw nothing wrong with what he did and had kept Johanna under lock and key for years as his ward until she was old enough for him to marry. He didn't have a problem abusing his power or position to get what he wanted. I loved Alan Rickman in the part, including when he sang. Rickman is wonderful at playing bad characters.
OTHER CHARACTERS
All the cast is terrific--Timothy Spall's jovial sliminess. as the Judge's henchman Beadle Bamford is wonderful, Sacha Baron Cohen's role as a rival barber is lively and surprising, he manages to be extravagant without being overly flamboyant, young Ed Sanders, as the cheeky urchin Toby ,who ended up working in the pie shop. , and Campbell Bower as the young love-struck sailor, Anthony, whose attraction to Johanna was important to what was going on in the film, both created vivid side characters. A beggar woman also turned up in a few scenes. She knew more than people thought she did. Laura Michelle Kelly did a good job with the role.
THE MUSIC
Since Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was a musical, so music obviously played a very important part in everything that was going on.
I thought that all of the music fit in very well with the events in the film and helped to carry the viewer along with the story. There is only a little bit of actual speaking throughout the film as most things were shared through the songs, so people that aren't overly fond of musicals to begin with may not be happy with that aspect of the film. I did think the few spoken parts explained certain things or shared essential information, so I'm glad that all the dialogue wasn't cut.
One of the first things you notice about the music for Sweeney Todd is how seamlessly it integrates so many different styles and rhythms that are all performed by a large symphony orchestra. Added to this the cast of the film all treated Sondheim's musical with due care and attention.
While Depp and Carter may have untrained voices, their voices were clear and added an authenticity and intimacy to their characters. And in my (very humble opinion) Joghnny Depp's voice had exactly what Sondheim's character called out for - humanity, complexity, and technique.
I think that there are two ways that fans of Sondheim's musical can look at Burton's version of Sweeney Todd.
They may be disappointed at the obvious edits (such as the omission of the "Ballad of Sweeney Todd", and the condensed "City on Fire") but they surely must love the spectacular way in which the film illustrates Sondheim's main symbol - the shedding of blood as a comfort for the troubled soul.
While the truth of this legend's actual existence may never be fully known (people still swear Todd was a real person, but there is no documented facts), the idea that he symbolises a frightening figure of unbalanced justice is fully realized. There is certainly no shortage of a flow of blood in this film, and while the film may be criticised for its violent content, Burton's style means that all the bloodshed feels entirely in keeping with the story and Sondeim's symbol.
I can't decide who was the cleverest Burton or Sondheim - or perhaps it is just a combination of the two.
The opening of the film demonstrates the magic of the music and the magic of the filming as a young sailor,seemingly oblivious to Burton's gothic gloom all around, cheerily decides that there's "no place like London," in a voice cheerful enough to force the sun to shine, even in Burton's dark world. But the baby-faced sailor is soon forced out of shot by the dark and troubled face of Sweeney Todd, who sings, "You are young. Life has been kind to you... You will learn." Todd goes on to describe London as "a hole in the world like a great black pit, filled with people who are filled with shit", and you can almost taste the sourness in his voice - wonderful stuff!
Ed Sanders who played Tobias Raggs was a lovely singer. He handled the influential song "Not While I'm Around" really well.
The two actors playing Johanna and Anthony don't get as much screen time as they do stage time in the musical. But both Jayne Wisener and Jamie Campbell Bower had powerful voices and performed well.
All in all I thought that the musical stage play transported well to the screen.
SOUNDTRACK
The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" (Instrumental) Music by Stephen Sondheim
"No Place Like London" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Johnny Depp & Jamie Campbell Bower
"The Worst Pies In London" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Helena Bonham Carter
"Poor Thing" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Helena Bonham Carter
"My Friends" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham Carter
"Green Finch And Linnet Bird" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Jayne Wisener
"Alms Alms" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Laura Michelle Kelly
"Johanna (Parts 1 & 2)" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Jamie Campbell Bower
"Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter & Ed Sanders "Pirelli's Entrance" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Sacha Baron Cohen
"The Contest" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Sacha Baron Cohen
"Wait" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Helena Bonham Carter
"Ladies In Their Sensitivities" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Timothy Spall
"Pretty Women" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Johnny Depp & Alan Rickman
"Epiphany" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham Carter
"A Little Priest" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham Carter
"Johanna (Act II)" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Johnny Depp, Jamie Campbell Bower & Laura Michelle Kelly
"God, That's Good!" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Helena Bonham Carter & Ed Sanders
"By The Sea" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham Carter
"Not While I'm Around" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Helena Bonham Carter & Ed Sanders
"Toby's Finger (Searching, Part 1)" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Helena Bonham Carter
"Searching (Part 2)" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Laura Michelle Kelly
"The Judge's Return" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Johnny Depp & Alan Rickman
"Final Scene (Part 1)" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham Carter
"Final Scene (Part 2)" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Performed by Johnny Depp
FILMING
Burton's depiction of 19th century London is gloriously gothic and creepy, it's a grubby dirty place with creepie crawlies scuttling over the counter in Mrs. Lovett's filthy pie shop. The set design and gloomy cinematography are stunning, creating a strong sense of the foreboding.
The whole film had a darker tone overall. Burton uses a very subdued colour palette, the greyness only really being overshadowed by the vast amounts of deep red blood. Brighter colours were used a few times, mainly during By the Sea, when Mrs. Lovett was sharing a fantasy of living by the sea with Sweeney, and the flashbacks that showed Benjamin before his life was ruined.
Everything about this film was chilling, beautiful and haunting.
CAST
· Johnny Depp as Benjamin Barker / Sweeney Todd ·Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett ·Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin ·Jamie Campbell Bower as Anthony Hope ·Timothy Spall as Beadle Bamford ·Sacha Baron Cohen as Davie Collins / Signor Adolfo Pirelli ·Ed Sanders as Tobias "Toby" Ragg ·Laura Michelle Kelly as Lucy Barker ·Jayne Wisener as Johanna Barker
FILM DETAILS
Directed by Tim Burton. Screenplay by John Logan. Based on the musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler. Produced by Richard D. Zanuck, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, and John Logan. Cinematography by Dariusz Wolski Editing by Chris Lebenzon Distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. Runtime 116 minutes. Classification 18
IN CONCLUSION
In my opinion this film was the best of 2007. I must be getting hardened in my old age, as I didn't find the film too disturbing, in fact I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is certainly a 'watch again and again' film
Put's you off going to the hairdressers for a while
Advantages: Excellent performances from a non-singing cast, and oodles of black humour Disadvantages: Not a lot - perhaps the urchin gets a little too much screen time...
...touch the beauty he craved, Sweeney Todd is far more deliberate about his slashings and stabbings.
Starring Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp, Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a full-on Victorian melodrama of lost love, young love, unrequited love and oodles of stupidly bright scarlet blood. It's also a musical, which makes the casting of such famous singers as Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and Sascha Baron Cohen a little bizarre, ... ...to a bloody revenge as Sweeney Todd. Quite how this turns into a pie franchise, I'll leave the viewer to discover.
The sets are largely shot through blue filters, giving everyone's face a pallid washed-out look that fits with the bleak despair of most of the characters. It's particularly effective for Depp and Carter, the former with an alarming Bride of Frankenstein haircut to hide the fact he's basically doing his Captain Jack Sparrow voice again. ...
Olly_Plimsoll 10.05.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street DVD
Advantages: Amusing and quirky, with a bloody undercurrent Disadvantages: Too much signing
...Steven Sondheim and Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street. Let me be blunt, this is a more musical musical than the majority of others kicking around for some years, there is very little straight dialogue in this offering and I found that very off putting from the movies offset.
The story of Sweeney Todd for those unfamiliar is a tale of vengeance, in this case the tale of Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) sentenced and deported ... ...town like London" now as Sweeney Todd, he finds that his wife overdosed on poison, and that his daughter Joanna is now a ward in the care of Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) the man behind Barker/Todd's sentence. Alone in the world Todd finds himself in the company of Mrs.Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) responsible for the "Worst pies in London", a long time fan of Barker who has kept things save for his return. As Todd sets up his Barber shop and thus ...
sghawken 30.01.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street DVD
Advantages: Great story and characters Disadvantages: Not good as a musical
== The Film ==
Sweeny Todd is a dark musical about a barber named Benjamin Barker who lives on Fleet Street with his beautiful wife Lucy and their daughter Johanna. Lucy's beauty attracts the corrupt Judge Turpin who, in order to have Lucy for his own, falsely accuses the barber of a crime he didn't commit. Benjamin is exiled for fifteen years. Whilst he is in exile Lucy pines for him and rejects Judge Turpin, he tricks her into going to his home ... ...the new name of Sweeny Todd. He hopes to find Lucy and his daughter and so heads back to his old home, which is above Mrs Lovett's pie shop. He goes into the pie shop to ask about the room upstairs and meets Mrs Lovett who sells "the worst pies in London". She tells him about Lucy being abused and says that not long after that she drank poison which she got from a local apothecary. She also tells him that Judge Turpin brought Johanna up as his ward. ...
buggsy2008 25.07.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street DVD
The story of Sweeney Todd has always been one that I have enjoyed to hear and watch several adaptations of over the years. Johnny Depp is a favourite actor of mine and I also love musicals. So as you can imagine when I first heard that Johnny Depp was going to be in a musical version of Sweeney Todd for the big screen, I was extremely excited. Now I had to go and see it on its opening weekend so my family and I wet to the cinema and had a deliciously ... ...Ok so the story of Sweeney Todd is one that most people should know about by now but I will give you a quick overview anyway. Judge Turpin takes a liking to Benjamin Barkers wife so he sends Ben down for a crime he did not commit just to get close to his wife. Fifteen years later and Benjamin returns to London but is now known as Sweeney Todd. He vows to enact revenge on Judge Turpin and sets up a Barber business by Mrs Lovett's meat pie shop. Together ...
katygriff 05.02.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street DVD
Advantages: great flowing film Disadvantages: Johnny Depp's Voice
...Depp as Benjamin Barker / Sweeney Todd Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs Lovett Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin Jamie Campbell Bower as Anthony Timothy Spall as Beadle Bamford Sacha Baron Cohen as Pirelli Edward Sanders as Toby Laura Michelle Kelly as Lucy Barker Jayne Wisener as Johanna
The very, very famous Johnny Depp plays Benjamin Barker / Sweeney Todd. Johnny Depp has to be one of my favourite actors EVER, if he isn't he is my favourite. Though he ... ...3 (including Benjamin Barker / Sweeney Todd) are played by the same person; it's just magical and just goes to show that Johnny Depp was born to act. Also who knew he could sing? Okay, so he sings okayish, but still he can sing! He may not be able to win a BRIT award for his voice, but it's still perfect for like the west end and horror musicals like this one! He has that sort of singing voice, which is silently creepy but also perfect! Many of the ...
Jonni_boi 02.03.2009 (25.02.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street DVD
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Advantages: Nice gothic production design and dark humour. Disadvantages: Big name actors that can't sing and a lack of narrative.
Innocent barber Benjamin Barker is unjustly transported to Australia by evil Judge Turpin and his henchman Beadle Bamford so Turpin can try to seduce his wife. Barker returns in the guise of SweeneyTodd, setting up a barbershop in FleetStreet, above the premises of the worst pie shop in London, owned by Mrs Lovett. Sweeney vows revenge not only for the unjust punishment meted out to him but also the devastating consequences visited on his wife and young daughter. With the aid of the amorous Mrs Lovett, he cooks up a diabolical business as the DemonBarber of FleetStreet ?[shaving] the heads of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard of again?. In the meantime Mrs Lovett?s business takes off with her unusual meat pies?
Apparently Tim Burton has wanted to make a film of Stephen Sondheim?s musical ?SweeneyTodd? ever since he saw it ...
Advantages: Great story, great performances, great set Disadvantages: None for me, some may find it too gory
Benjamin Barker is a wronged man. Fifteen years before, he was accused of a crime he didn't commit and thrown out of London, forced to leave his wife, Lucy, and daughter Johanna, behind. As soon as he is set free, he returns to London as SweeneyTodd, only to find out that his wife poisoned herself shortly after he left, and his daughter is now the ward of the very man who incarcerated him - Judge Turpin. Setting himself up as a barber again, he takes premises above Mrs Lovett's Pie Shop and turns his attention to revenge. He goes on a mad killing spree, killing any man who comes to his barbers. But can he persuade Judge Turpin to sit in his barber chair? Can he or someone else rescue Johanna? Or will his crimes be discovered before his revenge is complete?
I've put off watching this film for quite some time, simply because, although ...
Advantages: Tod Slaughter. Looked very authentic Victorian Disadvantages: Bad acting from the engaged pair
Everyone now knows of SweeneyTodd now as Tim Burton has brought it right in to the mainstream with his musical starring Johnny Depp. However, since the character's creation in a Victorian serial there have been loads of films made about SweeneyTodd. The first spoken version being George King's 1936 film starring Tod Slaughter (what an apt name) as SweeneyTodd .
The film starts off with a man walking into a barber shop in London in the 20s or 30s. He notices a picture of SweeneyTodd on the wall and this leads the barber to tell him the story.
It's Victorian London at the docks and a ship is about to set sail. A sailor, Mark, is saying good bye to Johanna. The two are in love but can't get married because her father won't allow her to marry such a poor man.
Standing in an alley watching all the goings on is SweeneyTodd, he ...
Production Year: 1986 - Music / Performing Arts - Director: Keita Asari - Original Language: Italian - Classification: Exempt - Starring: Yasuko Hayashi, Hak-Nam Kim, La Scala Theatre Orchestra, Lorin Maazel