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

Pictures of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street DVD

Sweeney Todd with one of 'his friends'

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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