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Rating:  -
WARNING: This film contains graphic bloody violence.
Whenever Tim Burton makes a film with his wife, Helena Bonham Carter and his close friend, Johnny Depp as the film's stars... the result is typically bloody brilliant. That's certainly the case with Burton's filmed adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The film is a dark, morbid, brutally violent revenge melodrama that follows the life of a wrongfully imprisoned man, as he seeks out the deaths of anyone whoever did him harm. Unsurprisingly Johnny Depp plays Sweeney Todd to perfection. With his maniacal stare, brooding demeanor, and haunting vocals, he shows that he can not only sing but also tread the line that separates horror from comedy. Helena Bonham Carter is also magnificent as the delightfully dreary Mrs. Lovett, the owner of a bakery where she makes gruesome meat pies (guess where she gets the meat from). The film also stars Alan Rickman as the sinister Judge Turpin, Timothy Spall as the demented Beadle Bramford, and the hilarious Sacha Baron Cohen as rival barber, Adolfo Pirelli. The entire cast is superb and part of what makes their performances so stunning is that none of them are professional singers. Though they might not possess the vocal talents that the cast of the stage musical had, they bring their own personalities and their own unique style to the songs, which have never sounded more contemporary.
Benjamin Barker was a talented barber and a devoted husband, whose idyllic life was intruded upon by tragedy and conspiracy. He was accused of a crime that he did not commit and sent to prison for fifteen years. After being released he makes his way back to his London home, where he reestablishes his barbershop on Fleet Street, but he now goes by the name of Sweeney Todd. Sweeney discovers that his imprisonment was the result of the scheming Judge Turpin, who coveted Barker's wife and then raised his daughter, Johanna as his own. Sweeney craves the satisfaction of bloody revenge, so he forms an alliance with the deranged Mrs. Lovett. It is Mrs. Lovett who conceives of the plan of disposing the bodies of Sweeney's victims by putting them into meat pies. So while Sweeney reduces London's impoverished populace, Mrs. Lovett creates the worst pies in London. Soon the situation becomes sticky when a young sailor falls in love with Johanna, earning the wrath of Judge Turpin and his toady, Beadle Bramford. And things only worsen when Adolfo Pirelli, a mountebank barber, discovers Todd's identity, which forces Todd to kill him in a particularly grotesque manner. As the bodies pile up and Todd descends into a self-destructive cycle of revenge, fortuitous circumstances lead him to make decisions that horrifically alter the lives of all involved.
The screenplay by John Logan is based upon Stephen Sondheim's musical, but he also makes sly references to English folklore and gothic horror stories. The film's greatest strengths are the quality of the acting combined with Sondheim's brilliant music. However the film is flawed in its execution. Quite often there's too much focus on throat slitting, which quickly becomes monotonous, as well as nauseating for squeamish viewers. Personally, the bloodletting itself didn't bother me so much as the repetitive nature of it. It's unfortunate that Tim Burton couldn't have found a way to show the killings in a more creative slapstick style. The film's look is priceless due to the immaculately created sets, costumes, and props, which plunge viewers into the seedy underworld of London in the 19th Century.
All in all, Sweeney Todd is a macabre masterpiece, a musical/dark comedy/horror hybrid that will either become reviled or beloved in time.
Also recommended:
The Rocky Horror Picture Show / Shock Treatment
Edward Scissorhands
Ed Wood
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Sleepy Hollow
From Hell
The Phantom of the Opera
Corpse Bride
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street: The Motion Picture Soundtrack
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Mark Salisbury
Rating:  -
Though decidedly watchable, Mr. Burton's attempt to translate a great black comedy/tragedy/musical to the screen is only partially successful. The production design is gorgeously macabre, the majority of the cast is quite good and Sondheim's memorable score remains as virtuosic as ever.
However...the musical numbers frequently are unimaginatively and repetitively staged ("By the Sea" being a notable exception) and the two leads are disappointingly miscast. Both Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham Carter are very able and talented actors, but here have not the vocal power, grim humor and maturity required for the parts. While watching the film, this viewer kept thinking that Alan Rickman, here cast as Judge Turpin, would have proved a far more convincing Sweeny; perhaps a Glenn Close or Miranda Richardson, a wonderful Mrs. Lovett.
Instead, Depp and Bonham-Carter come off as very talented leads in an ambitious High School production.
Rating:  -
I know that most people are not in line clamoring to see a musical, but this is one is different. It's not very often that you find a tale of love, revenge and horror all wrapped nicely into a musical. Sondheim's score is beautiful. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter completely embodied their respective characters. Sacha Baron Cohen's appearance was enjoyable. And who doesn't love Alan Rickman! There is a lot of blood in this movie, but I would consider it more cartoony than flat out gore. It's touching, it's funny, it's sick, it's enjoyable, it's dark, it's Sweeney Todd and it's a 5 star movie. I'm not out to change the world and get everyone to suddenly watch all musicals because not all musicals are good (ie: Rent), but this one is definitely the exception to the rule.
Rating: -
Okay, so I had no intention of ever seeing this one because of the gruesome theme. I've never even been interesting in seeing it in the theatre but thought I'd give this movie a chance. Hey for a dollar rental from the library, how could I lose right?
I had been VERY apprehensive about watching the DVD and actually thought I'd just returned it without ever viewing it. Well I was quite surprised that I found the movie wickedly (although a bit gory)interesting!
Although Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are not singers I thought their singing was fine for the characters they portrayed. I wouldn't choose them for the "Phantom" or "Christine" but they did just fine in this movie.
Rating: -
I am not much into musicals. Gigi, My Fair Lady, and that is about it. But the gothic, horror nature drew me to view this movie. I surprisingly enjoyed it.
The one flaw: Tim Burton is tied to the apron strings of Bonham Carter. Johnny Depp seems to be Burton's illegitimate love child. It is the only way I can explain the innumberable amount of movies Depp inhabits in the Tim Burton world of film-making.
Burton could have had a grade-A achievement on his hands. It is bloody, (though the blood looks like stage blood--still not for children). Burton worked closely with Sondheim and thus had a well-established plot to put his pretty pictures with. A rare one for Burton. Good on imagery; very poor on plot.
Having all this too his advantage, he still managed to muck it up by casting Depp and Carter in the two key roles of the opera/musical. What a pity.
Depp is no opera singer; and Carter is just no singer--plain and simple. If Burton had only cast Patti Lupone or a younger version of her (if he wanted younger, I'm sure Burton could have found one); and Michael Cerveris would have made an excellently menacingly Sweeney Todd. Cerveris did the chamber opera version and was exceptional as a singing Sweeney. He oozed evil.
Sondheim could have insisted; but perhaps Sondheim simply wanted the money and gave the casting over to Burton. I would have said "No". sondheim doesn't need the money; and he could have at least put the damp on Depp and Carter.
The rest of the cast are very good to excellent. The two best singers are Tobias and Anthony. Johanna and the beggar woman were suitably good.
But Depp and Carter shall always make this one the big chance of putting Sonheim's gothic opera to film; but ultimately: the one that slipped through Burton's fingers. Even though it was staged and filmed quite well.
Burton deserves half the blame for not being able to say no to Carter the whining singer who could shatter glass; and Sondheim the other half for not standing his ground for first rate singers down the line.
One day ten years from now, this movie needs to be remade with real singers for the entire cast. That shall be a five star production. Include the "Ballad of Sweeney" and I'd give it 6!
Braithwaite
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