Sweeney Todd:The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Catnapper · Sweeney Todd:The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

I like musicals but this isn't the usual singing/dancing let's put a show on here type of musical.......it's very bloody, gory and gruesome! Johnny Depp is fantastic as Benjamin Barker, a happily married family man who's convicted of a crime he didn't commit and deported by the evil Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) who takes Barker's wife and makes Barker's daughter, Johanna, his ward. Years later, Barker returns a changed man.......Sweeney Todd, an expert barber who's driven by vengeance.

It's a very dark, gothic type of story which you'd expect from Tim Burton. The scenes are mainly black, white and grey..........apart from huge amounts of red when throats are being cut

The throat cutting scenes are quite graphic with blood spurting out and bones crunching and the sight of Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) using the giant mincing machine is enough to put you off eating pies for quite a while!

Considering the actors aren't trained singers - though Jayne Wisener as Johanna has an operatic type of voice - they all sing extremely well. Stephen Sondheim's music and lyrics are always tricky (difficult tunes with lots of words to fit in) but all the cast do a great job. I read one reviewer said Depp sounded like David Essex...wrong!.....he's more like David Bowie at times and he's excellent.

Sasha Baron Cohen sings an impossibly high note at the end of his song (when his character and Sweeney Todd are having a shaving contest) and he's good too. One thing I never thought I'd post about is Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman doing a duet together

but that somehow works too! Not having professional singers in the roles makes the film seem more realistic and gritty.....not as polished as musicals usually are, which is good.

I haven't seen any other versions of Sweeney Todd or seen the stage musical so I don't know if the ending's the same.......but it threw me completely! Good film......9/10

Lucifer_666

Great review Cat

It sounds great ....can't wait to see it now too

And Borat with a high voice aswell?

Catnapper

Yeah Luc....my eyebrows went up when he hit that high note, I thought he'd cut himself with the razor

Lucifer_666

Perhaps he was still donning that mankini underneath Babe?

Catnapper

Perish the thought

I forgot to say about Timothy Spall in my review

He gets to sing with Alan Rickman too! It's a little kind of ditty where the Beadle (that's Spall not Jeremy!) is sidling up to the Judge (Rickman) and being so obnoxiously slimy you hope Sweeney Todd gets him

Lucifer_666

Sounds brill babe though the thought of Jeremy Beadle doing that scene has now entered my head...and I'm just speculating that he could do it as slimily too

Emperor Morphetine

I never usually like musicals but this has got me curious. It actually looks pretty good! Has anyone else noticed that Johnny Depp looks curiously like Dave Vanian ( singer with The Damned) in the publicity pictures for the film?

Catnapper

Well Spotted Darth

He does look like him...... Mind you, I had to google him first!

Lucifer_666

Yeah he would alright I wonder did Tim Burton have the damned in mind when he was thinking of how Depp would look?

Emperor Morphetine

I wouldn't surprise me Luc, Burton seems a very Gothic filmmaker and The Damned were probably one of the first bands to usher in the 'goth' image.

Lucifer_666

It wouldn't surprise me either Morph...I wonder does he know him?

I finally got to see Sweeny Todd over the weekend aswell and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I love Tim Burton films anyway and even though a musical was a shift away from the normal for Burton he still managed to produce a top notch Flick...
It is the usual dark gothic experience you expect that has become almost Burton's signature throughout his career and I particularly loved the scenes he incorporated were the camera would pan out quickly from a shot or close in....I thought it particularly looked good when the character was standing at a window. As for Depp I thought he was a class act again, not only does he do the accent extremely well but the guy can sing too....of course he also manages to bring alot of emotion into his character from heartbroken sadness to vengeful anger. Helena Botham Carter also plays her part very well too and I absolutely loved the scene at the beginning when Depp first enters her pie shop and she's there baking with loads of cockroaches running all around

. Thinking of that moment there was quite a few funny moments in the film...I also really liked the sequence with Sacha Baron Cohen where he and Depp end up in a shaving face off and yep Cat definitely someone was pulling at that mankini he was obviously wearing underneath to get to that high note

. Both Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall are also great as the two villains though at this stage I reckon both actors can do the bad guy role with their eyes shut

.
It does however take a while to actually see the traditional Todd killing 'The Throat Cut' but when you do... they come thick and fast...almost like the blood really...I actually really liked these parts in a sadistic bloodlusting kind of way as the crimson stuff projected from throats like fountains and Depp unremorsely activating a foot pedal to rid himself of the bodies in a specially designed barber's chair that utilised an escape hatch leading to Mrs Lovett's ovens.
I was also quite surprised by the ending too Cat it wasn't what I expected either and is actually quite a morbid and sad end really though there is lots of different endings to many of the Todd adaptations with most having the young lad Tobias Ragg (Toby in Burton's film) with something to do with his downfall by either unmasking his crimes or by other means.
A real enjoyable experience which is completely different...a definite must see!!
Oh and I have to say this too You didn't tell me Cat Hilary Swank was back playing a man again and was playing the daughter's love interest in this

....

9/10

Catnapper

Yeah he could almost be her twin

What about the courtroom scene when Alan Rickman's judge sentences someone to be executed

just shows how evil he was!

Glad you liked the film so much Luc

musicals aren't to everyone's liking but all the actors pull it off and it's a very good film.

Lucifer_666

I thought it was her Babe particularly in the scene where the daughter is singing at the window and he's looking up....the absolute spit of her

Yeah the poor kid....though I did sort of laugh too.

..it really was all about making him so bad that you almost want him killed by the end

I did really like it ...then again I do kind of like musicals ...well a few anyway.....well they don't put me off a film as they might others

I actually liked that Yellow hair song