Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Two-Disc...

Buy This Item Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Two-Disc... by Dreamworks Video  Available from Amazon  $22.99  on 9-21-2008     After years of rumors, it turns out that Tim Burton was the perfect visionary to film <i>Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street</i>, Stephen Sondheim's Broadway masterpiece, and the result is a macabre and moving musical movie as enthralling as anything Burton has ever done. The show's mix of gothic horror, Grand Guignol, <i>very</i> dark humor, and witty and beautiful music never was the stuff of traditional musical comedy, but it's a powerful work, and perhaps the richest of the late 20th century. In the movie, Burton's frequent collaborator, Johnny Depp, plays Todd, a wronged man whose lust for revenge drives him to murder (an 19th-century legend who has been traced to a real-life barber). Helena Bonham Carter, another Burton mainstay, is Mrs. Lovett, the barber's partner-in-unspeakable-crime. It's no surprise that Depp is an excellent choice to convey Todd's brooding intensity and volcanic rage, but he can also sing a score that is so challenging it has often played in opera houses (though not with the same style as the Broadway original, Len Cariou, and he occasionally lapses into pop style). Bonham Carter is small of voice and lacks the humor of the original Broadway Lovett, Angela Lansbury, but she sings on pitch, in rhythm, and in character at the same time, which is no small feat for a Sondheim show. Aficionados will regret the loss of certain musical passages--"The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" is just an instrumental overture and the chorus is gone altogether, among others--but the reassuring presence of orchestrator Jonathan Tunick and conductor Paul Gemignani ensures that the music feels right and sounds great. And the film's depiction of a Victorian London hellhole--with cinematography by Dariusz Wolski and costumes by Colleen Atwood--also looks and feels right. <p> The excellent cast is filled out by Alan Rickman as the villainous Judge Turpin, Timothy Spall as his seedy Beadle, Sacha Baron Cohen (<i>Borat</i>) as a rival barber, Jamie Campbell Bower as the young lover Anthony, Jayne Wisener as his object of affection, and Ed Sanders as the young Toby. For fans of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp who don't think they like musicals, <i>Sweeney Todd</i> should be a revelation (though not for the squeamish, as the gore is intense and completely appropriate). For fans of Broadway and Sondheim, it's hard to imagine getting a better adaptation than this. The fact that there's no newly composed Oscar-bait song sung by a Josh Groban-type over the end credits only makes it better. <i>--David Horiuchi</i> Reader Reviews Sweeney Todd is the story of a barber named Benjamin Barker who comes back to London for revenge after being taken away from his family. Todd was sent away to be jailed for a crime he didn't commit by the town judge, who was in love with his wife. Within the first ten minutes of you meeting Sweeney Todd we are introduced to the song "No Place like London". The song tells us about the anger and hate Sweeney has towards London, and it also tells us a about Sweeney's past using flashbacks, "There was a barber and his wife, and she was beautiful. A foolish barber and his wife, she was his reason and his life and she was beautiful, and she was virtuous and he was naïve. There was another man who saw that she was beautiful, a biased vulture of the law who, with a gesture of his claw removed the barber from his plate, and there was nothing but to wait." Barker changes his name to Sweeney Todd, so that he could not be recognized. Before he was sent away, Todd and his family were old tenants of Mrs. Lovett, the owner of a local meat pie shop. Mrs. Lovett allows Sweeney to open up a barber shop up stairs from her pie shop because she has been in love with him for years. Together they make the perfect team of murderers. Sweeney kills his customers, and Mrs. Lovett bakes pies out of them to hide the bodies. Perhaps the most important scene is when Mrs. Lovett is telling Sweeney what happened to Barker's wife after he was taken away. The music starts soft and then gets faster and louder, with the camera jumping from Sweeney to Mrs. Lovett. Once Mrs. Lovett tells Sweeney that the judge took advantage of his wife, Sweeney yells and that's how Mrs. Lovett figures out that Sweeney Todd is really Benjamin Barker. During this scene you witness a side of Sweeney that you probably only see twice during the entire movie. Sweeney is destroyed because he has been told that his wife is dead and his daughter is being held by the judge. The music changes from soft, to fast, to playful, and "the way the camera glides, the way it moves, it's a perfect fit." (Sondheim) The casting was impeccable, with Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, and Edward Sanders as Toby. I honestly can't imagine a better cast. It's hard to believe that this is the first musical for both Depp and Carter. Their voices keep you focused on what is going on and they sound absolutely heavenly. Each character brings something different to the table, and together they make the film stand out from other musicals. The movie was shot in a dark, gloomy, black and gray London. There are only two parts of the movie that are actually in color. When Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney, and Toby are in Mrs. Lovett's fantasy world, and whenever Sweeney killed someone the blood was red. I'm not a fan of black and gray films, but while watching Sweeney Todd it didn't bother me at all. I know that Sweeney Todd is obviously a musical, but it seems to me like there's a lot more music than in other musicals. Sondheim said that there's so much music in the piece because "As long as you keep the music going the audience forgets the melodramatic of the story." The music ranges from funny, sad, angry, scary, and playful. The music keeps you focused in what's going on. Every song was timed perfectly giving you just enough time to recover from the last song. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is truly a work of art created by Stephen Sondheim, with the direction of Tim Burton and brought to life by an amazing cast. The storyline is intriguing, the music keeps you wanting more, and you feel for the characters. In an almost trivial way you realize that hiding behind all the madness, sadness, and blood there's an even bigger true meaning of why the characters made the decisions they did, it was all for love. Sweeney Todd is a classic, and everyone should have the chance to experience this masterpiece.

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Two-Disc... Available from Amazon Price: $22.99 Updated on 9-21-2008.

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