‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet

Street’

"There's a void in the earth like a great black pit / and it's inhabited by the vermin
of the world / and its values aren't worth what a pig would spit / and it's called
London."
We could easily see from the softly romantic musical stylings of the indie hit
"Once" to the acclaimed Coen Brothers' film "No Country for Old Men" to,
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," 2007 was a year filled with
memorable films without the typical Hollywood-style inspirational morals and
happy endings.

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As a product from Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd" is a maniacal near masterpiece
from a director with the content of his films on occasion.
I'll admit that I've been a Tim Burton fan for a long time and could not make any
disappointment by any of his Johnny Depp collaborations. There seems to be a
psychic bond between them that makes almost every project they work on
immediately transcendent.

To be honest, "Sweeney Todd" SEEMS PERFECT for a Tim Burton/Johnny Depp

team-up. Apart from the fact that no one knew if Johnny Depp could not only sing
(despite the fact that he was a member of the 1980s band "The Kids"), the idea of
director putting directly our talented actor Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd in a
remarkably faithful, cinematic interpretation of Stephen Sondheim's musical
Sweeney Todd was intriguing the obviousness of the 1979 Broadway musical begs
the question of “Why did it take so long to happen?”
We could see from many scenes in "Sweeney Todd," barber Benjamin Barker
(Johnny Depp) returns to London after a 15-year exile on false charges.

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When Barker returns to his former home and barbershop under the name Sweeney
Todd, he discovers a pie shop beneath his former shop owned by Mrs. Lovett,
London's worst piemaker (Helena Bonham Carter). Todd learns of his wife's tragic
fate from Mrs. Lovett determining to exact vengeance on Judge Turpin and his
deputy, Beadle Bamford (Timothy Spall, "Enchanted").
Barker discovers a pie shop underneath directly his barbershop, run by Mrs.
Lovett, London's worst piemaker, as he returns to his former home and barbershop
as Sweeney Todd (Helena Bonham Carter). As an amazing scene, when he covered
a showboating Italian barber (Sacha Baron Cohen, "Borat"), Todd teams up with
Mrs. Lovett in a dastardly scheme to exact his vengeance while also providing
Mrs. Lovett with all the meat – the main ingredient she might need for her meat
pies.
Moreover, one thinks about "Sweeney Todd," it is the subtle magnificence
emerges. Compare our "Sweeney Todd with recent Hollywood musicals like
"Hairspray," "Chicago," or maybe "Moulin Rouge," so rest assured, is totally
different. "Sweeney Todd" is not only a musically type, but also a consistently
gory, moody, and emotional tour-de-force that has to manage to be both
confrontational and empathetic at the same time.
Johnny Depp's portrayal of the character Sweeney Todd is so multi-layered and
mentally grounded that it almost defies definition. Although Depp isn't the best
singer in the world, he does have the permission to combine professional singing
with the depth emotions, which is constantly missing when a Broadway musical is
adapted onto the big light screen. Depp's injury is not only touching- hearth
breaking at the same time, in the way he becomes focused on living out, he tried to
figure out what has become his only goal in life, (it reminds me of "A Clockwork
Orange.”)
Mrs. Lovett is given an unexpected layer of uncertainty by Carter. Due to the fact
that she grinds away at Todd's doomed clients, it's difficult not to have a feeling a
pang of regret, we could know that she aspires to a seemingly unattainable
existence with our barber, in the incredibly moving "Not While I'm Around,"
which seems to have a lot of struggle with compassionate impulses that betray the
done work.
Although the supporting cast has less to work with, they appear to have the best
individual singing voices in the movie. In his brief appearance as Pirelli, Sacha
Baron Cohen shines, while the amazing female actor Jayne Wisener is
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appropriately represent as Todd's daughter - Johanna. Jamie Campbell Bower
dazzles as Anthony, Johanna's potential suitor, and our young Ed Sanders delights
as Johanna with "Not While I'm Around."
Unluckily, several songs which presented from the famous Broadway shows and
events had to be cut due to time constraints. This is particularly noticeable near the
middle of the film, when Burton shifts the focus away from the pie shop and
instead focuses the film squarely on Depp. Similarly, "The Ballad of Sweeney
Todd," the Broadway show's opening and closing tunes, is only heard as a
supporting character in just a movement which is both understandable and
unsettling
The film's production design, cinematography by Dariusz Wolski, and costuming
by Colleen Atwood combination to give it a unique gothic concept toward the
whole movies and feel that perfectly complements the final performances. The
only criticism that came up of my mind about the film's production design will be
the cartoonish looking , which never represent or seemed genuine, and of brief laps
in continuity, such as early references to the pie shop's filthy, roach and rodent-
infested kitchen, which is suddenly empty of roaches and rodents just minutes later
"Sweeney Todd" is one of Tim Burton's best films - one of 2007's most
unforgettable films that I have ever experience in my entire life
 

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