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Though I’ve never seen Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, I’ve read all about it in Angela’s column, and I’d been looking forward to seeing Tim Burton’s big-screen adaptation for months. Even though I have a love-hate relationship with Tim Burton’s movies (meaning that I either absolutely love them or absolutely hate them), I had a feeling that Sweeney Todd—the dark and gruesome musical about a serial-killing barber—was right up the eccentric director’s alley. And now that I’ve seen it, I’m convinced that no other director could have made a Sweeney Todd that’s as dark and gruesome—or as darkly funny—as Burton did.
Sweeney Todd tells the tragic story of a barber named Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp). Once, Barker had everything—a successful business, a beautiful wife, and a baby daughter. But the wealthy and powerful Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) wanted Barker’s wife for himself, so he sentenced Barker to a crime he didn’t commit and had him sent away.
Fifteen years later, Barker (now calling himself Sweeney Todd) returns to London—to his home on Fleet Street. There, he finds Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), maker of the worst meat pies in London. She tells him that his wife rejected the judge’s advances until he publicly assaulted her—and the shame led her to poison herself. To make matters worse, his daughter, Johanna (Jayne Wisener), is now in the care of the judge.
The grieving barber wants nothing more than revenge—and he’s determined to kill the judge and get his daughter back. But, unable to get to the judge, he begins killing everyone who sits down in his barber’s chair. And Mrs. Lovett, suffering from the high cost of meat in London, begins baking the bodies into her pies—with profitable results.
Only Burton could have made a movie that’s so eerily grim yet laugh-out-loud funny. Sweeney Todd is every bit as dismal as Sleepy Hollow and as quirky as Edward Scissorhands—but with a lot more brightly-colored fake blood. And though you’ll often feel ashamed of yourself for laughing at the gruesome murders and the thud of dead bodies, laugh you will.
Burton clearly had some wonderful material—and some incredible songs—to work with in making the movie, but Sweeney Todd wouldn’t have been such an outlandish masterpiece without the perfect cast. Depp may not have the world’s greatest singing voice, but his gritty, gravelly sound is exactly what you’d expect from a singing serial killer. Bonham Carter—who’s already known for playing crazy with amazing flair—is brilliantly batty as Mrs. Lovett. And as if that weren’t enough to make the film darkly delightful, Rickman is skin-crawlingly creepy as Judge Turpin, and Sacha Baron Cohen—as Todd’s over-the-top rival, Pirelli—is hilarious.
Often, the movies that I’m most eagerly anticipating turn out to be the greatest disappointments. And, just as often, I’ll enjoy a movie while it’s playing—only to like it a lot less once I stop to think about it a bit more. But that wasn’t the case with Sweeney Todd. It lived up to all of my high expectations—and it was completely free of morning-after regrets. It’s dark and bloody, but it’s extremely entertaining. Call me sick and twisted if you want, but I can’t wait to see this one again.
DVD Review:
I’m not ashamed to admit it: when my copy of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street arrived at my door, I did a little dance, right there in the doorway. I was like a kid on Christmas morning: I couldn’t wait to rip into the package and check out everything that the two-disc special edition DVD of Tim Burton’s murderous masterpiece had to offer. And I wasn’t disappointed—because this DVD is a Sweeney fan’s dream.
This two-disc set offers up hours of extras—and once you finish watching them, you’ll pretty much know all there is to know about the movie. You’ll know about the casting, the set design, the costumes, and even the spurting blood. You’ll also know about Victorian-era London, Sondheim’s musical, the Grand Guignol style of theater, and the origins of the Sweeney Todd legend. Seriously, people, there’s a ton of stuff here.
While there is a bit of overlap from time to time, that’s to be expected from such a comprehensive collection of extras. And most of the features are so fascinating that you’ll hardly notice. You’ll just keep clicking your way through the features menu until you’ve seen them all.
So if you enjoyed Burton’s Sweeney Todd as much as I did, I highly recommend shelling out a few extra bucks for the extra disc. It’s one bloody good DVD.
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