SWEENEY TODD: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Fabulous.

Extraordinary.

Bloody.

Romantic.

I never thought I would get this far into a musical, but Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd lit a fire under me so red hot that I can still hear the singing in my head.

This is a great, wondrous film. Johnny Depp was amazing, as was Helena Bonham Carter and the rest of the cast.

The Story of Sweeney Todd is a tale of revenge and justice, and of love. Sweeney was not always the Demon Barber of his fame. He had a life and a wife and a beautiful child. He also had an enemy in Judge Turpin (played by Alan Rickman) who coveted his wife. So much so, that he used his influence to have Sweeney locked away for fifteen years, rapes his wife (who swallows arsenic and goes mad) and then has the nerve to raise their child as a prisoner locked away until she is old enough to marry. Time passes as time does.

Sweeney is haunted by the ghosts of his past. He wants revenge.

Ghosts seem to be a theme in this movie. Not apparitions or poltergeists, but the longings of the head and the heart. When you know the story of the Barber's fall from grace, you as the audience, are allowed to sympathize and even cheer him on as he dispatches the rich to feed the needy and his needs.

Helena Bonham Carter plays "MS. Lovett" who covets a place in the heart and by the side of Mr. Todd. So much so, that she devises a plan: He kills and she serves them up as pies. Ms. Lovett longed for Sweeney in her youth. And truthfully, as there mischief continues, you may actually think them unstoppable.

They are not. They are instead undone by their own wickedness.

The music in this film (not unlike Tim Burtons Nightmare Before Chirstmas) is absorbing and contagious. I don't like musicals, but I loved this film.

Its Satirical take on morality was refreshing. "And now those above shall serve those below." they sing as they look out onto the busy London streets and wonder over who will taste like what.

A gross thought, that is presented beautifully by, Steven Sodheim's musical score.
This musical is not for everyone, bloody as it is, but the blood looks remarkably like something from a Justin Hammer movie. A nice touch, I think.

The visuals are typical Tim Burton style, dark and shadowy. But, full of life. He plays with alot of blacks and grays in the setting, which suits the type of city Sweeney believes London to be:

"There's a hole in the world like a great black pit.
And the vermin of the world inhabit it--
and it's moral aren't worth what a pig could spit!
..... and its London."

Poetic.

Triumphant.

Marvelous.

This was Johnny Depp's and Helena Bonham Carter's first singing role, and hers was the hardest. There are parts where the woman barely breaths in this picture. But, they made it.

The perfect couple, the perfect crime, and the perfect musical/movie.