Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Burton, Depp, Scissors, Hand

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It is hard to tell whether Sweeney Todd is a solely fictional character or a figure to borrow/spice up actions and traits rumored to be taken and possessed by an English barber of the 18th century, disposing of his clientele via his trusty razor for instant financial benefits. An English urban legend, the tale of Sweeney Todd has quite a few different variations to it, though the core story usually concerns a team-up between the barber and a pie cooker lady of many name variants, who grinds and cooks Todd's victims into meat pies, thus traces are gone, and they have something truly unique to marketize each time. Cool design.

Having no one to prove or disprove the legend itself, naturally it is our best option to familiarize ourselves with it - for this, a nice and fresh occasion Tim Burton arranges, as his latest direction is a motion picture variant based on Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd musical, a quite intact buildup for most of its time, boosting rather well defined modal registers to bath you in a sinister cutthroat atmosphere that has the exquisite tint of twisted romance to it . Great actors, a great bloodfeast, and great fun at guessing which words in the compositions will have massive emphasis on them.

There are actors in Sweeney Todd who do deliver elegant, subtle functions, yet this piece of entertainment also unleashes two figures on you to drift you unto fields quite close to the enigmatic verges where falling to deep sleep seems safe, inviting, and - so very easy to do.

Johnny Depp as Todd, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett are of essential function in this cutthroat era London. They are fluently, yet precisely sketched heavyweight characters submitting to the dark, so we could witness how darkness tends these faces, and what exactly they can come out of it with - if they ever to come out of it, that is. An integral question formed of eloquent visual output, commanding very precise understanding of the mood, of the language the tale speaks in. And, to satisfy your cautious (?) curiosity: surely, you don't want to miss out on hedonistic carnivals with animal masks on the participants, neither. And Tim Burton agrees with you.

The story is simple, nevertheless effective 'nuff: Sweeney Todd was Benjamin Barker, and he had a harmonious life characterized by a family unit and a fruity job as a barber - BUT came the sinister Judge Turpin, immensely jealous and envious of this Earthy ideal, AND came his sinister sidekick Bamford: they banished Barker so Turpin could interfere with the damaged family unit to claim the love - even LUV - of the wife and the daughter for himself. We join in by the time when Barker arrives back to the London coasts, though he is no longer goes by his previous name. Inventing the cover-up persona Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber for himself, he plans to open a new shop to unleash ruthless revenge against his wrongdoers from.



Alan Rickam and Timothy Spall to form the baddie characters are both pretty good as well, while the weakest aspect of the buildup we hinted at as existent - is the unfolding love affair taking place between some sailor boy and Todd's daughter, essentially imprisoned in the judge's house. The sailor-lad and the young girl both weigh in as feathers driven by misplaced ambitions when their respective canvas presence is compared to that of Carter's or Depp's, even the humorously sketchy/sinister pair of baddie figures are way beyond the humming birds.

Eventually you can't help but notice the tremendous difference of the skill set and various other handicaps these two younger actors are hindered by. Then, by the time your Lad in Luv is to offer his trademark Aria for the fifth time, suddenly you grow somewhat ignorant of how Jamie Campbell Bower's - personificator of the young Lad in Luv - eyebrows are exhibiting totally improbable motion patterns when their possessor goes for emotions of galactic proportions - failing epicly to steal a glance at them. The girl character - I do not even have relevant memories of, I shamefully admit, yet it is but the package of very skillful eyebrow-movement tricks - hah! - that left an impression on me from Bower's part, at: "best".

Be not discouraged at all, as the story between the young lovers is but a supportive element of the narrative, its temporal, re-occurring utilization gives you a chance to build up- and finally release immense gratefulness at every occasion the luvbirds do zip their beaks up, - frankly, feels quite satisfactory to conclude you have survived - letting the narrative switch back to Todd's and Mrs. Lovett's perspective, the field of contexts that hosts primal motivations, deeply responsible for further events to unfold.

You will spend quality time as quite literal listener, watching- and hearing Carter and Depp singing their exquisitely bitter realities out on you, then comes a more precise rendition of both opposing- and of mutual interests the protagonists are approaching for, just to reach the point on which they are forced to face with all of their emotions and dilemmas. These mutual interests will naturally lead to the alliance they form, while the alliance "naturally" - minus shaving foam - leads to the bloodfeast the Sweeney Todd legend is quite notorious of.



The rather densely placed musical content is decent, performances - save the acceptable-at-best humming birds - are stable, yet Stephen Sondheim's buildup is not likely to cause massive surprises or musical ideas to remain in your soul and remembrance for good, let alone a lifetime. Or two. Or three. A rather pre-determined, safe set of musical pathways he takes you through to reveal the content you signed on for. While these pathways do lead into territories where nice ways of telling tales via music are resident, Sondheim's approach becomes supereasy to predict by the middle of the story nevertheless, eventually failing to offer any new audible aspects or dimensions to lead you through with musical surprise by your side. This composer thoroughly- and perfectly tells you ALL that he has to tell about music during a couple of totally risk free minutes. Make no mistake, the content is quite all right, but nothing more than that, trust me.

Some anecdote just came to my mind which is credited as one concerning the German composer-giant Beethoven. According to this anecdote, some young, wishful talent approached the Maestro one day, asking him:

"- AH!, Maestro! Have you heard my NEW Opera yet?"
"- Sure I have." - Beethoven replied. "I would be HAPPY to write MUSIC of it."



Careful, Helena. One more ounce of emotion and your
astral body burns out me equipment for sure.

Burton feels comfortable in these extremely powerful moods and environments, accounts the tale's supportive characters, streets, secrets and appeals via keen willingness and precision. Blood is much in Sweeney Todd, even better: blood and Todd's killings are both shamelessly, thoroughly presented. This is the element to add a bit of extra hot, exquisite spicing to a mixture that tastes quite delicious already. The narrative buildup is both eager and ready to shock you via the conclusion, twisting the story into a final that is very hard to escape with an intact mind on the protagonist's part, also offering you two quality death sequences even the cut-throat era London is quite fond of remembering.

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