You find yourself transported through time, and 19th century London is where you arrive. You walk through the bustling streets of the city, gazing at all of the carriages, top hats, and textile mills. As you stop for a moment and gently rub your face, though, something catches your eye: a red-and-white-striped pole. It's a barbershop, and this piques your interest because you're in desperate need of a shave. However, if this establishment happens to be on Fleet Street, avoid it at all costs. Alleged homicide and cannibalism have been reported to have occurred there. Of course, you're in no real danger, for what I just described is really the fictitious, hilariously morbid subject matter of Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007).
Based on the similarly-titled Broadway sensation of the 1970s-- which was in turn inspired by the 1848 short story, A String of Pearls-- with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the tale of a young barber, Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp), who returns home to 19th century London after fifteen years of wrongful imprisonment by Turpin (Alan Rickman), a corrupt and salacious judge who had Barker banished to Australia so he could steal his beautiful wife, Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelley), and daughter, Johanna. Returning home with the help of a young sailor, Anthony Hope (Jamie Campbell Bower), Barker is a changed man--but not for the better. With a new ghostly complexion, the black and white hairdo of a skunk, heavy-bagged eyes, and a trusted razor blade in hand, Barker, now known as "Sweeney Todd," seeks vengeance upon Turpin and his groveling associate, Beadle Bamford (Timothy Spall). In doing so, he returns to his barbershop, which is located above a bakery belonging to Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), and baits Turpin into getting a shave so he can slit his throat. However, when his initial attempt fails, Todd hatches a sinister (but ingenious) plan to help Mrs. Lovett's struggling business while cathartically dealing with his own feelings of vengeance, anger, and mistrust. Todd will slit the throats of his clientele and the bodies will be secretly used as a food source for Mrs. Lovett's pies. Meanwhile, a number of other complications occur. A former employee of his, Adolfo Pirelli (Sacha Baron Cohen), blackmails Todd, a young orphan boy, Toby Ragg (Edward Sanders), moves in with Mrs. Lovett, and Anthony, unbeknownst to Todd, becomes infatuated with the now-teenaged Johanna (Jayne Wisener), who is still under the guardianship of Turpin. As Todd continues to devise ways of luring Turpin back into his shop, various unforeseen obstacles and startling revelations throw off his ultimate, vengeance-driven goal.
If what you've read above leads you to believe that this movie is just some miserable, gruesome horror-drama that pays homage to Soylent Green (1973) and Oliver (1968) while sternly addressing the morbid themes of human vengeance, anger, and violence, you are mistaken. The beauty--and lighthearted fun--of Sweeney Todd is that even though it's extraordinarily bloody, it's a gleefully campy black comedy with catchy, well-written musical numbers and rich visual imagery. Burton, who's known for casting Bonham Carter (his wife) and Depp in most of his movies and directing spooky, ghoulish stories with imaginative and expressive cinematography, brings his A-game here. From the very beginning of the movie, we are given the image of what we've come to expect of 19th century London, a filthy and corrupt metropolis blanketed under clouds of industrial smoke. The streets are dark and lonely, the air is coal-filled and dirty, and everything from the narrow and soot-covered cobblestone roads to the towering and chimney-topped, stone buildings have a drab, ashen appearance them. Despite the look of this crime and prostitution-filled, Dickensian world, though, the copious amount of blood and gore that Todd sheds from his victims is a joyful bright red that flows, splatters, oozes, and squirts freely. A guiltily enjoyable visual feast for the bloodlust-hungry viewer’s eyes, it is not the only appealing aspect of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
In addition, Depp and Bonham Carter are hilarious and entertaining to watch, and a strong Vaudevillian chemistry--represented by several outstanding scenes in the film--exists between the two of them as well. During one musical number, "The Worst Pies In London," the striped-outfit-wearing Mrs. Lovett, dough-roller in hand, elbow-greases her way through several gross-looking, bug-filled pies while spiritedly singing about the economic hardships of Victoria-era London. As she does so, though, Todd keeps attempting to but can't get a single word in. One trademark feature of Burton's films is that he often contrasts bleak, pallid images of the present with luminous, rosy flashbacks and fantasy sequences, and during another musical number in Sweeney Todd, "By The Sea," that technique is used to great comical effect. While Lovett imagines an idyllic life with Todd and Toby down by the ocean, the sun is shining radiantly, the seawater is bright blue, and the grass is as lush and as verdurous as it will ever be, and yet Lovett and Todd are still dressed in their sooty Gothic outfits. Moreover, while Mrs. Lovett smiles as she daydreams, Todd has a snarling expression on his face-- an expression he maintains firmly throughout the film. This blaring dichotomy between the two characters is best exemplified by one scene in which Todd and Lovett sing "My Friends." Entranced, Todd gazes into his razor blades with a sense of reverent appraisal and gratitude. The brilliant light and burnished silver of the blades reflect a perverted, gleeful expression on Todd's face (the only gleeful expression we get from Todd in the entire movie). It is the look of a remorseless serial killer getting his twisted fix, narrowing in on it, and blocking out everything else from his line of vision. That "everything else" includes Mrs. Lovett-- whose unfocused reflection appears in the silver blades as well. While she is infatuated with him and is overtly expressing it, he is completely oblivious to her, infatuated only with the beautiful weapons in his hands.
Sweeney Todd is gory, gruesome, and violent. If you absolutely hate blood and gore, avoid this picture. It's not for you. However, if you can stand blood and are a fan of stylistic, campy films that combine beautiful musical numbers with lavish cinematography, brilliantly charismatic performances, and irreverently hilarious black comedy, then Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is definitely a film worth viewing.
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