Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Dreamworks/Paramount, 2007
Starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and Timothy Spall
Directed by Tim Burton
Music and Lyrics by Stephan Sondheim

We kick off Halloween week with our second Tim Burton horror musical featuring his regular leads Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. This one, however, is neither animated, nor remotely family-friendly. Based after the blood-soaked 1979 stage musical, this tale of blood and revenge is definitely not for the faint at heart. Let's take a boat ride to Victorian London to find out what happened to Todd to make him want to use his barbering abilities for more than scraping chins...

The Story: Benjamin Barker (Depp) has returned to London to gain revenge on Judge Turpin (Rickman), who had him unfairly imprisoned fifteen years before. Turpin attacked his wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly) and took his daughter Joanna (Jayne Wisener) as his ward. Barker returns to his old digs on Fleet Street, over Mrs. Lovett's (Carter) pie shop. Mrs. Lovett has always had a crush on him and gives him his razors, which inspires him to reopen his barber shop under the name Sweeney Todd.

Meanwhile, the young sailor who came to London with Todd, Anthony Hope (Jaime Campbell Bower), has seen Joanna at the window of the Judge's home and fallen in love with her at first sight. The Judge doesn't want anyone even contemplating her and sends the Beadle Bamford (Spall) to get rid of him. Having bested Italian barber Pirelli (Sascha Baron Cohen) in a shaving contest, Todd is ready to go into business. Pirelli is the first of many bodies that pile up in the ovens at Fleet Street, as Mrs. Lovett turns the remains into pie fillings and the "worst pies in London" become the rage of the town.

Todd, however, still wants revenge on Turpin, and Anthony still wants Joanna. When he discovers she's in an insane asylum and Mrs. Lovett's assistant Toby (Ed Sanders) figures out what they're doing, it sets off a chain of events that ends in tragedy as Todd discovers that revenge is a dish best served not at all, never mind in a hot meat pie.

The Song and Dance: As this is an opera, we're mainly discussing the song side of things. The voices may not be perfect, but there's some excellent performances in this Grand Guiginol melodrama. Rickman and Spall get the honors as the lusty villains who will destroy a man's reputation to get a "pretty woman," and Cohen has a blast in his brief role early on as the faux-Italian hair cutter with the so-called miracle tonic.

Burton's creepy aesthetic is all over this movie, from the dark, blood-filled sewers and streets of London to the ragged gray and white costumes. It won an Oscar for its historically-accurate sets, representing the darkest, grimiest depths of the Victorian era, and was nominated for costumes and Depp's performance as the vengeance-obsessed Todd himself.

Favorite Number: Carter and Depp have two soaring and enjoyable duets, "My Friends" when Mrs. Lovett offers him his razors back, and "A Little Priest" when they start making those pies. Carter small voice comes across better in "Poor Thing," when she explains what happened to Todd's wife, than in her insisting that she'll "Wait" for Todd to come around to her dreams. She also does well with "By the Sea" as she tells us what she hopes to do with Todd. Bower has two soaring versions of "Joanna," first when he sees her at her window, and later in the shop when he's hiding her. Depp and Rickman may not have the most operatic voices, but they still relish their version of "Pretty Women."

Trivia: Sweeney Todd originally debuted on Broadway in 1979, with Angela Landsbury as Mrs. Lovett and Len Cariou as Todd. It wasn't a long-runner, lasting just over a year. It did better with critics, winning 9 Tonys, including Best Actor and Actress for Cariou and Landsbury. The show finally became a cult favorite when the touring version, with Landsbury and later Broadway Todd George Hearn, was filmed and ran on PBS and Showtime in 1982.

While it was a flop in Todd's native London, it later became popular enough over there to have been revived four times, most recently in 2015. The show's been revived three times in New York, including a successful off-Broadway version in 2017.

What I Don't Like: Good grief, this was gross. I'm just not into gory slasher movies. If you aren't, either, don't come within a hundred miles of this film. The blood flows freely, especially towards the end as Todd starts murdering folks left and right. It's also very dark for a musical, both in the cinematography and the creepy, melodramatic story.

A lot of theater geeks and Sondheim fans have complained bitterly about the less-than stellar voices singing often-truncated versions of the operatic music. Apparently, a lot of numbers were dropped or shortened, including the opening, "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd." I don't have the cast album and can't tell you what's missing, but I do know that sometimes Carter's tiny voice isn't big enough for the soaring music, and Wisener and Bower are stiff as boards.

The Big Finale: Slasher horror just isn't my cup of tea...but if it's yours, or you're a huge fan of Burton and the cast and don't mind the song and story changes, you'll want to fire up the oven and give this one a try.

Home Media: As a relatively recent film, this one is quite easy to find in all major formats, usually for under 10 dollars.

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