SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
UK, 2007, 117 minutes, Colour.
Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Laura Michelle Kelly, Jayne Wisener, Ed Sanders.
Directed by Tim Burton.
A most impressive film in all departments but one that is definitely not for the faint-hearted nor for those who feel squeamish at the sight of blood.
The story of Benjamin Barker who was transported unjustly from 19th century London because a corrupt judge lusted after his wife and took his daughter as his ward. Barker then escaped from Australia and returned to London for vengeance as Sweeney Todd, aided by Mrs Lovett above whose pie shop he set up his murderous barber’s shop. This tale may have been based on fact or may be fiction or London legend. However, after a play in the 1970s by Christopher Bond which was used by Hugh Wheeler in his 1979 collaboration with the celebrated Stephen Sondheim, Sweeny Todd became very well-known in theatrical circles and the world of music theatre. Sondheim’s musical won eight Tonys and was filmed for television with the original leads, Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury.
Now it is has come to the cinema screen, pared down from three hours to two to accommodate it to audience response to screen as different from response to stage – and with Sondheim’s approval.
Since the director is Tim Burton, his fans know that this will be Gothic horror, musical Grand Guignol. The Oscar-nominated sets and costumes create an eerie London, a squalid East End and Fleet Street with its grimy houses, dirty shops, its markets and sewers. There is a little contrast with the wealth of Judge Turpin’s house but there is some welcome relief in some light-filled and pretty flashbacks to Todd’s married life and the betrayal by Judge Turpin. Later in the film, there is an imagined sequence as Mrs Lovett imagines what life might have been like with Todd by the sea and in a green grass landscape. But, for most of the film, the atmosphere is grim.
Since this is a musical, we do not expect realism. Rather, the heightened stylisation of sets, costumes, characters and their behaviour have the disconcerting effect on the audience that makes it seem not entirely unreal. Most of the dialogue is in song, with Sondheim’s melodious (but not necessarily hummable) songs and his witty wordplay lyrics that also demand a different kind of attention.
The performances are admirable. Johnny Depp continues to display his surprising versatility, an obsessed, morbid Todd whose bitterness leads to physical tragedy and moral mayhem. Depp’s collaborations with director Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charley and the Chocolate Factory, The Corpse Bride) have produced a gallery of sometimes sinister, sometimes endearing eccentrics. His melancholy as Todd is palpable, leading to some kind of sympathy for him which he forfeits as the killings begin. Helena Bonham Carter, also doing her own singing, has also appeared in many Burton films. She is credible as the widow who leads a slatternly life but is infatuated with Todd but who also craves her own family. She finally faces her moral dilemma, an option for Todd or for the orphan, Toby, she has taken in to help with her prospering shop once her pies (filled with Todd’s victims) become famous.
Alan Rickman is well suited to the role of the Judge, Timothy Spall his callous and fawning Beadle and Sacha Baron Cohen creates a different comic character as the charlatan Pirelli.
Sweeney Todd holds a unique position in theatre, a macabre classic musical. Burton, Depp, Bonham Carter and the cast and technical crew have made it a unique piece of cinema.
1.The impact of the film? The familiar story? Truth or fiction? 19th century? Victorian London? Grand Guignol? The Gothic overtones?
2.Stephen Sondheim, his score, lyrics? His reputation? The Tonys for the original staging of Sweeney Todd? Adaptation for the screen? The reduction of the play from three hours to two? Adaptation for the visual style of the screen?
3.The libretto, the style of the lyrics, Sondheim’s love of language, the songs, the recitative, the spoken sections?
4.The range of songs, ‘London’, ‘My Friends’, ‘Pretty Women’, ‘Wouldn’t Harm You’, ‘Pirelli’, ‘Joanna’, ‘Joanna’s Song’ …? As revelations of character? Contributions to the plot?
5.The visual style, the blend of colour and monochrome? 19th century London, the East End, the slums, the wharves, Sweeney Todd’s arrival, Mrs Lovett’s flat, Fleet Street, Mrs Lovett’s café, the streets, the market? The contrast with the judge’s house, the courts? Downstairs at Mrs Lovett’s? The furnace, the baking? The sewers? The contribution of set design, décor, costumes and atmosphere?
6.The nastiness of the plot, the characters? Injustice, the law and cruelty, miscarriage of justice, corrupt judges, truth and lies? Poverty, revenge? Fraud? Violence and self-protection? Growing callousness, the serial killer? The inner humanity, the victim going mad, cruelty? The slitting of the throats? The baking of the pies, the mincing of the meat?
7.The opening credits, the machines, the blood? The cannibalism theme? Man eating man, man devouring man?
8.Sweeney Todd’s arrival, Anthony and his friendship, having saved Todd from the sea? Johnny Depp, his appearance, the quality of his singing? The song about London? His story, life on Fleet Street? Going to Mrs Lovett’s, having the tasteless pies, the gin? Settling in? Mrs Lovett recognising him? Giving him back his knives? His plans?
9.His memories, the beauty and colour, the light? Lucy and Joanna? The tenderness? The judge and the beadle, their spying, the attack on Benjamin Barker, his being transported?
10.The market, Pirelli? Pirelli’s vanity, Toby and the singing introduction to the performance? The tonic, the clients? The charlatan, the fraud with the lotion? Sacha Baron Cohen and his performance? Todd and his challenge? The boy, attending? The singing, the competition, the shaving, Pirelli’s song, lathering up, Todd’s brevity and win? Pirelli’s visit, the confrontation, the revelation of the truth? The threat of exposure and blackmail? Pirelli’s memory of working with Todd as a boy? Todd bashing him, Toby downstairs having the pies, his concern? Putting Pirelli in the trunk, the hand out? Slitting his throat? The issue of disposing of the body? The song with Mrs Lovett, imagining what could happen? The pies?
11.Mrs Lovett’s success, the range of clientele? The fashionable nature of the pie shop? Toby and his working with Mrs Lovett? The old beggar woman and her watching?
12.Mrs Lovett, memories of Albert, making the pies, horrible, the ‘Worst Pies in London’ song, dirty? Recognising Benjamin Barker? Her lie about Lucy poisoning herself? Attracted to Todd, his not noticing her? Knowing his plans? Going to the market, the encounter with Pirelli? Pirelli’s death, robbing the purse? The idea for the pies? Waste not, want not? Supporting Todd, their success? Her treatment of Toby, being motherly? Her decision to help Todd? Singing about no harm coming to Toby, locking him in, with the pies? The song of the fantasy at the beach, lightened colour, happiness, a family?
13.Judge Turpin, evil, his lust after Lucy, spying on her, with the beadle’s help? Taking Joanna? In her room, the peephole? Anthony, the pornography collection? His throwing Anthony out, his threats? Relying on the beadle? The decision to marry Joanna, her rejection? The suggestion that he smarten up, going to Todd for the shave, singing ‘Pretty Women’? The interruption? Todd’s frustration? Joanna, watching Tony, throwing him the key, packing, the judge sending her to Bedlam? Her internment? The judge in the court, the condemnation to hanging – and the revelation that he was condemning a child? The rationalisation with the beadle afterwards? His return to Todd’s, the revelation of the truth, the death?
14.The succession of victims, the songs, the slitting of the throats, the fixing of the chair by Todd, their going through the trapdoor? The beadle, coming in, his being caught?
15.Anthony, young, sailor, love, seeing Joanna, singing, ousted by the judge, his return, asking Todd to take them in, the idea of the wigs, going to Bedlam, singling out Joanna, the threat with the gun? Disguising her? The return to Fleet Street? Joanna, her life, her attitude towards the judge, giving the key to Anthony, the escape, hidden in the trunk, witnessing the deaths?
16.The beggar woman, the information to Anthony about Joanna, her madness, her identity, Mrs Lovett’s lies, her being ousted from the café, her entering, the secret, going upstairs, Todd killing her, discovering the truth, his grieving about his dead wife?
17.Toby, working for Pirelli, discovering the wallet, suspicions of Todd, Mrs Lovett caring for him, appearing in her fantasies at the beach, his fearing Todd, the finger in the pie, locked in, the sewers, finding Todd – and killing him with one of his own knives?
18.Mrs Lovett and Todd, the truth, the dance, the singing, his flinging her into the furnace?
19.Todd, his death, his empty life, a victim, loss, destruction? No gain, no redemption? A man stuck in the depths and unable to extricate himself?
