Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)

Many aspects of this film cannot be faulted - the production design, the actors, and of course the peerless score by Stephen Sondheim. As so often happens in his films however Director Tim Burton's initial grim humour gives way to unnecessary nastiness leaving a bad taste in the viewer's mouth and throwing the film off balance. This is definitely not a film for the squeamish.

i know all he did was direct it , like the genius he is....but i think if he ever wrote a musical this would translate the same. that being said this gothic , dark , spooky masterpiece of cinema is just AMAZING!! not only do u have steven sondheim's incredible lyrics and story and TIM BURTON himself directing and again working with mr.johnny depp...the gruesome two-some as i like to call them but you have helena bonham carter,alan rickman,sacha baron cohen!! to name a few playing these iconic characters! they all can sing like ive never heard them do and the soundtrack is soooo good....if u like gore and great music...GO BUY THIS MOVIE!!!

Caveat Emptor: If you are looking for a jazzy, upbeat musical, if you're looking for Gene Kelly to tap dance across the screen, if you're looking for lines of chorus girls in sparkly outfits or a plucky, cock-eyed optimist to belt out her troubles, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a bloody gorefest with a mad killer stalking his victims through shadowy streets, look elsewhere. If musicals annoy or don't make sense to you, look elsewhere. For everyone else, bon apetit.

Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a Gothic musical thriller set in 19th Century London, is a tale of revenge, murder, cannibalism, rape, corruption and madness. It's told through Stephen Sondheim's hyper-intelligent, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and Tim Burton's mad-cap and macabre aesthetic. Burton films Sweeney Todd in an over-the-top stylized manner, reminiscent of the German Expressionist horror movies; with mad angles. The London he creates is a bleak, Dickensian cityscape of skeletal buildings and depressing gray skies that rain dark drops of blood. The characters that inhabit such a city are dark and drab to match their surroundings, or brightly flamboyant in colors as lurid as their characters. If such a visual style sounds almost cartoonish, it is; and it works. For a story as dark and morbid as Sweeney Todd, an unworldly aesthetic is needed to keep the world from resembling our own too closely.

The story is simple and dark as a Grimm's fairy tale. Sweeney Todd was banished to prison by a corrupt judge who lusted after Toddâ(tm)s wife. After twenty years, Todd returns to London to find that his wife is dead and the lecherous judge has adopted his daughter. Bent on revenge, Todd returns to his original home and profession, opening a barbershop in the home of his old neighbor, Mrs. Lovett. But the road to revenge is never straight and when more bodies begin to pile up than were expected, Mrs. Lovett comes up with an ingenious plan to dispose of them and improve her failing meat-pie business at the same time. This grisly tale is told through Sondheim's brilliant songs, sometimes haunting, sometimes hilarious, always memorable. Burton and his cast bring the songs to life remarkably well, particularly Johnny Depp. The slight harshness in Depp's voice conveys the utter despair of the character perfectly. Helena Bonham-Carter is the weakest vocally, but her characterization is superb and outweighs her musical shortcomings.

Sweeney Todd nearly defies classification. No other musical is as grim and macabre; no other musical has such gleefully black humor, and no other musical surpasses its "genre" to be such a haunting story of humanity in an inhumane world.

The back alleys of London have been host to many of the most revered 19th century pieces of literature, spawning some of the greatest stories, protagonists and villians: such as Charles Dickins' "Oliver Twist", H.G. Wells' "the Invisible Man", and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. One of the more underated London-based books "the String of Pearls", or better known to Broadway as Sweeney Todd, has finally joined his brothers of extrodinary literature in the silver screen as the musical "Sweeney Todd- The Demon Barber of Fleet Street".

Todd's tale was one of the biggest broadway bangs when it debut. Keeping with the style of broadway music, Tim Burton recruits the likes of Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman(with Timothy Spall as his servent, go figure) to yodel their tales of triumph and terror with surprising success. The orchastrated score was kept simple, but devistating none the less, all musical numbers where performed to the apex of quality, for both the perfomers and the band. I would expect nothing less, this was an award winning musical after all.

For those who don't know about this hack-n-slash tale, Sweeney Todd(Depp), a gifted barber, arrives in gothic London after serving a false account of rape in labour camp for 15 years. After visiting his old shop, Todd devises a plot with the baker/land lady, Mrs. Lovett(Carter), to dispose of the corrupt Judge Turpin(Rickman) that locked him away, making a healthy deposit of other human casulties to the bake furnace for pies along the way. Many aspects of Todd's and Turpin's characters looked as if they where taken from a Jean ValJean(Les Miserable) personality who's led astray. While in no means the only colors are black and white, but the cobblestone streets are shown in color when speaking of symbolism, in an otherwise opaque color scheme of a movie that just might be considered a greek tragedy.

Sweeney Todd is a flawless film, having beautifully executed acting and song in one swift stroke, becoming a favorite film of mine, and one that should be held in the same high regards as the Penny Dreadful novel and Broadway Musical. The only problem holding it back was a personal nick of mine. Having grown-up on the Harry Potter books and movies, seeing Rickman play as the potions master Snape, now still in character, and now as a singing judge(even though it was a beautiful attempt) just felt a bit corny.
4.5/5

The original 1936 black and white making of this film certainly left something for your imagination and leaves Tim Burton's film in the dust. I'm surprised Johnny Depp fell for the discusting and poor taste of the film's direction and it's too bad Mr. Burton doesn't have the film making skills to leave something for your imagination as the original version. Hitchcock would have directed this movie in a way that would have you leaving the theatre feeling better than then when you arrived, not feeling like you need to take an antacid tablet. Instead Tim goes for the easy. It's amazing how actor's/director's taste have gone downhill. He ruined this film with his Hollywood slasher theme and was a waste of money to see.