Sweeney Todd

Let me preface this article by making it clear that I hate musicals. I. HATE. MUSICALS. I may not have gone to see "Sweeney Todd" had I known beforehand that it was a member of this despised genre. But, blissfully unaware, I settled in to see a good dramatic horror flick and was confronted instead with a song before the characters had spoken even a single word of dialogue.

But as the movie developed, I found myself kind of enjoying it. "Sweeney Todd" features Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in a gruesomely bloody blend of theatrical talent and musical brilliance. The story was originally composed in 1979 by Stephen Sondheim and is here adapted to the screen by Tim Burton - famous for his dark, gothic-style directing. Johnny Depp stars as Sweeney Todd, a barber who was wrongly convicted of a crime and sent away, losing his wife and child. He returns 15 years later to the news that his wife has poisoned herself and his daughter is being held captive by the very judge (Mr. Turpin, played by Alan Rickman) that sentenced him. Todd sets up shop again and selects as a business partner Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), owner of a bakery that boasts "the worst meat pies in London".

Todd lures Mr. Turpin into his shop, intending to slit his throat and exact revenge....but the opportunity for murder slips through his fingers. Crazed, frustrated, and bloodthirsty, Sweeney Todd begins killing every customer that comes in for a shave. After the unsuspecting victim’s throat is slashed and the windows/floor/Todd’s clothes/camera lens are splattered with blood, he is dropped through a trapdoor, ground up, and served in Mrs. Lovett’s famous meat pies.

The soundtrack, of course, mirrors the shadowy gory tones of the film. Johnny Depp’s and Helena Bonham Carter’s voices harmonize well, and they have several impressive duets together. My favorite was “My Friends” – a creepy and horrifying serenade to Todd’s razors (“Friends, you shall soon drip precious rubies…”) Alan Rickman’s voice was a little off, but he was also a fairly decent singer. The ambient music was mostly dramatic choir singing accompanied by sinister images of Todd examining his razors, caressing things with bloody hands, etc.

If you want to listen to the whole soundtrack, go here: http://www.amazon.com/Sweeney-Todd-2005-Broadway-Revival/dp/B000CRR3P6 and scroll a quarter of the way down.

Most of the film is about setting up the mood: it doesn’t contain a whole lot of action (killing) until the second half. Once it starts, the amount of blood spurting and gurgling that’s heard could count as a track to itself. The movie is shot in a grim, grey, pale light and there are numerous images of a dark and grimy London full of dirt, refuse, and smokestacks. Todd eloquently sets the tone in the first song of the movie: “There's a hole in the world like a great black pit /And it's filled with people who are filled with shit /And the vermin of the world inhabit it.”

I became legitimately scared/disgusted by the final scene of the movie, which is shot in the bakery’s “butchering room” surrounded by the bloody corpses of Sweeney Todd’s victims. One of the characters is unnecessarily and graphically burned alive (my greatest fear), which made me want to curl into a corner and throw up. I would recommend the movie if you like horror films and copious quantities of blood don’t bother you. I normally equate musicals to happy people dancing in fields of flowers and sunshine, so the contrast was interesting and refreshing. If you do go to see the movie, count how many people die and let me know. I found myself wondering about the final body count by the last 15 minutes.