One of the final features released in 2007 is one of the best. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the darkest and bloodiest motion picture musical in memory. It’s delivered from stage to screen with diligence, gore, and “Burtonian” Goth. Placed among the ranks of recent musicals, Sweeney Todd rockets straight to the top. It’s macabre, commercial, and brilliant in song.
Fifteen years after being banished from his wife and daughter, Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) returns to his hometown of London under the name of Sweeney Todd. Seeking revenge on Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) for his banishment, Todd opens a barber shop above Mrs. Lovett’s (Helena Bonham Carter) meat pie eatery, with hopes to give the Judge the closest shave he’s ever received.
Todd’s thirst for vengeance sends him on a killing spree, slitting the throats of all who enter his loft. With each “practice” murder, Todd begs for the next throat to belong to Turpin, so he can achieve retribution and take back his daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener).
Arguably his best work since Ed Wood (if not his outright opus), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the motion picture that Tim Burton was born to make. Under any other director’s command, Sweeney Todd would have most likely escalated in camp and decreased in value. With Burton, audiences receive pools of blood, swarms of shadows, and the best adaptation of the Broadway show possible.
Assuming you’re familiar with the musical, if someone shouted that Sweeney Todd was coming to the big screen, who would you want in the director’s chair? Can you think of a more suitable option than Tim Burton? The style that Burton brings to the table in each of his motion pictures wholly complements the eerie aura of Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 musical. Of course, with Burton aboard, his leads come with the territory.
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