Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

I'm of course referring to the ever-so delightful slasher/musical Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street. A story set in the late 1880s in London, barber Benjamin Barker was living happiliy with his beautiful wife Lucy and his newborn daughter Joanna. Another man, Judge Turpin, loved Lucy and sent his associate Beetle Banford to arrest Benjamin under false charges and send him away to prison. 15 years later. Benjamin Barker is dead. Sweeny Todd returns "and he will have his revenge." Sweeny learns for his new neighbor, Mrs. Lovett, that Lucy killed herself and that his daughter was adopted by Turpin. Re-establishing his barber shop above Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Shop, he waits with his "friends", a set of shiny silver shaving razors, for the day Judge Turpin will need a shave. But in the meanwhile, Mrs. Lovett could use some "meat" for her pies and when you live a "hole in the world like a great black pit and it's filled with people who are filled with sh** and all the vermin inhabit it", there are some people who need a shave and will not be missed.


When I first saw this movie, as soon as the Dreamworks promo came on, I automatically got the impression of a dark and sinister movie. Tim Burton managed to take this beloved Broadway show and bring to the big screen in a new image that will have you smile, laugh, cry, scream, and cringe all in the same 2 hours. Johnny Deep fills the role of Todd perfectly, a quiet chap who dreams of nothing else but righting his wrongs with just a simple shaving razor, in pain over his wife. And who knew that Johnny Deep had a voice?! Oh, he has a great range that you must simply hear to believe. Helena Bonham Carter does a great job of Mrs. Lovett, a down-in-the-dumps baker who has trouble making meat pies, but more than glad to assist Mr. T in whatever he needs and a voice to go along with it(if you saw Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, you know what I mean). Alan Rickman makes a fine Judge Turpin. He's not sinister in any matter, he's just a very jealous and selfish man. I do believe this would be the first movie in six years that I did not see him as Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films and it's a quite welcome change of pace. If you're looking for sinister or "evil", I do believe you'll find that in Timothy Spall's Beetle Banford, an associate of Turpin who acts in manners Turpin couldn't do.

The songs are quite nice. From the opening to the closing will have you humming what you can remember for the next week. All in all, I'd have to say that this is on my Top Five list of musicals of this year and also on my list for most graphic/bloody. Yes, this has got to be one of the, if not THE, bloddiest Tim Burton film or any musical.

This film is rated R for strong bloody violence.