Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Posted by Cynical Sarah on February 10, 2008

A few months ago I happened to stumble upon an article about Johnny Depp taking on a role in a musical that was going to be directed by Tim Burton. It’s certainly not a surprise to see Depp and Burton teaming up for a project again, but I was surprised to see it was Sweeney Todd.

A musical. That’s not exactly Burton’s or Depp’s genre. I also had some strange impression that it was a musical set in the South during the slavery days. Don’t ask me where that came from – I’ve got no idea.

Imagine my surprise when I finally started seeing the preview for it, and it was most certainly not about plantations and the plight of the black man. Once that light bulb went off, it made much more sense that Burton would be interested in bringing this musical to the big screen. The storyline is right up his alley.

So, getting to the point, I went to see Sweeney Todd a few weeks ago with my sister-in-law and friends. In the interest of full disclosure, I will say my opinion of the movie is slightly weighted by the fact that I’m already a fan of Burton’s work. And, well, who doesn’t have a slight crush on Johnny Depp after Pirates of the Caribbean?

Still, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into when I went to see Sweeney Todd. I’d heard that it’s really graphic, and from what I’d read, Depp chose not to get any formal voice training for the role, despite that almost everything in the movie is sung.

I really didn’t have to worry. The movie was true to Burton form, bringing in his special brand of darkness, creepiness and wit to the musical. The only thing I didn’t like was the graphic neck slicing. There’s something to be said for leaving things like that to the imagination.

We don’t need to see the victims’ necks sliced open every time the Demon Barber claims another victim. It was just too much, and by the end of the movie, you’re almost desensitized to the violence.

I think it would be more effective to show it once – and even that may not be necessary – and leave the other killings to the imagination. Cut to a close up of Sweeney Todd’s face just as he’s going in for the slice, and the viewer can imagine their own horrible image of squirting arterial blood and neck tendons while at the same time observing how calm and completely indifferent he seems to be to the violence of his actions.

People will often imagine something more horrible than the movie can depict anyway.

There is an argument for the violence being a tool in the movie. Initially you feel empathy for Sweeney Todd because of his story. By the end of the movie when he suffers his own violent end, the audience is so used to the violence that it’s not a shock and the empathy is gone as well.

You can’t watch a man slicing neck after neck after neck and still feel like his killing mission was justified and want to save him at the end of the movie. It’s the ultimate story of a wronged man taking a crazy path to revenge that can only end in more tragedy.

On a lighter note, the highlight of Sweeney Todd is a duet between Todd and Mrs. Lovett, played by Helena Bonham Carter, where they come up with the perfect partnership between them that will allow Todd to practice his perfect “shave” and help Mrs. Lovett’s meat pie business. It’s a scene that takes full advantage of Burton’s dark humor.

If you can tolerate the gore and don’t have an aversion to musicals, this is a great movie to go see if you want some classic Burton imagery. Though I will say he should look for another actor to fill his quirky roles once in a while too. Depp is an amazing actor, but some of his roles from Burton’s movies are starting to meld together so you get a sort of Willy Wonka or Ichabod Crane or Edward Scissorhands vibe occasionally during the movie.

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