DVD Review: Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Although the movie is an obvious conception, it is very surprising to watch.

The Director, Tim Burton, has a history of injecting his own blend of darkness into his movies, a number of which he also produced. His history with dark movies includes Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Corpse Bride, and Beeteljuice. I am sure there’s more. He also has a history with Johnny Depp (Benjamin Barker, aka Sweeney Todd), and they both worked with Helena Bonham Carter (Mrs Lovett) in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I never read any reviews about this movie, didn’t particularly want to watch, it but I rented it last week from my local shop. As soon as it came on, I knew it would be different.

This is the best musical since Moulin Rouge (Kidman/McGregor) with a full storyline and additional personalities including Alan Rickman, himself a genius actor, although it made me cringe listen to his singing. Sacha Cohen Baron (Pirelli) was a surprising cast, as was Timothy Spall as a Beadle. The first five minutes of the movie was difficult to watch, as I kept seeing Jack Sparrow, but when the movie’s illusion kicked in, it stayed there, and I enjoyed its deliberately dark humour and characters.

The story commences with Benjamin Barker returning to London (“There’s no place like London”), looking forward to seeing his wife and daughter. Upon instruction from Mrs Lovett (Carter), he soon realises that his wife committed suicide and the evil Judge Turpin took his daughter for his own, although later in the story, it is much darker than initially foretold. Gravely disturbed by this news, Barker changes his name to Sweeney Todd and decides to exact his own unique brand of revenge.

Todd’s relationship with Mrs Lovett is poetic. He lives in the past and for the past. She lives for the future, trudging through each day and waiting for tomorrow. This was not only a contrast, but a contradiction; opposites being attracted by, perhaps, the qualities they wanted in each other; fates inexorably entwined. I found this contrast well played out.

The gore factor in this movie, at least in the second half, is surprisingly good. Todd opens up a barber’s shop above Mrs Lovett’s pie shop and slits the throat of persons he wants revenge against, namely, any aristocrat he can tempt for a shave. It was good to see a spattering of blood gushing from veins in a fountain of colour. As for the bodies, Mrs Lovett made good use of them in her pies, and I expect would have saved her a fortune ..! There is an indelible feeling of want for each other as the story pursues a conclusion, and under the directorship of Burton, it was interesting to see what would happen.

With a fantastic array of music, darkness, and surprisingly good vocals from its characters, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is highly recommended to the horror fraternity.