In the Victorian London, the barber Benjamin Barker is married to the gorgeous Lucy and they have a lovely child, Johanna. The beauty of Lucy attracts the attention of the corrupt Judge Turpin, who falsely accuses the barber of a crime that he did not commit and abuses Lucy later after gaining custody of her.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street () - Rotten Tomatoes
After fifteen years in exile, Benjamin returns to London under the new identity of Sweeney Todd, seeking revenge against Turpin. He meets the widow Mrs. Lovett who is the owner of a meat pie shop who tells him that Lucy swallowed arsenic many years ago, and Turpin assigned himself tutor of Johanna. He opens a barber shop above her store, initiating a crime rampage against those who made him suffer and lose his beloved family.
As it happens more often than not, greatness is relegated to some obscure angle. It's not just that Burton creates another superb, dark universe with Dante Ferretti's complicity or that Johnnt Deep breaks new ground, or that Helena Bonham Carter surprises us with a complex, marvelous realistic parody. The film touches visually a very private cord. He will be punished for that, as Ed Wood was in its day.
Disappointing grosses in a world that worship grosses will make it appear as a sort of a failure. My advise to you is run to see it wherever you can find it. Try to see it in a big screen with great sound. You will fly and dream and be taken away by the masterful hands of Tim Burton and the glorious faces of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Visit Prime Video to explore more titles. Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.
Full Cast and Crew. The infamous story of Benjamin Barker, aka Sweeney Todd, who sets up a barber shop in London which is the basis for a sinister partnership with his fellow tenant, Mrs. Wait, Is Mary Poppins a Witch?
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Learn more More Like This. A frustrated son tries to determine the fact from fiction in his dying father's life. Earth is invaded by Martians with unbeatable weapons and a cruel sense of humor. Edit Cast Cast overview, first billed only: Sweeney Todd Helena Bonham Carter Judge Turpin Timothy Spall Beadle Sacha Baron Cohen Pirelli Jamie Campbell Bower Anthony Laura Michelle Kelly Toby as Edward Sanders Gracie May Baby Johanna Ava May Baby Johanna Gabriella Freeman Baby Johanna Jody Halse Sweeney Todd is coming.
Edit Details Official Sites: DreamWorks , Warner Bros. Todd discovers that the beggar woman was his wife Lucy, whom he believed to be dead, and that Mrs. Lovett deliberately misled him so she could have him to herself. Todd pretends to forgive her and dances with her before hurling her into the bakehouse oven, then cradles Lucy's dead body in his arms. Toby appears, enraged at Mrs. Lovett's death, and Todd allows Toby to slit his throat with his own razor. Toby leaves as Todd bleeds to death over his dead wife.
I just wandered into the theatre and it just blew me away because I'd never really seen anything that had the mixture of all those elements. I actually went three nights in a row because I loved it so much. In Sondheim's words, "[Burton] went off and did other things. Meanwhile, director Sam Mendes had been working on a film version of the story for several years, [6] and in June Sondheim was approached to write the script.
Parkes obtained his approval to use writer John Logan instead. Logan had previously collaborated with Parkes on Gladiator , and claimed his biggest challenge in adapting the Sondheim stage play "was taking a sprawling, magnificent Broadway musical and making it cinematic, and an emotionally honest film. Onstage, you can have a chorus sing as the people of London, but I think that would be alienating in a movie.
On Burton's hiring, he and Logan reworked the screenplay; [9] Logan felt they agreed over the film's tone due to "share[d] stunted childhoods watching Amicus movies". Some songs were shortened, while others were completely removed. Sondheim himself is not a real big fan of movie musicals, so he was really open to honing it down to a more pacey shape. According to Lee, these deletions were due to time constraints caused by a break in filming during March , while Depp's daughter recovered from an illness. He recalled, "I really wanted this one — I knew Tim was directing and that Johnny Depp was going to be in it.
My daughter, my youngest daughter, really wanted me to do it for that reason — Johnny Depp was in it. She came on set to meet Depp and he was really delightful to her, she had a great time. Then, I took her to the junket — and Depp greeted her like an old pal when he saw her. I've got plenty of brownie points at the moment. Three members of the cast had never been in a film before: I was out shopping at the time and I got this call on my mobile.
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- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street () - IMDb.
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Filming began on February 5, at Pinewood Studios , and was completed by May 11, despite a brief interruption when Depp's daughter was taken seriously ill. Burton initially planned to use minimal sets and film in front of a green screen , but decided against it, stating that physical sets helped actors get into a musical frame of mind: Depp created his own image of Todd. Heavy purple and brown make-up was applied around his eyes to suggest fatigue and rage, as if "he's never slept". He's basically a dead person when you meet him; the only thing that's keeping him going is the one single minded thing which is tragic.
You don't see anything else around him. He's been dead for years. That streak of white hair became the shock of that rage. It represented his rage over what had happened.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
It's certainly not the first time anyone's used it. It tells a story all by itself. My brother had a white spot growing up, and his son has this kind of shock of white in his hair.
Burton insisted that the film be bloody, as he felt stage versions of the play which cut back on the bloodshed robbed it of its power. For him, "Everything is so internal with Sweeney that [the blood] is like his emotional release. It's more about catharsis than it is a literal thing. Zanuck said that "[Burton] had a very clear plan that he wanted to lift that up into a surreal, almost Kill Bill kind of stylization.
We had done tests and experiments with the neck slashing, with the blood popping out. I remember saying to Tim, 'My God, do we dare do this? Any movie is a risk, but it is nice to be able to do something like that that doesn't fit into the musical or slasher movie categories. After the filming, Burton said of the cast, "All I can say is this is one of the best casts I've ever worked with. These people are not professional singers, so to do a musical like this which I think is one of the most difficult musicals, they all went for it. Every day on the set was a very, very special thing for me.
Hearing all these guys sing, I don't know if I can ever have an experience like that again. It was very enjoyable for me to see, with music on the set everybody just moved differently. I'd seen Johnny Depp act in a way I'd never seen before, walking across the room or sitting in the chair, picking up a razor or making a pie, whatever.
They all did it in a way that you could sense. Depp said of working with Baron Cohen, when asked what he was like in real life meaning, not doing one of his trademark characters , "He's not what I expected. I didn't look at those characters and think, 'This will be the sweetest guy in the world'. A real gentleman, kind of elegant. I was impressed with him.
He's kind of today's equivalent of Peter Sellers. Burton wanted to avoid the traditional approach of patches of dialogue interrupted by song, "We didn't want it to be what I'd say was a traditional musical with a lot of dialogue and then singing. That's why we cut out a lot of choruses and extras singing and dancing down the street. Each of the characters, because a lot of them are repressed and have their emotions inside, the music was a way to let them express their feelings. He cut the show's famous opening number, "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd", explaining, "Why have a chorus singing about 'attending the tale of Sweeney Todd' when you could just go ahead and attend it?
Several other songs were also cut, and Sondheim noted that there were "many changes, additions and deletions The Deluxe Complete Edition soundtrack was released on December 18, Depp's singing was described by a New York Times reviewer as "harsh and thin, but amazingly forceful". Beyond his good pitch and phrasing , the expressive colorings of his singing are crucial to the portrayal. Yet when he sings, his voice crackles and breaks with sadness. The film's marketing has been criticized for not advertising it as a musical.
Michael Halberstam of the Writers' Theatre said, "By de-emphasizing the score to the extent they did in the trailer, it is possible the producers were condescending to us — a tactic which cannot ultimately end in anything but tears. Producer Walter Parkes stated, "All these things that could be described as difficulties could also be the movie's greatest strengths.
Worldwide releases followed during January and February , with the film performing well in the United Kingdom and Japan. Although Sondheim was cautious of a cinematic adaptation of his musical, he was largely impressed by the results. Tim Burton masterfully stages the musical in a way that will make you think he has done this many times before. Of the reviewers, Time rated it an A-minus and added, "Burton and Depp infuse the brilliant cold steel of Stephen Sondheim's score with a burning passion. Helena Bonham Carter and a superb supporting cast bring focused fury to this musical nightmare.
Enter Tim Burton, who Watching Depp's barber wield his razors It runs contrary to expectations. Burton pushes this gore into his audiences' faces so as to feel the madness and the destructive fury of Sweeney's obsession. Teaming with Depp, his long-time alter ego, Burton makes Sweeney a smoldering dark pit of fury and hate that consumes itself. With his sturdy acting and surprisingly good voice, Depp is a Sweeney Todd for the ages.
He praised all of the cast and the cinematography, but noted it would probably not appeal to non-musical fans due to the dominance of music in the film. He thanked his fans for "sticking with me on this very obtuse and strange road. It was listed as number on Empire ' s Greatest films of all time. A Blu-ray was released on October 21, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: The Motion Picture Soundtrack. The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 18 ". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved August 28, Retrieved 29 April A Musical on the Cutting Edge".
Archived from the original on December 18, Retrieved December 16, The Making of a Musical Movie". Archived from the original on June 2, Retrieved January 17,
