The first forty-five minutes or so are slower than expected (there’s a lot of musty exposition to wade through and all is delivered via solemn arias, duets and trios). This, I thought, was for fans of Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Stephen Sondheim and Dante Ferretti only (OK, so that’s a pretty big group of fans and they were being well-rewarded, but still). Then the blood starts to flow (and flow) and the mood grows darker, more macabre, more wickedly comic, and the narrative’s original melodramatic leanings give way to something best labled Jacobean revenge tragedy. I’m a fan of Hal Prince’s 1979 staging–which can be found on VHS and DVD here and there–with its Brechtian flourishes and its larger than life Grand Guignol gestures; but Burton strives for something more intimate, more interior, less stagy. Poetic justice has no room in Burton’s version of Sondheim’s musical and, therefore, sweet sailor Anthony Hope and Judge Turpin’s “pretty little ward” Johanna are somewhat minimized in order to focus more specifically on Sweeney Todd’s obsessive desire to avenge the destruction of his family. The film has its share of flaws, but I think it may be one of Burton’s greatest achievements. The stunningly beautiful, stunningly grotesque, stunningly bloody final tableau may be Burton’s most compassionately horrific image ever committed to celluloid.
Liked, but had problems with enough of the film to dampen my enthusiasm. It’s Sondheim–so even you (really us) folks who hate musicals gotta give it a whirl. (I am surprisingly a huge, huge fan of his stuff.) Depp is great, the film is often gorgeous… but I also felt often a bit constricted by the decision to scale down; for every great moment with Depp (or a fine tough-hearted duet with the boy Toby and Carter/Mrs. Lovett), I also think some great song becomes too subdued [e.g., the stemwinder where the two celebrate the pies they plan to make loses some of its slam).
Still, those lyrics, those tunes. And the blood.
My dad wanted to see this, so we went. He a) had no idea it was a musical, which would have been manageable (if unpleasant) but b) he also hates blood. So… it was interesting that someone sucked in by the ads was so thoroughly surprised by the product.
Good Burton, but I’m still a sucker for Mars and Sleepy Hollow’s strange affectionate worlds… I’d put it on par with them. (Doesn’t lay a glove on Ed W.)
No, I agree, Ed W. is a beautiful film. And I’m not sure my original response to Sweeney holds up (I have debated with myself how I might have done this or that differently). Still, that final tableau sticks with me. Mars? I’ve always thought (and may have expressed similar feelings on this blog in the past) that film to be a post-modern prank. I’m not sure the script for Sleepy Hollow lives up to the art direction. As you argue, the original book and score for Sondheim’s musical are so powerful; the film comes pretty damn close to living up to the source. Wow, you’ve been upstate for a hell of a long time!
I am surprised there isn’t more written about Burton’s new film. We saw this film yesterday, and today I anxiously sought out what I hoped to be a long and juicy thread (since I know this blog is well-populated with Burton fans). So I was a little disappointed to find a scant 500 words (more generally I’m disappointed in myself, since the thickness of threads here and elsewhere is as much my responsibility as anyone else’s).
But now that I sit down to add something, I find I’m drawing a blank (well, a blank splattered with blood). So here are some lame and (I hope) not-so-lame observations:
Lots of ample, chalky bosoms–I detected a bulging vein in Carter’s left breast. Did anyone else see it? It was the only sign of blood pumping through her.
Alan Rickman can’t sing. His pitch was quite noticeably off when he and Depp switched from two-voice counterpoint to shared harmony. Rickman always seemed flat, whereas Depp was pitch-perfect. I’m trying to sound like I know what I’m talking about, musically speaking. It’s obvious I don’t know what I’m talking about, musically speaking.
Just the right amount of Sacha Baron Cohen (there’s no way this film would have survived had Cohen been given the attention he’s given in, say, Talladega Nights). As Pirelli, he’s the first to go. And with him, so goes any feeling that the film might preserve a sense of whimsy. As reynolds puts it, the blood starts to flow. And it doesn’t stop.
What stuck in Jeff’s mind was the final tableau (which I did like), but what stuck in my mind was “By the Sea,” which was an absolute delight. I thought it was visually stunning; and Depp’s Mr. Todd, who sits detached throughout, is great. Everything in this sequence worked (it’s helped, not in the least, by the contrasting feel of London, all soot and stone).
I don’t think I felt what I was supposed to feel by the film’s end–that Jacobean revenge tragedy thing. I see the parallels (with Titus Andronicus, actually), but I just didn’t feel much. Maybe the character of the Beggar Woman was not used enough or adequately because the moment of (mis)recognition, which is so central to tragedy, seemed more of a plot contrivance.
I liked the scaled-down feel of the film (although, as you can probably tell, I’m not familiar with the material). We spent so much time in that upstairs room, and I enjoyed that. Jeff–did you think it was wrong for Burton to minimize, as he does, the Anthony/Johanna plot? I’m wondering because I felt the scenes in Judge Turpin’s house were not that interesting or important. And we never do find out what happens to Johanna–I can’t even recall: does she leave before Toby kills Mr. Todd? Where does she go? To the arms of Anthony? Where’s he? My guess is Burton wanted to end the film with the image of Todd, clutching his estranged wife, and the two of them soaking in a widening sea of crimson. A happy epilogue is not going to work.
I guess that’s enough for now. I hope some more people join in, because overall I liked this film and would like to hear from the others.
There was/is a large chorus that serves as something of a Brechtian device, singing songs that provide transition between scenes as well as setting the tone throughout. They open and close the show with “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” a crowd favorite which has been excised in Burton’s version. In the stage musical, we see Johanna and Anthony enter in the final scene (with constables) to discover Toby (who is usually played by a twenty-something) just after he has killed Todd. Poetic justice is meted out and there is the sense that Johanna and Anthony will lead virtuous lives (ah, melodrama). In the film, Johanna is left in the room above the pie shop waiting for Anthony to return, but Burton keeps it very ambiguous as you note John.
I too liked the “By the Sea” sequence but I think I will have to wait for a second viewing to make more sense of it. It certainly is the grandest departure from Sondheim’s original vision. That being said, in retrospect, I feel I was missing something from Carter’s performance. For example, during “The Worst Pies in London” the scene is so intimate that I found it hard to believe she didn’t recognize him from the very beginning so that her line readings (or lyric readings) were a bit more knowing. I think the byplay between the two could have been a bit more playful (with Lovett in the know and excited by her love’s return and Todd perplexed and confused until she leads him to his blades).