Movie: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Sacha Baron Cohen (of Borat fame)
Director: Tim Burton
Music: Stephen Sondheim
Release Date: Dec. 21, 2007 in the U.S.
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By God, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a bloody gorgeous movie.
Very bloody and supremely gorgeous, at the same time.
Outstandingly executed by director Tim Burton and a must watch film in any season, Sweeney Todd is the bloodcurdling tale of vengeance of a barber unjustly sent to prison on false charges because a scoundrel judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) lusted after, and coveted, his beautiful wife.
Set in gritty 19th century London and filmed mostly in dim lighting to splendid visual effect, this hauntingly horrifying story exercises a powerful grip on our attention that never let go.
If you are squeamish about blood, stay away from Sweeney Todd because there is plenty of blood whooshing out each time Johnny Depp picks up his glistening barber’s razor to shave some hapless victim.
The movie opens with the barber Benjamin Barker returning to London on a boat as the embittered and enraged Sweeney Todd after 15 years in prison in Australia.
He returns to his old apartment above a pie-shop run by Mrs.Lovett (played with great elan by the British actress Helena Bonham Carter).
Not the antiseptically clean London of today, Sweeney Todd’s London is a grimy place that has rats scurrying around and a slightly ominous feel.
Mrs.Lovett soon recognizes Sweeney Todd as Benjamin Barker and informs him that his wife was raped by judge Turpin and committed suicide by consuming arsenic. The barber also learns that his daughter Johanna is now the judge’s ward and the object of his lust.
Sweeney Todd’s sole mission in life now is to extract revenge and kill judge Turpin and his henchman Beadle (Timothy Spall).
The barber turns into a horrific demon, who first kills a rival barber and
