Sweeney Todd [Blu-ray] at Howling Video

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Sweeney Todd [Blu-ray]

	Sweeney Todd [Blu-ray]
	by Dreamworks Video Sales Rank: 269 Price: $27.95

After years of rumors, it turns out that Tim Burton was the perfect visionary to film <i>Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street</i>, Stephen Sondheim's Broadway masterpiece, and the result is a macabre and moving musical movie as enthralling as anything Burton has ever done. The show's mix of gothic horror, Grand Guignol, <i>very</i> dark humor, and witty and beautiful music never was the stuff of traditional musical comedy, but it's a powerful work, and perhaps the richest of the late 20th century. In the movie, Burton's frequent collaborator, Johnny Depp, plays Todd, a wronged man whose lust for revenge drives him to murder (an 19th-century legend who has been traced to a real-life barber). Helena Bonham Carter, another Burton mainstay, is Mrs. Lovett, the barber's partner-in-unspeakable-crime. It's no surprise that Depp is an excellent choice to convey Todd's brooding intensity and volcanic rage, but he can also sing a score that is so challenging it has often played in opera houses (though not with the same style as the Broadway original, Len Cariou, and he occasionally lapses into pop style). Bonham Carter is small of voice and lacks the humor of the original Broadway Lovett, Angela Lansbury, but she sings on pitch, in rhythm, and in character at the same time, which is no small feat for a Sondheim show. Aficionados will regret the loss of certain musical passages--"The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" is just an instrumental overture and the chorus is gone altogether, among others--but the reassuring presence of orchestrator Jonathan Tunick and conductor Paul Gemignani ensures that the music feels right and sounds great. And the film's depiction of a Victorian London hellhole--with cinematography by Dariusz Wolski and costumes by Colleen Atwood--also looks and feels right. <p> The excellent cast is filled out by Alan Rickman as the villainous Judge Turpin, Timothy Spall as his seedy Beadle, Sacha Baron Cohen (<i>Borat</i>) as a rival barber, Jamie Campbell Bower as the young lover Anthony, Jayne Wisener as his object of affection, and Ed Sanders as the young Toby. For fans of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp who don't think they like musicals, <i>Sweeney Todd</i> should be a revelation (though not for the squeamish, as the gore is intense and completely appropriate). For fans of Broadway and Sondheim, it's hard to imagine getting a better adaptation than this. The fact that there's no newly composed Oscar-bait song sung by a Josh Groban-type over the end credits only makes it better. <i>--David Horiuchi</i> *Viewer Reviews* I believe that the book of "Sweeney Todd" is a fine example of the classical tragic plot structure, but with an ingenious twist. Too bad that Tim Burton's interpretation ignored Aristotle's explanation of the obscene - the need for abhorrent events to occur off-stage - and killed the way the tragic plot structure should work. What makes this musical great is the way the truly evil Sweeney Todd works as the tragic hero, even though he is actually the moral anti-hero. In making the final scene so gross and bloody, Burton steals the viewer's ability to feel compassion for Todd, thus making it impossible to see him as a genuine tragic figure. Catering to the modern need for detailed "real" gore, Burton chooses to dispel the real heart of this story. We are meant to feel genuine pity for Todd, but can't in this truly obscene interpretation and thus lose the catharsis which is the whole point of tragedy. This is especially too bad, I think, because everything else about the film is excellent - the cast and their acting, the design, the filming... all amazing. If only I could have felt Todd's tragedy. Sigh. Back To Top
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