MANILA, Philippines?It is not a bloody shame that ?Sweeney Todd? is doing so well in the theaters. Winning the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) is a pretty sweet deal, too. We would have all loved to hear Johnny Depp?s speech at the ceremony since they awarded him with the Best Actor (Comedy or Musical) trophy but then again, there wasn?t a show. Lots of critics and Oscar predictions have high hopes for the highly stylistic and gory adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical. Surprisingly, the biggest competition are films whose titles somehow resonate with the theme of ?Sweeney Todd???Atonement? and ?There Will Be Blood.?
Tim Burton?s excellent adaptation follows the story of one barber, Benjamin Barker (Depp), who returns to London after being exiled for a crime he didn?t commit. Framed by the twisted Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) who pines for Barker?s wife, Barker hopes to be reunited with his family but discovers that he has nothing to return to. Ms Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) has opened a pie shop just below his old home and tells him that his daughter Johanna has become Turpin?s ward and his wife drank poison. Fueled by madness and grief, Barker assumes the name Sweeney Todd and resumes his work as a homicidal barber hoping that one day it is the judge who will sit on his chair and that Turpin?s neck will meet the sharp end of his razor. Oh yeah, there?s also blood and gore, cannibalism, love at first sight, madness, and cruelty peppered throughout the film. Oh, and there?s singing too! It is a musical, after all.
Pitch Perfect
In 1979, ?Sweeney Todd? won the Tony award for Best Musical. The songs are all intricate and complex, signatures of its multi-awarded composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, and the story is both dark and rich which is Burton?s area of expertise. He deftly cuts away at the story to focus on Sweeney Todd and nothing else.
Some songs from the musical never make it to the film, some gorgeous and playful, because Burton had only one thing on his mind: telling the tale of the demon barber of Fleet Street. His quirky, off-beat sense of style creates a moody London that is dirty and filthy and full of insane people driven by lust, greed, and vengeance.
All the actors, most notably Depp and Carter, do unbelievably committed performances. They never once play for your sympathy or for laughs. Instead, they are desperate people grasping for air in a world gone wrong; a world where justice is arbitrary and anything that is lovely and good and pure can easily be taken away. Much has been said about Depp?s and Carter?s lack of vocal prowess, but what they lack in technique, they sure make up for in performance. They didn?t try to be singers, instead they acted out each song, giving more weight to the meaning of each number.
Sweeney?s Revenge
With the success of ?Sweeney Todd,? there are talks of adapting another of Sondheim?s musicals into film. This time it?s the comedy ?Company,? about a man who cannot commit to a relationship, his married friends, and his three girlfriends. Interestingly, musicals are no longer being considered such a risky affair and maybe we might actually see an actual resurgence of the genre which is a great thing. In a way, that?s Sweeney Todd?s real revenge.
It?s funny how films have always culled stories from books but have not taken more from musical theater. After all, ?Dream Girls? and ?Chicago? were mainstream successes and critically acclaimed. Of all of Sondheim?s work, ?Sweeney Todd? is one of the more difficult ones to sell, it is bloody and gruesome and dark and twisted, yet it is doing very well at the box office. No doubt Johnny Depp and Tim Burton had a lot to do with it. More than anything, that pair is a brand and there will always be people lining up in theaters to see a movie with those two names on the marquee. Depp and Burton could do ?Gigli 2,? the musical and people would still go to see it.
