Villains We Love: Sweeney Todd
Filed under: Horror, Music & Musicals, Fandom, Johnny Depp, Scenes We Love
If you pressed me to pick my favorite slasher, I would pick the one who wears a cravat and sponsors a recycling program. He may not be as physically terrorizing as Jason, Freddy, or Michael Myers, but Sweeney is just as ruthless. Once he decides that revenge is best served in a hot crust, no one is safe from his blade. Perhaps he's not as creative with his kills as Jason or Freddy is, but he's a lot more poetic. Few slashers are both a serial killer and a Byronic hero, and few horror movies feature a hero who moans over his lost daughter as he opens another jugular.
The blend of the romantic and the horrific is what makes Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street such a delicious story. At its twisted center, the story is all about love. Sweeney is motivated by the loss of his wife and child, Mrs. Lovett assists him because she's always loved him, Judge Turpin is twisted by love and lust for Johanna, and the tender romance of Johanna and Anthony helps bring it all to an even bloodier denouement.
Combine its Gothic romance with its cheery tunes (cannibalism, rape, child abuse, alcoholism, and insanity have never been so catchy!) and historical / social commentary, and you have a pretty demented little tale. Am I the only one who watches it, and hopes every single time that once Sweeney dispatches Judge Turpin to his gravy, he and Mrs. Lovett will flee London, make a new life together and enjoy lifelong success running a meat pie shop by the sea? I know he and Mrs. Lovett deserved their ugly ends, but Sweeney's seems especially bitter. He may have put a lot of innocent men into pies, but did he deserve such a personal twist of the razor? I think even the Greek playwrights would find that one cold.
Yes, I've gushed too much. But Sweeney is a villain I truly love, and I don't know what it says about me that it's one of the few Johnny Depp performances that I find really sexy. (When he's stalking the balcony above the pie shop, looking down on its unsuspecting customers? And when he bares his throat to Toby? Yes, I can see why Depp keeps so many girls up at night.) It's also one of the only Tim Burton films I can watch over and over again. I've posted some of my favorite clips below (they do contain spoilers!), and I hope the Sondheim purists can forgive me for enjoying this version so damn much.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-01-2009 @ 3:57PM
Jackie said...
I was first introduced to Sweeney Todd, the play, two years before the movie came out. What endeared me to the play then was how outright funny the play was -- I mean, Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett sing a duet making jokes about the different types of people they're going to murder and cannibalize. And it is absolutely hilarious. And though I'm a fan of both Depp and Sweeney, I couldn't like the movie version, for the very simple reason that they took all the humor out of it. When you take the comedy out of a dark comedy, you're left with a slasher film. A romantic, Burton-esque slasher, but a slasher film nevertheless. Where's my dramatic irony, where's Mrs. Lovett's ironic twists? "A Little Priest" doesn't make any sense if you don't make it clear to your audience that they're supposed to be laughing at it.
(Speaking of, I also took offense to Toby's final part, not to include spoilers -- the play's version is so, so much incredibly creepier. But that's just personal preference.)
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10-29-2009 @ 8:35PM
Katie said...
Jackie, I disagree. The movie was quite hilarious. Humor is better when you don't have to tell the audience they're supposed to laugh. I laughed my butt off in the theater. (Though, I do have a dark sense of humor.)
10-01-2009 @ 6:15PM
Julie said...
Ahhhh...dear Sweeney. Halloween has come back around and its time for a visit to Fleet Street. I agree, Johnny Depp makes a very sexy Sweeney Todd and he does come to an unfortunate end. He just wanted revenge and got a bit carried away!
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10-01-2009 @ 7:02PM
piratesfan60 said...
I agree that Sweeney Todd is a great movie. I didn't do good at the box office, because of the competition. Also at Christmas people want cheery little holiday films. Not me. If Johnny Depp's or Tim Burton's name is attached to it I am the first in line that day. I do think it might have done better released at Halloween.
Well that was 2007. In 2008 when it was released it was a top renter and people bought alot of copies.
I love the movie. The acting was superb. For a cast that are not known for singing they were awesome. I have the Broadway verison, with Angela Landsbury and George Hearn. Tim Burton version is almost word for word of the play. The music is a little different some songs were deleted or made shorter. I like the film better. Like Jackie said "Tobey's' character was a little different at the end of the play.
This is my personal opinion- I think Johnny Depp's "My Friends," is 100 times better than George Hearns. I am not just saying that because I am a Johnny Depp fan. Take a listen yourself.
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10-01-2009 @ 9:18PM
Jen said...
But have you seen Hearn's Epiphany?
10-01-2009 @ 7:39PM
Emily9 said...
I agree with you 100% Elizabeth - I love this movie! Tom O'Neill and other critics said Depp was using David Bowie as inspiration, but to me it's definitely Billy Idol (think huge white spiky hair, a snarl, and "Eyes Without a Face"). It's a musical horror film, not a remake of the Broadway play (love that, too - original & revival). The original screenplay included ghosts appearing to Sweeney, affecting his actions, but those parts were scrapped when Johnny's daughter became ill and they had to shorten filming. I wonder how that would have turned out.
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10-01-2009 @ 10:14PM
Kay said...
My favorite slasher as well :) Very underrated movie in my opinion..
@Emily6 - I never knew they almost put the ghosts in the movie.. that would have been interesting!
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10-03-2009 @ 5:42AM
Jason said...
Jen, I have to agree with you there....George Hearn was the first Sweeney that I ever saw, from that 1982 TV production, with a pre-"Murder, She Wrote" Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett, reprising the role that she originated on Broadway. I, like many of the Sondheim purists, did expect more than I got from Burton & Depp's adaptation. It was a grand effort, though, & I DID pay to see it twice on the big screen, & sang along both times. Johnny Depp gave a damn great performance as Sweeney, but anyone who says he's THE BEST Sweeney has obviously never experienced the FURY that is George Hearn's rendition of "Epiphany".
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12-27-2009 @ 1:02PM
Osh said...
I adore this movie! It is my favourite, and I am Twelve! I never did see the old version but I heard they cut out like half of the Priest song, other than that this movie was suprisingly catchy for songs about cannibalism, abuse and rape, like the article said. I am such a huge Tim and Johnny fan, I've seen and love all thier movies, they are my heroes!
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