Sweeney Todd: A Supremely Dark Musical 

By Tevye Friedlander 

    “There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit, and it's filled with people who are full of s**t, and the vermin of the world inhabit it...” There have been many movie-musicals in the past, but none quite like the Golden Globe-winning Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Director Tim Burton and a musical score by the renowned Stephen Sondheim create a dismal world where it seems no one can escape the misery of life.
    The tale, adapted from Sondheim’s stage play, unfolds like an Alexandre Dumas novel, with the protagonist undergoing a Monte Cristo-like pursuit of vengeance. Benjamin Barker was a barber who had a good life and was happily married “until a man of power [Judge Turpin] stole his freedom, destroyed his family, and banished him…for life.” He returns to London as Sweeney Todd, and vows revenge on those who betrayed him. After setting up a barbershop above the bakery of his former landlord, Mrs. Lovett, they come up with a terrible way to dispose of Sweeney’s victims: bake them into meat pies. A subplot involves one of Sweeney’s friends, Anthony Hope, wanting to rescue a girl named Joanna (who is actually Sweeney’s daughter) from the judge who had previously banished Sweeney.
    Johnny Depp, one of Burton’s main leading men, gives a magnificent performance as Sweeney, highlighting the downward spiral of a man from naïve happiness to world-weary cynicism to beast-like madness. Helena Bonham Carter, another one of Burton’s circle, stars as Mrs. Lovett, who aids Sweeney throughout the film because she not-so-secretly loves him. Alan Rickman brings his signature delivery to the role of Judge Turpin, a callous and merciless man who, at one point, sentences a 12-year-old to a hanging. And Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) makes a cameo as Signor Pirelli, a loudmouthed quack doctor and Sweeney’s first victim.
    The strongest point of the movie is undoubtedly the music. Mrs. Lovett doesn’t just tell Sweeney that her pies are the worst in London, she sings a song about them: “Only lard and nothing more / Is that just revolting? / All greasy and gritty? / It looks like it's molting!” When Judge Turpin comes to Sweeney for a shave, they duet on a song about “pretty women” as Sweeney prepares to cut Turbin’s throat (the irony being that Turpin doesn’t know that they’re both singing about the same woman, Sweeney’s former wife). As Sweeney descends into madness, he sings to Mrs. Lovett, “...because in all of the whole human race / Mrs Lovett, there are two kinds of men and only two / There's the one they put in his proper place / And the one with his foot in the other one's face / Look at me, Mrs Lovett, look at you. / Now we all deserve to die / Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why.” While Depp and Carter are relative newcomers to singing, they both do a fine job conveying the misery of life through song.
    All in all, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is an amazing movie, filled with chilling songs and outstanding performances. It’s not for the squeamish, but if you like haunting music with a side of throat-slashing, then this movie is for you.