Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street Review

Sweeney Todd [...], directed by Tim Burton, is based on the famous legend of the killer of Fleet Street. Released in 2007, Burton decided to make a horror/musical of this legend. With Johnny Depp as Benjamin Barker, a.k.a. Sweeney Todd, and Helena Bonham Carter as Ms. Lovett, it is set in London. The movie starts with a boatentering the dock and a young man on the boat admiring London. Sweeney appears and tells his tale to Anthony, the young sailor admiring London. Sweeney was married to a beautiful wife and they had a daughter. Judge Turpin was jealous and falsely imprisoned Todd to get to his wife. Sweeney goes back to his old barber shop and meets Ms. Lovett, who owns the unsuccessful meat pies shop underneath the shaving parlor. Todd learns from Ms. Lovett that his wife Lucy poisoned herself and Todd goes on a wild killing spree, his objective to kill the man who caused him all this misery, Ms Lovett at his side helping him fulfill his desire.

I rather liked the notion of creating a musical with this gory horror. It makes the characters express their feelings more easily. I liked this movie even though it is rated R, due to the constant throat-splitting. I particularly liked Ms. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) because of the way she sang and she spoke like a true old english speaker, accent and pronounciation all perfect.

I suppose the main theme is being blinded by strong emotions, jealousness, love, hatred etc. For example, Todd is blinded by hatred and kills many people without affection, almost killing them routinely. Ms. Lovett is blinded by her love for Sweeney that she does horrible things to prove she would do anything for him. Another major theme is taking advantage of one's power. The judge uses his job and his power among London for his own good. He prosecutes and imprisons Benjamin Barker on false charges to get rid of him and to be able to get to his wife.

I recommend you see this movie and I nominate it a "Must See". Although there are some gory scenes, and some songs are longer than they should be, I truly enjoyed this movie.

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