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Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 2007 film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical thriller, directed by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Sweeney Todd, a barber who seeks revenge against Judge Turpin who falsely imprisoned him and ruined his family. Todd murders his customers in his barber shop and Mrs. Lovett, who is in love with him, uses the bodies to make meat pies in her shop below. The film stars Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett.

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151 views

Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 2007 film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical thriller, directed by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Sweeney Todd, a barber who seeks revenge against Judge Turpin who falsely imprisoned him and ruined his family. Todd murders his customers in his barber shop and Mrs. Lovett, who is in love with him, uses the bodies to make meat pies in her shop below. The film stars Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett.

Uploaded by

Tayoane Lima
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a movie that was released
in 2007 and directed by Tim Burton, one of the most nominated and loved director of all
times.

This bloody film is an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’ musical thriller that re-
tells the story of Sweeney Todd a demonic barber that kills his victims with a flick of a
razor across their necks. During the development of the story people will be shown that
although he is committing murderous acts, he is acting out of the love of his family.

Starring Johnny Depp and with the amazing Helena Bonham Carter (Burton’s
wife) as co-star with the role of Mrs. Lovett a woman that combines a cheerful
personality and desire to be wanted. The cast just couldn’t get any better. Johnny Depp
makes a marvellous performance as Benjamin Barker a barber who lives an ideal life
with his beautiful and loved wife Lucy. They are deeply in love and tremendously
happy with the birth of their lovely daughter Johanna. Everything is perfect until one
day when the corrupt Judge Turpin lusts after Lucy and unjustly imprisons Barker who
is forced to go to Australia to a hard life of labour as a sentence. Turpin represents the
unscrupulous and corrupt aristocracy of that time.

After spending fifteen years away Barker returns with Antony Hope, a sailor, to
the Victorian London. Now as Sweeney Todd he visits Mrs. Lovett pie shop seeking
information about his lost family. Mrs. Lovett recognizes him as her former tenant,
Benjamin Barker, with whom she was (and is) secretly in love. She tells him that his
wife Lucy was raped by Turpin many years ago and poisoned herself with arsenic just
after that. The awful Judge Turpin also keeps imprisoned Todd’s young daughter
Johanna as award and he has made of her the object of his most perverse desires.

Helena Carter fits perfectly in the role of Mrs. Lovett who is an interest character
she combines a cheerful and lovely personality with such darkness present not only in
her expressions but also in her maquiavellian eyes. After returning Todd’s old razors
she convinces him to re-opens his barber shop in Fleet Street in the upstairs of her pie
shop that is not very well in business because it is filthy and infested with vermin.

While wandering through London, Anthony listens to Johanna singing and


immediatlly falls in love with her but Turpin and his associate, Beadle Bamford, warn
him to stay away from her.

During a visit to the open market, Todd humiliates Adolfo Pirelli in a public
shaving contest and just after Pirelli goes to his barber shop to say that he remembers
who he was and try to blackmail him, demanding half of Todd's earnings or he will
disclose his true identity.

Instead of accepting his offer Todd kills him slitting his throat, it is the first of
his murders and awakens in him the desire of a bloody revenge. One time he almost get
to kill Judge Turpim but Antony interrupts him and frustrated he starts killing all his
clients waiting for the day he will finally get to kill him.

Anthony starts working as a wig-maker’s apprentice to be close to Johanna.


Toby has turn suspicious of Mr. Todd and tells Mrs. Lovett, unaware of her role
in the crimes he promises to look after her, loving her as a substitute mother.

Beadle Bamford arrives at the barber shop, informing them that neighbours
protests of the stink coming out of the chimney and is killed by Todd who almost
murders his daughter. Turpin arrives to his barber shop and when a beggar woman goes
in saying that she recognizes him he hears Turpin’s voice so he quickly kills her and
drops her body into the bakerhouse. Todd finally gets his revenge but the end of the film
is surprising and only seeing it we can understand the moral and the fantasy present in
all of Burton’s films.

Finally we can’t talk of Sweeney Todd without mentioning the music. The songs were
composed by Sondheim and although Depp is not a singer according to the critics he
sings with a marvellous strength that is crucial to perform a complex and controversial
character as Sweeney Todd.

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