Just 2 weeks I attended an advance screening of "Sweeney Todd". Later that night I got it in my head that I'd like to do a review of the film, hey I'd got the jump on most people by seeing it so early, why not tell the world. Well it's taken me a while to sit down and write, and a lot has happened in two weeks...
NEVER FORGIVE. NEVER FORGET.
Sweeney Todd is a fictitious character that has become a British urban legend. The first known appearance of the murderous barber was in 1846 in the British Penny dreadful, The People's Periodical. The story was called "The String of Pearls: A Romance."
Todd's story was one of serial murder and cannibalism. You see Sweeney would often use his straight razor for more than just a shave and plunge it into the necks of his victims in order to drink their blood. He would then bring the corpses home to his friend and sometimes lover, Mrs. Lovett, a baker. They'd become the filling for her famous meat pies. Their boy servant, Tobias Ragg (who remained oblivious to the secrets of the meat pies, often assisted these two infamous characters.
Oh yah, there are these two lovers, a sailor named Mark Ingesterie (also known as Anthony Hope) and Johanna. Depending on the tale Todd either aides the lovers or hinders their plans.
But that was back in the mid 1800's. A lot's happened to the old fox, Sweeney Todd. There have been novels and melodramas, plays and movies all singing the song of Sweeney. Then in 1979 a man named Stephen Sondheim adapted a 1973 stage play and turned the whole damn tale of Sweeney Todd into a musical, "and it was beautiful." And it was a hit. A huge one. It also left it's mark on a certain film director, who delights in the ghastly. And so, today, on the 21st of December, Tim Burton's take on Sweeney Todd the musical will hit theatre's here in North America, just in time for Christmas.
TIM BURTON'S NEW NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
I'll start by letting you know I went into the film cold. I'd seen a trailer and that's about it. I've heard of the musical, or at least was aware of it, however I hadn't seen or heard anything from the stage production, nor any of its incarnations. Even the basic premise of Todd's story was unclear to me. I was a Sweeney Todd virgin.
My one sentence review and first impression?
"Burton's Sweeney Todd had too much singing and took to long to get engaging."
But that would be a very unfair review give, because although I had some problems with the film, I have to say I walked away enjoying it, maybe too much. I had some questions and confusion about what I had seen.
This is a musical, but its dark and brooding like a Saw picture and has buckets of gore and blood, maybe even more than any other Burton picture so far (Sleepy Hollow does come close). But, the music! This is not a musical with light catchy pop tunes; it's a Stephen Sondheim musical. The music is dense, complicated and operatic. It'll be interesting to see how the film does with general audiences because it's a strange blending of horror and musical and I just don't see the two audiences mixing, except for a select few. I know that Evil Dead: the musical has been doing well, but it's a comedy and Sweeney Todd has few moments of comedy (and even many of those light moments in the Broadway version are downplayed by Burton).
Tim Burton's direction for me has become hit and miss lately. I've enjoyed many of his films, most in fact, but his last few haven't been as strong as his earlier flights into fancy. But one film I did enjoy was Sleepy Hollow, most likely because I, like Burton am a fan of many of the films that influenced the Ichabod Crane legend. I must have seen the animated Legend of Sleepy Hollow ten years in a row each Halloween when it would make its appearance on The Wonderful World of Disney. Then there's the influence of the gothic horror film on Sleepy Hollow's art direction and overall esthetic, including the cinematography. So it can be considered a companion film to Sweeney Todd, because in his new film Burton again draws upon gothic horror films for his aesthetic. Films like the Universal Monster cycle, which includes Dracula and Frankenstein, and the later revamps by Hammer that began in the late 50's and continued to the 70's. The Hammer take on Dracula made Christopher Lee a horror icon. It's coincidence that he shows up in Sleepy Hollow and The Corpse Bride. Then there are the Roger Corman Poe films that elevated Vincent Price to horror superstar. It's no secret that Burton was a fan. He made an animated tribute at Disney called Vincent (starring Price, himself, as the narrator) and Price's last role was in Burton's Edward Scissor hands. The works of Mario Bava were likely an influence.
Aesthetically the film is what you'd expect from Burton, dark almost monochromatic and very stylish. I found it a bit too much so. My overall impression is that the film was blue, almost entirely, with some moments of orange warmth and one very colourful dream sequence. I had watched Roger Corman's Poe picture The Premature Burial the night before and fell in love with it's limited color plate of reds, browns and greens. It had the feeling of a monochromatic film but with very vibrant colours. So I was disappointed with the blue skew in Sweeney Todd. It's a look that's been around for years and worked wonderfully in Sleepy Hollow, but is becoming tiresome. Maybe it's because this was likely achieved by digital colour timing and Sleepy Hollow was still using a film process to achieve its look. But there's something weird about the trailer that could make my entire complaint pointless. The trailer is beautiful and filled with varying color schemes, and is also much brighter that what I remember. Could it be the notorious practice of theatre dimming their bulbs to save on money that sucked the vibrancy from the film for me? Only another viewing will tell me for sure.
But if the film is engaging something shot with a DV camera will feel exciting (look at the Blair Witch Project, 13 Days Later and The Celebration). Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in goth gear are pretty to look at suit the characters well, at least visually, so we'll move past the look and onto the experience, of which the music plays a huge part.
Now I did find the film a bit dull in spots, particularly the first half, maybe even more. Sitting in the theatre watching, or listening, to our leads singing I found myself fidgeting, that kind of restless annoyed type of fidget. The music was driving me a little crazy. I began to suspect that it might be voices of our leads. After all I can name two musical films that Johnny Depp has been in-- Cry Baby and his voice in the Corpse Bride-and he was dubbed in both films for the music.
Just listen to this example...
Gotcha'. So the music isn't that bad, but it seems weak. So I had to ask myself "Why would these actors start singing now?" My guess is that if they hadn't their performances wouldn't be much more than mime. There is a lot of music in the film. Not a good sign when you consider that the trailer shows almost none of it.
Now I don't want to fault Depp and Bonham Carter for not rising to the occasion but, it doesn't take a musical genius to deduce that this is powerful music and powerful voices are called for, singers that have been at it for a while.
"A Little Priest", the song that introduces the idea of turning Sweeney's victims into meat pies garners laughs, but there is suggestion in it that it should be a lot more fun. There's been a bit of cutting in the music so that the film could run closer to 2 hours than the 3 it takes up on Broadway. Here are some lyrics that ended up on the cutting room floor:
LOVETT:
Now then, this might be a little bit stringy, but then of course it's... fiddle player!
TODD: No, this isn't fiddle player -- it's piccolo player!
LOVETT: 'Ow can you tell?
TODD: It's piping hot!
LOVETT: Then blow on it first!
(spoken)
Since marine doesn't appeal to you, 'ow about... rear admiral?
TODD: Too salty. I prefer general.
LOVETT: With, or without his privates? "With" is extra.
Alan Rickman gives a great performance, but he too is weak on the vocal libations. Sacha Baron Cohen a.k.a Borat is one of the strongest of the cast, but he does have the luxury of singing under an intentionally thick Italian accent.
I suspect the vocal performances might turn off some of the Broadway fans and won't likely win over Burton fans.
Another thing that could turn off the Broadway crown is the blood, or more aptly put "gore". That's when I finally became engaged in the film. Not because of the gore, but I suspect because this is where Burton finally gets to flex his directing muscles and work with material that he's more suited to. There definitely are some very entertaining and engaging moments in the film, unfortunately most come in the final third. The film only started to deliver when Sweeney starts wielding his razors. Once he does I have to admit I became hooked.
Not a simple review is this?
After walking out of the theatre, I began wondering; "was there this much gore in the Broadway version?" and "is the music more engrossing in the musical?"
ATTEND THE TALE
If you made it through this far in the review I can now promise to kick things up a notch because now I have some insight. What have I been doing for the last few weeks that have keep me from writing this review? Research.
I tend to obsess, at least for a bit, with things I discover and am curious about. Sweeney Todd has been one of those obsessions.
The day after the screening of Sweeney Todd I dug up a recording of the 2005 Broadway Revival Cast. Sweeney Todd was after all a hit on Broadway, and Stephen Sondheim isn't considered a slouch when it comes to writing musical theatre. I was curious. I wanted to know what all the fuss had been about.
I stuck it on my ipod and lived with it for a day. I've fallen in love with it. And I was right, powerful voices make all the difference in the world. The music isn't easy, it's complicated and it is operatic. At this point I still had Burton's cast in my head as visuals, and I have to admit that they work very well. It's too bad that the cast didn't have those years of vocal training and strong singing voices (that really you only have or don't) that the many cast members of the Broadway incarnations had.
What about the gore? You have to love the internet and all it can provide. YouTube provided me a chance to watch the original cast (which includes Angela Landsbury) production. The blood is there but it barely reads on stage (Burton had it gushing). The video also gave me insight into what Tim Burton might have seen when he first discovered it. Indeed, "A Little Priest" is indeed much more comic in the Broadway version due likely to it's more melodramatic and theatrical presentation. There is a little Brecht in this musical. Burton's sensibilities are much more brooding and dark.
Being a neophyte Sweeney Todd fan (post-film) I made a few discoveries. The reoccurring "Ballad of Sweeney Todd" has been all but cut from the film. It's still there in the opening and closing credits, but Burton's dropped the vocals altogether. And the characters of Anthony Hope and Johanna have been downplayed, to the point of dropping one of my favorite songs "Kiss Me". It's a great bit of character development for the two lovers and is quite humorous.
"Johanna", I discovered is the point in the film where things hooked me. During the piece Todd begins his slaughter, disposing of his victims on his barber's chair that also dumps the bodies into the basement where Mrs. Lovett can grind them up for her pies. Sung very well it's chilling. It's a beautiful longing melody juxtaposed against Sweeney's slaughter. Depp's voice isn't powerful enough, or deep enough, to give it full strength, but Burton handles the visuals and flow very well.
In this age of fan edits, I'm looking forward to seeing a version of the film with an alternate musical audio track.
In the end I find Burton's take on the film a bit disappointing, but I doubt I'd have ever bothered to discover the musical. Who knows, the next viewing might bring with it some nostalgia.
AT LAST MY RIGHT ARM IS COMPLETE AGAIN.
There has been a production of Sweeney Todd playing here in Toronto. It closed on the 16th. I looked into tickets on the 15th. I managed to attend the last performance. I just wanted to see it live.
Well I wasn't prepared for what I stumbled into. A new take on the musical. It was a smaller production, nine cast members, and they also doubled as the orchestra. It was pretty amazing. The cast also being tied to instruments limited the staging but it was outstanding. The cast was wonderful (a few pedestrian performances but they were juggling a lot of things) and Judy Kaye was a stand out as Mrs. Lovett.
Some side notes.
When listening to the score of Sweeney Todd you can hear where Burton and Elfman borrowed for A Nightmare Before Christmas.
If you want to read the original tale:
http://www.victorianlondon.org/mysteries/sweeney_todd-01.htm
Thanks for sticking with this post. As a bit of a treat, here's a 1946 CBC production of a Sweeney Todd melodrama based on the original "String of Pearls".
