SweeneyTodd

The Movie Is One Of If Not The Best Tim Burton Or Johnny Depp Movie That There Is The Movie Does Not Just Have good Plot It Also HAS GREAT SINGING IN IT!

Tim Burton first saw Stephen Sondheim's 1979 stage musical, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, as a CalArts student in London in 1980.[2] Although not a fan of the musical genre,[3] Burton was struck by how cinematic the musical was, and repeatedly attended subsequent performances.[4] He described it as a silent film with music,[4] and was "dazzled both by the music and its sense of the macabre."[2] When his directing career took off in the late 1980s, Burton approached Sondheim with a view to making a cinematic adaptation, but nothing came of it. In Sondheim's words, "[Burton] went off and did other things."[4]

Meanwhile, director Sam Mendes had been working on a film version of the story for several years,[3] and in June 2003 Sondheim was approached to write the script.[5] Although he turned down the offer, Mendes and producer Walter Parkes obtained his approval to use writer John Logan instead. Logan had previously collaborated with Parkes on Gladiator, and claimed his biggest challenge in adapting the Sondheim stageplay "was taking a sprawling, magnificent Broadway musical and making it cinematic, and an emotionally honest film. Onstage, you can have a chorus sing as the people of London, but I think that would be alienating in a movie."[6] Mendes left to direct the 2005 film Jarhead, and Burton leaped at taking over the direction after his project, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, fell apart due to its excessive budget.[3][7]

DreamWorks announced Burton's appointment in August 2006, and Johnny Depp was cast as Todd.[8] On Burton's hiring, he and Logan reworked the screenplay;[6] Logan felt they agreed over the film's tone due to "share[d] stunted childhoods watching Amicus movies".[2] Turning a 3-hour stage musical into a 2-hour film required some changes. Some songs were shortened, while others were completely removed.[9] Christopher Lee, Peter Bowles, Anthony Stewart Head, and five other actors were set to play the ghost narrators, but their roles were cut. According to Lee, these elisions were due to time constraints caused by a break in filming during March 2007, while Depp's daughter recovered from an illness.[10] Burton and Logan also reduced the prominence of other secondary elements, such as the romance between Todd's daughter Johanna and Anthony, to allow them to focus on the triangular relationship between Todd, Mrs. Lovett, and Toby.[9][11]

Filming began on February 5, 2007 at Pinewood Studios, and was completed by May 11, despite a brief interruption when Depp's daughter was taken seriously ill.[12][13] Burton opted to film in London, where he had felt "very much at home" since his work on Batman in 1989.[2] Production designer Dante Ferretti created a darker, more frightening London by adapting Fleet Street and its surrounding area. Burton initially planned to use minimal sets and film in front of a green screen, but decided against it, stating that physical sets helped actors get into a musical frame of mind: "Just having people singing in front of a green screen seemed more disconnected".[4] Depp created his own image of Todd. Heavy purple and brown make-up was applied around his eyes to suggest fatigue and rage, as if "he's never slept".[14]

Burton insisted that the film be bloody, as he felt stage versions of the play which cut back on the bloodshed robbed it of its power. For him, "everything is so internal with Sweeney that [the blood] is like his emotional release. It's more about catharsis than it is a literal thing."[3] Producer Richard D. Zanuck said that "[Burton] had a very clear plan that he wanted to lift that up into a surreal, almost Kill Bill kind of stylization. We had done tests and experiments with the neck slashing, with the blood popping out. I remember saying to Tim, 'My god, do we dare do this?'"[4] On set, the fake blood was colored orange to render correctly on the desaturated color film used, and crew members wore bin liners to avoid getting stained while filming.[14] This macabre tone made some studios nervous, and it was not until Warner Bros., DreamWorks and Paramount had signed up for the project that the film's $50 million budget was covered.[2] Burton said "the studio was cool about it and they accepted it because they knew what the show was. Any movie is a risk, but it is nice to be able to do something like that that doesn't fit into the musical or slasher movie categories."[15]

Sweeney Todd had joined Ed Wood to become only the second film in Burton's career with music not composed by Danny Elfman. Burton wanted to avoid the traditional approach of patches of dialogue interrupted by song. He cut the show's famous opening number, "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd", explaining, "Why have a chorus singing about 'attending the tale of Sweeney Todd' when you could just go ahead and attend it?"[2] Sondheim acknowledged that, in adapting a musical to film, the plot has to be kept moving, and was sent MP3 files of his shortened songs by Mike Higham, the film's music producer, for approval. Several other songs were also cut, and Sondheim noted that there were "many changes, additions and deletions... [though]... if you just go along with it, I think you'll have a spectacular time."[6] To create a larger, more cinematic feel, the score was reorchestrated by the stage musical's original orchestrator, Jonathan Tunick, who increased the orchestra from twenty-seven musicians to seventy-eight.[4]

The Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Deluxe Complete Edition soundtrack was released on December 18 2007. Johnny Depp's singing was described by a New York Times reviewer as "harsh and thin, but amazingly forceful".[16] Another critic adds that, though Depp's voice "does not have much heft or power", "his ear is obviously excellent, because his pitch is dead-on accurate... Beyond his good pitch and phrasing, the expressive colorings of his singing are crucial to the portrayal. Beneath this Sweeney's vacant, sullen exterior is a man consumed with a murderous rage that threatens to burst forth every time he slowly takes a breath and is poised to speak. Yet when he sings, his voice crackles and breaks with sadness."[17]

# Title Performer(s) Length
1. "Opening Title" 3:30
2. "No Place Like London" (**) Jamie Campbell Bower, Johnny Depp 5:31
3. "The Worst Pies in London" Helena Bonham Carter 2:23
4. "Poor Thing" (**) Helena Bonham Carter 3:09
5. "My Friends" Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter 3:48
6. "Green Finch and Linnett Bird" Jayne Wisener 2:16
7. "Alms! Alms!" (* ***) Laura Michelle Kelly 1:16
8. "Johanna" Jamie Campbell Bower 1:57
9. "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" Edward Sanders, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter 2:00
10. "The Contest" (**) Sacha Baron Cohen 3:39
11. "Wait" Helena Bonham Carter 2:38
12. "Ladies in Their Sensitivities" (*) Timothy Spall 1:23
13. "Pretty Women" (**) Alan Rickman, Johnny Depp 4:27
14. "Epiphany" Johnny Depp 3:16
15. "A Little Priest" (**) Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp 5:15
16. "Johanna" (Reprise) Jamie Campbell Bower, Johnny Depp, Laura Michelle Kelly 5:42
17. "God, That's Good!" Edward Sanders, Helena Bonham Carter 2:46
18. "By the Sea" Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp 2:19
19. "Not While I'm Around" (**) Edward Sanders, Helena Bonham Carter 4:11
20. "Final Scene" (***) Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, Laura Michelle Kelly, Alan Rickman 10:21

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street officially opened at the US box office on December 21, 2007 in 1,249 theatres, and took $9,300,805 in its opening weekend. Worldwide releases followed during January and February 2008, with the film performing well in the United Kingdom and Japan.[1] Sweeney Todd grossed $52.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $99.62 million in other markets, accumulating a worldwide total of $152.52 million.[1] In the United States, the Marcus Theaters Corporation was not initially planning to screen the movie after its premiere, because it was unable to reach a pricing agreement with Paramount.[18] However, the dispute was resolved in time for the official release.[19]

lthough Stephen Sondheim was cautious of a cinematic adaptation of his musical, he was largely impressed by the results.[2] Public reaction was very favourable-as of September 16, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 86% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 192 reviews,[20] and Metacritic gave the film an average score of 83 out of 100, based on 39 reviews.[21] Sweeney Todd appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.[22]

Of the reviewers, Time magazine rated it an A-minus and added, "Burton and Depp infuse the brilliant cold steel of Stephen Sondheim's score with a burning passion. Helena Bonham Carter and a superb supporting cast bring focused fury to this musical nightmare. It's bloody great." Time's Richard Corliss named the film one of its top ten movies of 2007, placing it fifth.[23] Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times, gave it four stars out of four, lauding Burton's visual style.[24] In his review in Variety, Todd McCarthy called it "both sharp and fleet" and "a satisfying screen version of Stephen Sondheim's landmark 1979 theatrical musical ... things have turned out uniformly right thanks to highly focused direction by Tim Burton, expert screw-tightening by scenarist John Logan, and haunted and musically adept lead performances from Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Assembled artistic combo assures the film will reap by far the biggest audience to see a pure Sondheim musical, although just how big depends on the upscale crowd's tolerance for buckets of blood, and the degree to which the masses stay away due to the whiff of the highbrow."[25] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B-plus on the Movie Reviews section and stated, "To stage a proper Sweeney Todd, necks must be slit, human flesh must be squished into pastries, and blood ought to spurt in fountains and rivers of death. Enter Tim Burton, who ... has tenderly art-directed soup-thick, tomato-red, fake-gore blood with the zest of a Hollywood-funded Jackson Pollock." She went on to refer to the piece as "opulent, attentive ... so finely minced a mixture of Sondheim's original melodrama and Burton's signature spicing that it's difficult to think of any other filmmaker so naturally suited for the job."[26]

On the DVD Reviews section, EW's Chris Nashawaty gave the film an A-minus, stating, "Depp's soaring voice makes you wonder what other tricks he's been hiding... Watching Depp's barber wield his razors... it's hard not to be reminded of Edward Scissorhands frantically shaping hedges into animal topiaries 18 years ago... and all of the twisted beauty we would've missed out on had [Burton and Depp] never met."[27] S. D. Lynch, an acclaimed movie critic of Australia described the movie as "The greatest film in history." In Rolling Stone, Peter Travers awarded it 3½ out of 4 stars and added, "Sweeney Todd is a thriller-diller from start to finish: scary, monstrously funny and melodically thrilling ... [the film] is a bloody wonder, intimate and epic, horrific and heart-rending as it flies on the wings of Sondheim's most thunderously exciting score."[28] As with Time, the critic ranked it fifth on his list of the best movies of 2007.[29] Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter said, "The blood juxtaposed to the music is highly unsettling. It runs contrary to expectations. Burton pushes this gore into his audiences' faces so as to feel the madness and the destructive fury of Sweeney's obsession. Teaming with Depp, his long-time alter ego, Burton makes Sweeney a smoldering dark pit of fury and hate that consumes itself. With his sturdy acting and surprisingly good voice, Depp is a Sweeney Todd for the ages."[30] Harry Knowles gave the film a highly positive review, calling it Burton's best film since Ed Wood, his favorite Burton film, and said it was possibly superior. He praised all of the cast and the cinematography, but noted it would probably not appeal to non-musical fans due to the dominance of music in the film.[31]

Not every review was laudatory. Cole Haddon of film.com was critical of Depp's and Bonham Carter's singing voices and the use of CGI. Acknowledging his stance, Haddon stated that his unfavorable review of the film was "contrary to everything you've read elsewhere", as well as saying that "I stand alone against the masses," highlighting the enormous critical acclaim the film had received.[32]

The film ranks 490th on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. [33]

The film's marketing has been criticized for not advertising it as a musical. Michael Halberstam of the Writers' Theatre said, "By de-emphasizing the score to the extent they did in the trailer, it is possible the producers were condescending to us - a tactic which cannot ultimately end in anything but tears."[34] In the UK, a number of audience members walked out of the film on realizing it was a musical, and complaints that advertisements for the film were deliberately misleading were made to both the Advertising Standards Authority and Trading Standards agency.[35][36] The studios involved opted for a low-key approach to their marketing. Producer Walter Parkes stated, "All these things that could be described as difficulties could also be the movie's greatest strengths." Warner Bros. felt it should take a similar approach to marketing as with The Departed, with little early exposure and discouraging talk of awards.[37]

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street received four Golden Globe nominations for the January 2008 65th Golden Globe Awards, winning two. The film received the award for Best Motion Picture in the Musical or Comedy genre, and Johnny Depp for his performance as Sweeney Todd.[38] Tim Burton was nominated for Best Director, and Helena Bonham Carter was nominated for her performance as Mrs. Lovett.[39][40] The film has been included in the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures's top ten films of 2007, and Burton was presented with their award for Best Director.[41] The film was also nominated for two BAFTA awards, in the categories of Costume Design and Make Up and Hair.[42] Sweeney Todd further received three Academy Award nominations: Best Actor in a Leading Role for Depp; Best Achievement in Costume Design; and Best Achievement in Art Direction, which it won.[43] Depp won the award for Best Villain at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards. He thanked his fans for "sticking with me on this very obtuse and strange road."[44] He also won the Choice Movie Villain award at the Teen Choice Awards;[45][dead link] and at Spike TV's 2008 Scream Awards (filmed on October 18, 2008, and aired three days later), the film won two awards: Best Horror Movie, and Best Actor in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Depp).[46]

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was released on DVD in North America on April 1, 2008, and the UK on May 19. A Blu-ray Disc version of the film was released on October 21, 2008. [47] An HD DVD release was announced for the same date, but due to the discontinuation of the format, Paramount has since canceled this version in preference for international distribution of the Blu-ray release.[48]