Sweeney Todd Review

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“At last, my arm is complete again!” exclaimed Sweeney Todd with his arm stretched towards the sky, clasping the shaving knife. ‘Sweeney Todd’ is a magnificent musical film. Typically when you hear ‘musical’ you may simply think it has musical scenes throughout the dialogue. Let us be clear, this movie’s dialogue is almost completely sang. This makes the movie even more compelling and unique. It is an eccentric and dark themed movie that captures its’ audience’s attention from beginning to end. The actors are disciplined, intense and brilliant, the music was appropriate, and the plot is dark, romantic, and thrilling. After a London barber, Benjamin Barker, is wrongfully sent away for a false crime, Judge Turpin attempts to win over the barber’s…show more content…
Their brilliance radiated from their costumes, to their accents, and through their movements and expressions. Their makeup and clothes were ragged and dirty. The skills the actors possessed made their emotions believable and realistic. Even as each one told their story through the musical dialogue, the intensity of their emotions was undeniable. Each of the actors looked and felt their part. Director, Tim Burton, is known for his dark, gloomy, and gothic-like films. Expectedly he does not fail us in this movie either, for from the very first scene it is dark and disheartening. Our star actors are Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, Helena Boham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, and Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin. Depp is a versatile actor with a reputation of a dark and idiosyncratic image. Carter, also a very versatile actor, has made seven movies with Tim Burton. She is one of the UK’s most successful actresses. Alan Rickman has been called the “Master” of playing villainous roles. It has also been said that Rickman set the standard for onscreen villains. Both Depp and Carter have an image and adaptability that matched the theme of ‘Sweeney Todd’ beautifully, while Rickman could not have been a better match to play our deceptive Judge…show more content…
Blood is seen throughout the scenes, London is depicted as dirty and poor, always gloomy, and the townspeople are assumed either treacherous or roaming the streets, homeless. A film critic for the Chicago Tribune, Michael Phillips, stated, “The film casts a mighty spell of doom” (“Slices”). This comment explains exactly how it should be for this specific film. This movie is not about happy conclusions, but instead about loss, anger, and revenge. Although the thought of watching a film where each character appears to be doomed may not seem intriguing, it is in fact a captivating film. “Sweeney Todd is a show about grisly death, set to music you’ll never sing, painted with spurting gore and shaved clean of any sentimentality,” said Jay Stone, a writer for Movie Entertainment magazine (“Musical”). Jay Stone describes the movie exactly as it is, even though I would have to disagree on the fact that I did indeed sing along a couple
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