Sweeney Todd

[Davros]

Originally Posted by ramsies11

if its a musical i havent seen it

I hate musicals too. I really can't stand them, but I'm going to watch ST and I recommend you do too. It's a great story.

[ramsies11]

with musicals everyother scentence is a song!

[Davros]

Originally Posted by ramsies11

with musicals everyother scentence is a song!

Well, yeah. They're called "musicals" for a reason. But there's a difference between "a tacky musical with no plot" and "a great musical with a great plot and characters".

And you can't judge something you haven't seen.

[HottayFerSure]

people keep saying the play is better, but i dont think so. i thought the play was kind of weird, but maybe that's because i saw the movie before the play.

[AM.PM]

sweeney od was an awesome movie (Even if it was a musical)!

was Helana Bonam Carter on harry potter?

[Bandit|Queen]

Yes she was in Harry Potter she plays Sirus Blacks cousin, Ballitrix Lostrange(sp?)

[≈ Wedgies ≈]

My sister has bought the album and has been playing it far too often.
All I hear is, "AAAHHHH, AAHHHH, All alone!" Or however it goes.
I want to see it though.

[HottayFerSure]

Originally Posted by ≈ Wedgies ≈

My sister has bought the album and has been playing it far too often.
All I hear is, "AAAHHHH, AAHHHH, All alone!" Or however it goes.
I want to see it though.

hahaha. the album from the movie or play?

[applebooty]

I personally loved it. The songs are very catchy too (my problem is they get stuck in my head when I watch it). I felt bad for Mrs. Lovett though.

[HottayFerSure]

i didnt feel bad for mrs. lovett, she caused all of the problems! i felt bad for sweeney.

[scarecrow13]

I'm totally obsessed with the original Sondheim musical of this show, so can't get too excited about the film, as Burton did butcher it somewhat! Visually stunning, of course, but such a shame he didn't cast singers. Todd should be a brooding baritone, not a weedy pop vocal ("I will have vennnnnnnnnnngeance" - horrible) and as for Bonham-Carter - her voice is like a whisp of smoke in front of those massive movie orchestrations.

Burton cut all the humour from the musical. He also cut a lot of weird and scary stuff in Act II, which I was surprised by, as thought it would've been right up his street ("City on fire/rats in the streets and the lunatics yelling at the moon/it's the end of the world - GOOD!/city on fire/hunchbacks kissing..." etc)

My final grudge is that he cuts all of the chorus work.. particularly ridiculous in "God, That's Good!" as the line "God, that's good!" doesn't even get sung. And it's kinda the punchline. It means there's no sociological context to the events, it becomes a more two-dimensional love story....

Anyway, I could prattle on all day, and I'm sure you all think I'm a total geek. On the positive, I loved the boy who played Toby - thought that was a great idea, casting a child (is traditionally played by an adult). I also liked how much focus there was on that kind of broken family unit (Toby, Lovett, Todd) that would never work out... I thought Alan Rickman and Sacha Baran Cohen were good...

If you enjoyed the music in the movie, I'd highly recommend checking out the original cast recording, as it's got so much more interesting and scary stuff in!

Hope I don't get too shouted down for this comment.......!x

[Bandit|Queen]

Well as someone else has had a geek out about the original musical I don't feel so bad about doing the same

I love Angela Lansbusy! She is the best and since I watched the video of the original stage version my dream part if I could be in a musical would be Mrs Lovett. I just love her, she is a manipulative scary woman who is much worse than Todd. The only reason she wants him to kill is for her own gain and money. At least he starts off with the reason of revenge.

I don't think this was bought out in the film at all and a lot of the humor was lost because Carter just can't deliver the songs well enough. I have to say I liked Todd not singing all baritone, it makes it less of an "opera" which is what it is supposed to be not a musical.

Sondheim originally wrote it with the huge chorus like scarecrow said but they get on my nerves in the stage version and it really has dated badly. I actually think it was a really good idea to cut them out. Wish they had kept the song between the sailor and Johanna in though.

I agree that visually the film was incredible and Sondheim said himself that it is the best film adaptation of one of his musicals. I just wish they had got a better Mrs Lovett who could have bounced off Johnny Depp and been as good a character actor as he is.

One last thing. Not sure if anyone else noticed but Todd and Lovett are supposed to be shagging, that is partly how she manipulates him but they hardly ever touch throughout the whole film. If a woman is trying to manipulate a man in some way normally it's partly through touch. Play on a mans weakness, ie sex. Don't get why they stay about 2 feet away from each other the whole way through. Makes no sense!

Anyway the long and the short of it. I think it was a really good attempt at adapting a very long musical/opera into a film and think Burton was an amazing choice. He really should do some more Sondheim musicals. Into the Woods done in stop motion animation would just be incredible!

Oh and don't feel sorry for Mrs Lovett, she is the worst out of the two of them! Ok end of my geek out

[scarecrow13]

Hoorah, fellow ST geek. Totally agree about Angela - she's the goddess!

Originally Posted by tempered_sugar

I have to say I liked Todd not singing all baritone, it makes it less of an "opera" which is what it is supposed to be not a musical.

It's a "Musical Thriller" - it kinda bridges a gap between musical theatre and opera, but it's not really an "opera" imo. In fact, I saw a concert staging of it at the RFH recently, and it really doesn't stand up as such... Bryn Terfel sang Todd as a proper operatic baritone, which was too much.

Originally Posted by tempered_sugar

Sondheim originally wrote it with the huge chorus like scarecrow said but they get on my nerves in the stage version and it really has dated badly. I actually think it was a really good idea to cut them out. Wish they had kept the song between the sailor and Johanna in though.

I take your point.. The Ballad is reprised a LOT, which could be irritating, and is a very theatrical device, so I think fair enough for cutting it... but songs like "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" and "God, That's Good!" desparately miss the chorus, and I think they were largely cut because Depp and Bonham just couldn't sing against a chorus. They barely held their own against the orchestra.

Interesting you think it's dated badly.. I think Sondheim in general has dated really well, because his music is kinda.. quasi-classical. Pop musicals date awfully (RENT has already dated horribly, yet it's almost 20 years younger than Sweeney). The OST of Sweeney definitely sounds dated in it's production, but have you heard the 2005 revival? The music itself is still so fresh and creepy it could've been written in 2005...!

Anyway, I could geek out ad infinitum about this musical. It's kinda the zenith of musical theatre writing for me. I also love "Assassins" and "Company" where Sondheim is concerned, would highly recommend em!


Is that squire on the fire?
Mercy, no sir, look closer, you'll notice it's grocer!

[japanese moron]

At first the endless singing nearly drove me insane but as it went on i found the film very enjoyable, i didn't know anything about sweeney todd before the film. I think the british 18+ rating was a bit lame though, however given the closing scenes it's understandable.

Overall, a good film, maybe, 7 or 8 out of 10?

[Tom]

I actually didn't realise it was a musical until I went to see it. But I got over that eventually.

The second dissapointment was that the story was miles away from the original demon barber novel.