Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street |  | Director: Tim Burton
Actors: Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman, Edward Sanders, Timothy Spall
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $11.22
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Rating:  396 reviews
Sales Rank: 91540
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: PARD7906926D
UPC: 032429069269
EAN: 0032429069269
ASIN: B002DPH936
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/15/2009 Rating: R
Amazon.com
After years of rumors, it turns out that Tim Burton was the perfect visionary to film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Stephen Sondheim's Broadway masterpiece, and the result is a macabre and moving musical movie as enthralling as anything Burton has ever done. The show's mix of gothic horror, Grand Guignol, very dark humor, and witty and beautiful music never was the stuff of traditional musical comedy, but it's a powerful work, and perhaps the richest of the late 20th century. In the movie, Burton's frequent collaborator, Johnny Depp, plays Todd, a wronged man whose lust for revenge drives him to murder (an 19th-century legend who has been traced to a real-life barber). Helena Bonham Carter, another Burton mainstay, is Mrs. Lovett, the barber's partner-in-unspeakable-crime. It's no surprise that Depp is an excellent choice to convey Todd's brooding intensity and volcanic rage, but he can also sing a score that is so challenging it has often played in opera houses (though not with the same style as the Broadway original, Len Cariou, and he occasionally lapses into pop style). Bonham Carter is small of voice and lacks the humor of the original Broadway Lovett, Angela Lansbury, but she sings on pitch, in rhythm, and in character at the same time, which is no small feat for a Sondheim show. Aficionados will regret the loss of certain musical passages--"The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" is just an instrumental overture and the chorus is gone altogether, among others--but the reassuring presence of orchestrator Jonathan Tunick and conductor Paul Gemignani ensures that the music feels right and sounds great. And the film's depiction of a Victorian London hellhole--with cinematography by Dariusz Wolski and costumes by Colleen Atwood--also looks and feels right. The excellent cast is filled out by Alan Rickman as the villainous Judge Turpin, Timothy Spall as his seedy Beadle, Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) as a rival barber, Jamie Campbell Bower as the young lover Anthony, Jayne Wisener as his object of affection, and Ed Sanders as the young Toby. For fans of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp who don't think they like musicals, Sweeney Todd should be a revelation (though not for the squeamish, as the gore is intense and completely appropriate). For fans of Broadway and Sondheim, it's hard to imagine getting a better adaptation than this. The fact that there's no newly composed Oscar-bait song sung by a Josh Groban-type over the end credits only makes it better. --David Horiuchi
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 396
 Just what I Wanted January 27, 2010
Eileen R. Hanley (Portland, Maine, USA)
This product was great, it came brand new, it great condition, and worked perfectly. I am incredibly satisfied. I would have liked there to be a few more special features, but that is just due to the edition of the DVD, and does not at all take away from this seller's service. Thank you!
Tugging at My Heart as You Serve it on a Plate January 26, 2010
J. Neiswonger (California)
One uneventful Friday night while curled under a blanket I watched the musical on DVD entitled Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Not expecting much from a movie makes for no disappointments. I slipped the disc in with no certain hope. What a surprise when the final credits floated off the screen. I found myself left with the gruesome reality of what the hunger for vengeance can do to an innocent victim. Sweeney Todd, a barbaric barber who seeks to settle the score for the robbery of his perfect life, is masterfully played by Johnny Depp. His devilish companion, Mrs. Lovett, was played by Helena Bonham Carter. She selfishly keeps Todd blinded to everything but his need for reckoning. She does this by feeding Todd's ravenous anger with exposed necks for his barber's blades to devour. The blades themselves could have won an Oscar for best supporting actor. They were brought to life in the hands of Todd and the lighting of the movie. They glistened in a similar manner to that of an evil eye just before a malevolent plot unfolds.
Todd and Lovett sing charming tunes in a gentle British accent while cutting the throats of whoever may wander their direction. Although it seems contradicting, it is a perfect melody of emotions which helps the viewer see past the gore and find the relevance of their corruption. As if this was not enough, the duo further defiles the clueless people traveling Fleet Street by secretly serving their victims up in a pie.
Although Todd is sinister and brutal some may say it was not without cause. He had the life that anyone would wish for: a lovely wife, a beautiful baby girl, and a successful barber shop. Unfortunately his idyllic life was coveted and stolen by the dark-hearted judge played by Alan Rickman. The judge exiled Todd for fifteen years while he defiled his wife and claimed his daughter for himself. When Todd returns to London he is a changed man. He has returned angry and ready to make everyone pay for what he has lost.
Tim Burton brought his masterful creative eye to this project as the film's director. Todd begins the movie on a ship headed for London. He sings, "There's a hole in the world like a great black pit and the vermin of the world inhabit it." Once he hits the shore you see Todd has arrived in that pit. The mood is perfectly captured in the use of hues and the angles chosen for the camera lens. Watching the smoke course from the chimney the viewers are left feeling cold and dirty. You can hear the dampness looming when the unaware city dwellers walk through the residue of rain resting on the cobble stone streets. The only use of vivid shades is when Lovett attempts to paint the possibility of a happy union between her and Todd. The contrast in color boldly communicates this future is impossible.
If you can tolerate the bloody violence this is a worthwhile movie to see. Attempt to see beyond the animated slashing and ask yourself, "Who benefits from a life driven by revenge?" Retribution can serve a purpose and there are times when bad things happen to good people. The message is clear; don't be blinded by the need for reckoning or you may become the villain, driving away any chance for peace and you will lose sight of who you love most.
 Not as good as I was expecting. January 16, 2010
Robert P. Beveridge (Cleveland, OH)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Tim Burton, 2007)
Perhaps my problem with Tim Burton's much-praised adaptation of Sweeney Todd is that I'm seeing it too soon after Dave Moore's version, which was the sublime side of the sublime/ridiculous coin. It's not that this version is bad, in any way, it's just not all that good compared to a number of Burton's other masterworks.
Burton regulars Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter take on the roles of Sweeney Todd and his neighbor Mrs. Lovett, a destitute pie-seller. Todd, a barber by trade, is bent on getting revenge against Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), who sent him to prison in order to steal his lovely young wife. Todd starts taking out those standing in his way, and needs something to do with the bodies. Lovett hatches a plan--grind 'em up and sell 'em as Mrs. Lovett's meat pies. They, of course, sell like the proverbial hotcakes. Tension arises when Lovett starts having feelings for Todd, who is so obsessed with his revenge and his lost love that he has eyes for nothing else...
Burton brings the same phantasmagoric, hallucinatory visuals to Sweeney Todd that he did to his previous remake, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and when it comes right down to it, I wasn't all that fond of them in that movie, either (which I just looked up; I gave it two and a half stars back in 2006). The over-the-top Burton vision works just fine for me when he's doing original material (viz. Edward Scissorhands or Beetlejuice), but when it comes to Burton adaptations, I always preferred the much lower-key look of Sleepy Hollow (or, while it's not a remake, the similar feel of his best film, Ed Wood). I'm also not as fond of the Sondheim adaptation, which Burton follows rather faithfully here, as of some other incarnations of Sweeney Todd. It really comes down to whether you want your murder and cannibalism with lighthearted whimsy, as presented here, or whether you want it in a dark, claustrophobic presentation without musical numbers, which you get from Moore's 2006 adaptation. ** ½
Dark Miracle of a Movie December 11, 2009
trastevere (rome, italy)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
What is it about the musical? Just when you think the genre's dead and buried, along comes this lyrical, flowing, river of dark poetry. The screenwriter-- a lifelong fan of Sondheim's masterpiece-- did a brilliant job of adapting a semi-Brechtian theater piece and making it into a dark dream film. Gone is the post-modernism, replaced by grand guignol that may sometimes scream too brightly in crimson, but that works far better than one might have had reason even to hope.
I loved every minute of it (and if there were a few seconds here and there I could have lived without, well, that's why fingers are long enough to shield the eyes from the sight of lawyers being processed into sausage).
What's so scary about this???? October 24, 2009
Mary Jorgensen (Los Angeles, CA)
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
I had heard a great deal about how frightening this movie was. I guess the concept is a bit scary, but in this day and age, it's not nearly as scary as a madman with nuclear weapons, or people walking into shopping centers or classrooms with automatic weapons. I know that the play was a musical, but it would have been a great deal more frightening if the characters hadn't burst into song periodically. On the plus side, this proves that Tim Burton can sing.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 396
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