Product Description

Genre: Musicals
Rating: R
Release Date: 1-APR-2008
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1375 in DVD
• Brand: DEPP,JOHNNY
• Released on: 2008-04-01
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 116 minutes

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

On the DVD
On disc 1, along with the movie, is the 26-minute "Burton + Depp + Carter = Todd," consisting of interviews with Tim Burton and the major cast members (Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Ed Sanders) talking about a variety of topics, including the challenge of singing the difficult score. Alan Rickman says, "One of the more challenging moments in one’s life is when you’ve got the music in your hand and you’re in a huge rehearsal room and Stephen Sondheim walks across the room and says, 'OK, let’s hear it.' It doesn’t get much tougher than that." Disc 2 is filled with a number of fairly substantial featurettes and other bonuses. Focusing on the movie are a 24-minute making-of featurette, "Designs for a Demon Barber" (costumes and sets, 9 minutes), and "A Bloody Business" (violent special effects, 9 minutes). "Musical mayhem: Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd" (12 minutes) focuses on the score, and to those who complain about the changes the movie made, the composer says "Leave your memories at the door." There's also a light-hearted 20-minute press conference from November 2007 with Burton, Depp, Bonham Carter, Rickman, Timothy Spall, and producer Richard Zanuck, and "Moviefone Unscripted (11 min.) in which Burton and Depp answer caller questions. "Sweeney Todd Is Alive: The Real History of the Demon Barber" and "Sweeney's London" (20 and 16 minutes, respectively) trace the historical/legendary character Sweeney Todd and his time, and "Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition" analyzes the macabre style on which the play was based. Finally, there are "The Razor's Refrain" (stills set to audio clips, 8 minutes), a photo gallery of stills and drawings, and the theatrical trailer. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Watchable But Flawed
Though decidedly watchable, Mr. Burton's attempt to translate a great black comedy/tragedy/musical to the screen is only partially successful. The production design is gorgeously macabre, the majority of the cast is quite good and Sondheim's memorable score remains as virtuosic as ever.
However...the musical numbers frequently are unimaginatively and repetitively staged ("By the Sea" being a notable exception) and the two leads are disappointingly miscast. Both Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham Carter are very able and talented actors, but here have not the vocal power, grim humor and maturity required for the parts. While watching the film, this viewer kept thinking that Alan Rickman, here cast as Judge Turpin, would have proved a far more convincing Sweeny; perhaps a Glenn Close or Miranda Richardson, a wonderful Mrs. Lovett.
Instead, Depp and Bonham-Carter come off as very talented leads in an ambitious High School production.

A Musical of a Different Breed
I know that most people are not in line clamoring to see a musical, but this is one is different. It's not very often that you find a tale of love, revenge and horror all wrapped nicely into a musical. Sondheim's score is beautiful. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter completely embodied their respective characters. Sacha Baron Cohen's appearance was enjoyable. And who doesn't love Alan Rickman! There is a lot of blood in this movie, but I would consider it more cartoony than flat out gore. It's touching, it's funny, it's sick, it's enjoyable, it's dark, it's Sweeney Todd and it's a 5 star movie. I'm not out to change the world and get everyone to suddenly watch all musicals because not all musicals are good (ie: Rent), but this one is definitely the exception to the rule.

Surprisingly I liked it!
Okay, so I had no intention of ever seeing this one because of the gruesome theme. I've never even been interesting in seeing it in the theatre but thought I'd give this movie a chance. Hey for a dollar rental from the library, how could I lose right?

I had been VERY apprehensive about watching the DVD and actually thought I'd just returned it without ever viewing it. Well I was quite surprised that I found the movie wickedly (although a bit gory)interesting!

Although Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are not singers I thought their singing was fine for the characters they portrayed. I wouldn't choose them for the "Phantom" or "Christine" but they did just fine in this movie.