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Film ESSAY

By Laurie Bastemeijer, A4 

05/01/2012 

This is my film essay about Sweeney Todd- The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It¶s based on

the equally names Stephen Sondheim musical from 1979. This film contains all the officialmusical songs. The film won two Golden Globe Awards among several other prices. I chose

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for this movie, because I¶ve seen it several times and still enjoy watching it. It¶s quite an

extraordinary film.

1.  General Information: 

The title of this film is Sweeney Todd- The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

The film was directed by Tim Burton, who is known for his special view on everything he

makes.The leading actors are Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, both seen in Burtons filmsoften.

I¶ve seen the movie on television the first time and I liked it so much I bought it afterwards.

The movie was released Christmas 2007.

2.  Reviews:

-Sweeney Todd´ is as dark and terrifying as any motion picture in recent memory. It¶s

something close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme genius-

- One of the top 10 films of the year!-

- This is a tale about vengeance and true love, visually gorgeous and dramatically seething.

A BEAUT OF A MOVIE!-

Information: 

3.  The story tells about 19th century London. The most appearing places are Sweeney¶s

  barber shop, which is located above Mrs. Lovett¶s pie restaurant. Other places aremarket places in London, and the house of Judge Turpin.

4.  Our leading characters wear ±as always in Burtons work- themed though unrealistic

outfits. The clothes are based on clothes in the 19th

century, but the characters wear for 

instance red-black striped socks, long leather jackets and lots of weird accessories.

There is also a strong use of make-up. Sweeney Todd is a depressed psychopath,

hollow-eyed and with sunken cheeks. Mrs. Lovett looks almost the same.

5.  The locations and clothes have a big impact on the film. Because of the use of dark 

grime and clothes on the leading characters, there is a perfect sinister mood in the film.

6.  In this film music plays a very important role. Because it is based on a musical all the

official songs are in there. A lot of the text is sung, and the film has background music

almost the entire movie. There were only a few quiet scenes.

7. 

The sound effects: there was a lot of expanding music, but this is not an action movie,so there is no use of gunshots or bombing sounds or anything like that.

8.  The story is told in a pretty chronological order, but there is a small amount of 

flashbacks.

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9.  The scene that impressed me most was the part in which Sweeney Todd gets

completely mental. (Even more than he was in the beginning) The part starts with asailor singing µJohanna¶,(Johanna is Sweeney¶s daughter) and Sweeney joins the song.

He falls on his knees, looks up at the sky, it is raining and it is dark. Than we see himfrom bird perspective, and the orchestra plays louder. It¶s epic.

10. Officially it says: µMusical film¶, though it¶s a 16+ so therefore can also be counted as

thriller/horror.

About the f ilm: 

11. Benjamin Barker, a successful barber with a loving wife Lucy and a beloved young

daughter named Johanna, are living in London. The judge of London, Judge Turpin, isan unfair man who fell in love with Barkers wife and therefore sends Benjamin to a

 prison camp in Australia.After 15 years he returns together with sailor Anthony, depressed and psychotic after 

his punishment. He returns to his old barbershop and find Mrs. Lovett, owner of thealmost torn Mrs. Lovett¶s meat pie shop, who tells him that his wife poisoned herself 

after a rape by Judge Turpin. At the end of the film Sweeney finds out she wasn¶t dead before, but that¶s only after he killed her, so the situation doesn¶t change.

Benjamin Barker changes his name in Sweeney Todd and starts his revenge. Mrs.

Lovett and Todd set up a plan, together with the small boy Toby, who doesn¶t trust

Todd from the beginning on.

Todd kills all the barber customers with his razor so Lovett can make meat pies of 

them. It¶s a big success, and the meat pie shop makes a huge comeback.

Meanwhile Anthony falls in love with the now gown-up Johanna. Johanna is forced to

marry Judge Turpin, and Anthony saves her and brings her to Sweeney¶s house where

she hides in a trunk.

Judge Turpin comes to the barbershop to find his Johanna, and Sweeney Todd slithershis throat, creating the bloodiest mess ever seen.

Johanna peeks out from the trunk, and Todd stabs her too, he doesn¶t know she is his

daughter.

The whole movie there is a lady tramp, who claims to recognize Todd. He kills her too, and throws her body in the basement where the ovens are.

Her cloak falls of, and Sweeney Todd sees that this tramp is his lovely wife Lucy. Herealizes that Mrs. Lovett knew this all the time, and angrily he pushes her in one of the

ovens.The little boy Toby hears her scream, and he is finally the one to murder Todd.

12. There are many conflicts in this movie:

- Sweeney Todd lost his daughter and wife, together with his mind

- Mrs. Lovett is aware of the fact Todds wife is still alive, but pretends she committed

suicide, because Mrs. Lovett is struck in complicated feelings of love for Todd

- Judge Turpin raped Todds wife and now wants to marry his 16 year old daughter 

- A sailor named Anthony is in love with the daughter, and he is also a ³friend´ of 

Todds, but they both don¶t know the part of Johanna in their friendship.

- Turpin locks up daughter Johanna

- Sweeney Todd is a mental murderer, in search for his lost wife and child.

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- This lost wife is seen as a stalker, and Mrs. Lovett pretends this wife, a tramp, is mad

and dangerous so Todd doesn¶t see her.

13. + 14. The most important characters are:Sweeney Todd/Benjamin Barker: the murdering barber. He wants revenge. You see

this in the way he murders everyone until he finds the man who made his beloved ones

suicide.

Mrs. Lovett: The meat pie making woman. She is in love with Sweeney and tries to

get him. She shows this by lying about the death of Lucy Barker.

Toby: A boy who was mistreated by another barber. He was adopted by Mrs. Lovett

after Sweeney killed this barber. Than Toby became a help in the restaurant. You see

his affection to Mrs. Lovett in the way he tries to protect her from Sweeney, who he

thinks of is bad.

Judge Turpin: The bad guy. He accused Benjamin Barker for a crime he did not

commit, because he wanted his wife. He raped her at a party, supported by the crowd,

and then left her confused and traumatized. You see his bad character constantly.

Beadle Bamford: Turpin¶s help. He is very loyal to and afraid of Turpin

Anthony Hope: The sailor in love with Johanna, Sweeney¶s daughter. He brought

Sweeney back to London, and he obviously likes him, even though Sweeney doesn¶tseem to think much about the boy.

Johanna Barker: The daughter of Lucy Barker and Sweeney Todd, before he became

a psycho. She is in love with Anthony. She doesn¶t know Sweeney is her father, andhe doesn¶t know she¶s his daughter the other way around..

Lucy Barker: Sweeney¶s wife. She changed from a beautiful woman to a frightening

tramp in those 15 years Sweeney was not around. She doesn¶t trust Mrs. Lovett¶s meat

 pies, and says the smell of the dead is around them.

15. The view from the characters are all opposite. There is an obvious break between

Todd and Lovett. He is a pessimist while she is very optimistic. But at the end she is a

liar and everything is against Todd, so his view was quite realistic.

16. The person I felt the most sympathy for was Sweeney Todd. Because Johnny Depp is

a very good actor, he made Todd confused, haunted and sad. He should be all evil, but

he makes Sweeney a vulnerable character.

17. The goal of this film is amusement and I think it wants to make people aware of what

kind of effects things can have on people.

18. The director Tim Burton, is one of my favorite directors, always uses a lots of details

which make you concentrate, because you want to know how it is supposed to fit at

the end.

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19. I suspected something great, because the film won a lot of prices, has a great director and a phenomenal cast. By that I feel something for musicals. It was better than my

expectations. I was completely flabbergasted and I saw it several times because thisfilm is stunning and everyone should see the dark genius in this.

20. The things that impressed me most was how detailed it was. There were so much

things that were weird in the beginning and in the end it was a complete fitting puzzle.

I was really impressed by the atmosphere. This is the kind of film that splits your soul.

21. My opinion about this movie is;

A great film with a difficult but impressive storyline. There was a lot of emotion in it.

The characters were worked out perfectly, and it wasn¶t hard to imagine you were

there at the moment. I was impressed with the costumes and make-up, but the thing

that was the best were the completed details.

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