Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Tim Burton

Overview

Stephen Sondheim's award-winning musical thriller comes to the big screen in this adaptation directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Timothy Spall, and Alan Rickman. Embittered at having been wrongly imprisoned and determined to seek vengeance against his accusers due to the grim fate that befell his wife and daughter while he was incarcerated, ex-convict Sweeny Todd (Depp) returns to his hometown and opens a modest barber shop. The one thing different about Todd's shop, however, is that no one who walks in for a trim is ever seen again. Subsequently branded "The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" by the frightened community, Todd continues with his murderous exploits with a little assistance from his amorous accomplice, Mrs. Lovett (Bonham Carter) -- whose popular meat pies secretly have a most unsavory ingredient.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/01/2017
UPC:	0032429258267
Original Release:	2007
Rating:	R
Source:	PARAMOUNT
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:56:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Johnny Depp	Sweeney Todd
Helena Bonham Carter	Mrs. Nellie Lovett
Alan Rickman	Judge Turpin
Timothy Spall	Beadle Bamford
Sacha Baron Cohen	Adolfo Pirelli
Jamie Campbell Bower	Anthony Hope
Laura Michelle Kelly	Beggar Woman
Ed Sanders	Actor
Jayne Wisener	Johanna
Ava May	Actor,Actor
Gabriella Freeman	Actor
Jody Halse	Actor
Harry Taylor	Actor
Aron Paramor	Actor
Lee Whitlock	Actor
Nick Haverson	Actor
Mandy Holliday	Actor
Colin Higgins	Actor
John Paton	Actor
Drama	Actor
Edward Sanders	Toby
Stephen Sondheim	Composer

Technical Credits

John Logan

Tim Burton	Director
John Logan	Screenwriter,Producer
Susie Figgis	Casting
Laurie MacDonald	Producer
Patrick McCormick	Executive Producer,Producer
Walter F. Parkes	Producer
Johnny Depp	Director
Richard D. Zanuck	Producer
Timothy Spall	Director
Helena Bonham Carter	Director
Alan Rickman	Director
Steve Boeddeker	Sound/Sound Designer
Tony Dawe	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street split audiences like its title character splits jugular veins. Some embraced Tim Burton's dark vision for the material, as well as Stephen Sondheim's songs -- so much so that it won two Golden Globes (for Johnny Depp's performance and best musical/comedy) and one Oscar (for its art direction). Others thought the film continued Burton's descent into his own increasingly narrow world view, showcasing his reliance on the same collaborators (Depp and Helena Bonham Carter) and the same type of gnarled cityscapes and murky production values. With such sharp disagreement about the quality of the film, a person's own Burton biases may help determine his or her feelings about it. What's beyond dispute is that Burton commits to grisly violence like never before. Even in a movie in which beheadings were the standard (Sleepy Hollow), there was never this much blood and this many dead bodies. Like almost everything else in the film, even the blood is some shade of brown or black. It's clearly a conscious effort on Burton's part to be so unremittingly dreary, but it may turn off viewers seeking color -- which they get only during a day at the beach for Todd and Mrs. Lovett. Set apart stylistically from the rest of the film, this sequence may have unintended consequences -- it may make audiences miss the Burton they once knew, who regularly saturated his films (Beetlejuice, Big Fish) with color. Without color, this bloody film is frequently bloodless, and always misanthropic to the nth degree. Depp and Bonham Carter hold their own on the singing, and Burton's vision of London is fully realized, if not entirely original. Then again, the biggest complaint about Sweeney Todd is not that Burton is stealing from others; rather, he's stealing from himself.