Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 2007 musical thriller horror film directed by Tim Burton. It is an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's Tony Award-winning 1979 musical thriller. It re-tells the Victorian melodramatic tale of Sweeney Todd, an English barber who murders his customers with a straight razor and, with the help of his accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, processes their corpses into meat pies. Having been struck by the cinematic qualities of Sondheim's musical while still a student, Burton had entertained the notion of a film version since the early 1980s. However, it was not until 2006 that he had the opportunity to realize this ambition, when DreamWorks announced his appointment as replacement for director Sam Mendes, who had been working on such an adaptation. Sondheim, although not directly involved, was extensively consulted during the film's production. It stars Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett. Depp, not known for his singing, took lessons in preparation for his role, which producer Richard D. Zanuck acknowledged was something of a gamble. However, Depp's vocal performance, despite being criticized as lacking certain musical qualities, was generally thought by critics to suit the part (see Music section below).
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was released in the United States on December 21, 2007, and in the United Kingdom on January 25, 2008, to largely enthusiastic reviews. However, Warner Bros.'s decision not to advertise the film as a musical led to complaints from some cinema-goers, who felt they had been deliberately misled. The film won a number of awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Johnny Depp was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Although not an outstanding financial success in the U.S., it performed well worldwide, and has spawned a soundtrack album and various DVD releases.
Plot
Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp), a skilled barber, is falsely charged and sentenced to a life of hard labor in Australia by the corrupt Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), who lusts after Barker's wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly). Now under the assumed name "Sweeney Todd", Barker returns to London with sailor Anthony Hope (Jamie Campbell Bower). At his old Fleet Street lodgings above Mrs. Nellie Lovett's (Helena Bonham Carter) pie shop, he is told that Lucy was raped by Turpin and poisoned herself with arsenic. Todd's teenage daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener) is now Turpin's ward, and like her mother before her is the object of Turpin's unwanted affections. Todd vows revenge, reopening his barber shop in the upstairs flat after his old razors are shown to him by Mrs. Lovett.
While roaming London, Anthony spots Johanna in an upstairs room of a large house singing to her birds , and a beggar woman tells him Johanna's name. Anthony is instantly smitten with her, but is ejected from the Judge's house by Turpin and his associate, Beadle Bamford (Timothy Spall). Not discouraged, the sailor becomes determined that the pair will elope. During a visit to the marketplace, Todd denounces a fraudulent hair tonic by faux-Italian barber Adolfo Pirelli (Sacha Baron Cohen), and humiliates him in a public shaving contest. Todd becomes impatient while waiting for Beadle Bamford to arrive at his shop; Mrs. Lovett consoles him when Pirelli and his boy assistant Tobias Ragg (Ed Sanders) arrive. Mrs. Lovett keeps Toby occupied downstairs, while in the parlor Pirelli reveals himself to be Todd's former assistant and attempts to blackmail him, demanding half of Todd's earnings or he will reveal his true identity. Instead of giving Pirelli a payoff, Todd beats him with a boiling kettle. He then stuffs Pirelli in a trunk, later slitting his throat upon realizing that he is still alive.
After receiving some advice from the Beadle, Turpin, intending to propose to Johanna, pays a visit to Todd's parlor to groom himself. Recognizing him, Todd relaxes and shaves Turpin while preparing to slit his throat. Before he can do so, they are interrupted by Anthony, who bursts in and reveals his plan to elope with Johanna before he realizes Turpin is there. Turpin leaves enraged, vowing to never return. His chance at revenge missed, Todd has an epiphany, and decides that all of humanity, instead of just Turpin, deserves death, and vents his murderous rage upon his customers while waiting for another chance to kill the judge. He is indiscriminate about his killings, believing that he is punishing the corrupt aristocracy for their exploitation of those below them, while saving the lower classes from their misery. Mrs. Lovett becomes his willing accomplice, suggesting they dispose of the bodies by baking them into pies to improve her business. Todd rigs his barber's chair with a pedal-operated mechanism, which deposits his victims through a trap door into Lovett's bakehouse. As the weeks pass, Todd's murders accumulate (although he is shown sparing a man who brings his wife and daughter). Meanwhile, Anthony begins to search for Johanna, who was sent by Turpin to Fogg's insane asylum as punishment for her refusal to marry him.
The barbering and pie-making business prospers financially, and Lovett takes in Pirelli's young servant boy Toby. With both of the shops being such a success, Mrs. Lovett informs Todd of her plans to move to the seaside. Anthony finally discovers Johanna's whereabouts, and under advice from Todd, he poses as a wig-maker's apprentice, allowing him access to the asylum. Todd comes up with a new plan to lure Turpin back, and has Toby deliver a letter to him telling him where Johanna will be brought when Anthony frees her. Toby has become wary of Todd and tells Mrs. Lovett, unaware of her role in the crimes: he promises to protect her, loving her as a surrogate mother. Beadle Bamford arrives at the barber shop, informing them that neighbors complain of the stink coming out of the chimney. He is murdered by Todd, and Mrs. Lovett informs Todd of Toby's suspicions. The pair search for Toby, whom Mrs. Lovett has locked in the basement bakehouse to keep him out of the way. Toby is nowhere to be found, having hidden in the sewers after seeing the Beadle's body drop into the room from the trap door above, as well as finding fingers in a pie. Meanwhile, Anthony frees Johanna and brings her to the shop in disguise, where she hides herself in a trunk in a corner of the room while Anthony finds a coach.
An insane beggar woman who has been pestering Todd, Lovett and Anthony throughout the film makes her way into the shop. As Todd enters, she claims that she recognizes him. Just then, Turpin's voice is heard. Todd quickly slits the beggar woman's throat and deposits her body through the trap door. As Turpin enters, Todd explains to him that Johanna had repented, and offers a free shave. Todd reveals his true identity to Turpin and stabs him in the neck numerous times before finally slitting his throat and dropping him through the trap door. As Johanna peeks out of the trunk, Todd spots her and prepares to slit her throat as well, not recognizing her as his daughter. A scream from Lovett diverts him to the basement, where she tells him that Turpin had still been alive and tried to grab at her dress before bleeding to death. Viewing the corpses in the light of the bakehouse fire, Todd discovers that the beggar woman was his wife Lucy, whom he had believed to be dead based on Lovett's account of the poisoning. Todd realizes that Lovett knew Lucy was alive, and she attempts to convince Sweeney that she misled him for his own good, confessing she loves him and would be a better wife than Lucy ever was. Todd pretends to forgive her, waltzing maniacally with her around the bakehouse before hurling her into the open furnace and locking her in. He returns to Lucy and cradles her dead body as Toby emerges from the sewer and picks up the discarded razor. Todd appears to hear him and raises his head, allowing Toby to slit his throat. As Toby walks away, Todd bleeds to death over his dead wife, leaving Johanna presumably clear to steal away with Anthony.
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