Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 2007 Gothic musical slasher film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by John Logan, based on the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, which in turn is based on the 1970 play Sweeney Todd by Christopher Bond. The film retells the melodramatic Victorian tale of Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp), an English barber and serial killer. After arriving in London, Todd seeks revenge on Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) who wrongfully convicted and exiled him in order to steal his wife. Sweeney Todd murders his customers and, with the help of his accomplice, Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), processes their corpses into meat pies. The film marks the first collaboration between Depp, Bonham Carter, Rickman, Spall, and Baron Cohen (the second being Alice Through the Looking Glass in 2016).
Having been struck by the cinematic qualities of the stage musical while a college 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 Pictures announced his appointment as replacement for director Sam Mendes. Sondheim, although not directly involved, was extensively consulted during production. Depp, not known for his singing, took lessons in preparation for his role, which producer Richard D. Zanuck acknowledged was something of a gamble.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street had its premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on 3 December 2007, and was released in the United States on 21 December 2007 by Paramount Pictures and in the United Kingdom on 25 January 2008 by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received critical acclaim, and was praised for the performances of the cast, musical numbers, costume and set design, and faithfulness to the musical. It grossed over $153 million against a production budget of $50 million. Since its release, the film has been widely assessed as one of the greatest musical films of the 21st century.
Plot In 1846, Benjamin Barker, a barber, arrives in London, accompanied by young sailor Anthony Hope. A flashback reveals that sixteen years prior, Benjamin was falsely convicted and exiled to Australia by the corrupt Judge Turpin, who lusted after Benjamin's wife, Lucy ("No Place Like London"). Benjamin adopts the alias "Sweeney Todd" and returns to his old barber shop on Fleet Street, situated above Nellie Lovett's failing meat pie shop ("The Worst Pies in London"). Recognising Benjamin, Mrs. Lovett tells him that once he was exiled, Turpin raped Lucy at a masquerade ball in his home and drove her to suicide before adopting the couple's daughter, Johanna, as his ward ("Poor Thing"). Todd vows revenge and re-opens his barbershop after Mrs. Lovett, who is unrequitedly in love with him, presents him with his old straight razors ("My Friends").
Anthony becomes enamored with Johanna after seeing her sing by a window above the street ("Green Finch and Linnet Bird"). A beggar woman warns him about Judge Turpin ("Alms! Alms!"), who invites Anthony into his house before setting his henchman and personal bailiff, Beadle Bamford, upon him. The Beadle throws Anthony into the street and beats him with a cane, but Anthony vows to return and rescue Johanna ("Johanna").
Rival barber and snake oil salesman Adolfo Pirelli is publicly humiliated by Todd at a shaving contest in front of Bamford ("Pirelli's Miracle Elixir/The Contest"). At his barbershop, Todd is distressed that Turpin has not yet arrived after The Beadle promised he would visit before the end of the week. Mrs. Lovett encourages him to calm down and come up with a plan ("Wait").
Pirelli visits Todd and reveals that he recognized him by his distinctive straight razors, and attempts to blackmail Todd using the knowledge of his former identity. Todd panics and kills Pirelli, hiding his body in a chest. Mrs. Lovett is shocked but accepts Todd's justifications, having grown emotionally attached to Pirelli's downtrodden assistant Tobias "Toby" Ragg, whom she adopts as a son.
Intent on marrying Johanna, Judge Turpin visits Todd's shop for a shave at Bamford's recommendation ("Ladies in their Sensitivities"). They sing a duet ("Pretty Women") but before Todd can kill Turpin, Anthony bursts in and inadvertently reveals his intentions on eloping with Johanna. Judge Turpin angrily storms out and has Johanna committed to an asylum, offering her her freedom in exchange for her hand in marriage. Todd laments that Johanna is gone forever, and vows revenge on all of London for wronging him ("Epiphany").
Trying to figure out what to do with Pirelli's corpse, Mrs. Lovett suggests that they bake him in a pie. Todd and Mrs. Lovett decide that Todd will kill his customers and Mrs. Lovett will bake their bodies into meat pies to feed to the public ("A Little Priest"). Todd rigs his barber chair with a mechanism to drop his victims' corpses through a trapdoor and into her basement bakery, where she bakes them into pies. Meanwhile, Anthony continues to search for Johanna, Todd laments his missing daughter, and the beggar woman tries to warn the public about Mrs. Lovett's pies ("Johanna – Reprise").
With both their businesses prospering and customers raving about the pies while unaware of their contents ("God, That's Good!"), Mrs. Lovett tells an uninterested Todd of her hopes to marry him and retire ("By the Sea"). Anthony poses as a wig maker in order to rescue Johanna from the asylum, planning on hiding her in Todd's barbershop. Toby becomes wary of Todd and tells Mrs. Lovett of his suspicions, vowing to protect her ("Not While I'm Around"). After he discovers Pirelli's purse in her possession, Mrs. Lovett locks him in the basement and intends on killing him.
The Beadle arrives to inspect reports of the stench from the chimney, but is tricked and murdered by Todd. Toby finds a toe in a pie in the basement, then finds the piles of butchered corpses and, finally, witnesses the Beadle's body fall through the trapdoor into the basement. Mrs. Lovett informs Todd of Toby's suspicions and the pair search for the boy after he escapes into the sewers. Meanwhile, Anthony brings Johanna, disguised as a boy, into the shop and has her wait there while he leaves to find Todd.
The beggar woman enters the shop looking for Bamford and Johanna hides in the chest. The woman recognizes Todd, but upon hearing Turpin approaching, Todd kills her and drops her through the trapdoor. Todd explains to Turpin that Johanna had repented and is returning back to him, offering a free shave in the meantime. Todd reveals himself as Benjamin Barker, before slashing Turpin's throat and dropping him into the basement.
Todd discovers Johanna but does not recognize her, preparing to kill her as well. Meanwhile, the dying Judge Turpin clutches at Mrs. Lovett's dress, causing her to scream and distract Todd; he allows Johanna to flee the shop and hurries to the bakehouse to finish Turpin off. He then recognizes the beggar woman as his wife Lucy and Mrs. Lovett admits that she lied to him about her suicide. He feigns forgiveness and they waltz together, before he kills her by throwing her into the oven. Toby emerges from the sewer and grabs Todd's razor as the latter mourns Lucy. Todd allows Toby to slit his throat, and Toby walks away as Todd bleeds to his death in the basement, holding Lucy's body ("Finale").
Cast
Production
Development
Tim Burton first saw Stephen Sondheim's 1979 stage musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, as a CalArts student in London in 1980. Burton recalled his experience of seeing the show, saying, "I was still a student, I didn't know if I would be making movies or working in a restaurant, I had no idea what I would be doing. I just wandered into the theatre and it just blew me away because I'd never really seen anything that had the mixture of all those elements. I actually went three nights in a row because I loved it so much." Burton was not a fan of the musical genre but was struck by how cinematic the musical was, and repeatedly attended subsequent performances. He described it as a silent film with music, and was "dazzled both by the music and its sense of the macabre." When his directing career took off in the late 1980s, Burton approached Sondheim with a view to making a cinematic adaptation, but nothing came of it. Sondheim said, "[Burton] went off and did other things."
Director Sam Mendes had been working on a film version of the story for several years, and in June 2003 Sondheim was approached to write the script. Although he turned down the offer, Mendes and producer Walter F. Parkes obtained his approval to use writer John Logan instead. Logan had previously collaborated with Parkes on Gladiator, and claimed his biggest challenge in adapting the Sondheim stage play "was taking a sprawling, magnificent Broadway musical and making it cinematic, and an emotionally honest film. Onstage, you can have a chorus sing as the people of London, but I think that would be alienating in a movie." Mendes left to direct the 2005 film Jarhead, and Burton took over as director after his project, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, fell apart due to its excessive budget.
When Burton was hired, he reworked the screenplay with Logan. Logan felt they agreed over the film's tone due to "share[d] stunted childhoods watching Amicus movies". Turning a three-hour stage musical into a two-hour film required some changes. Some songs were shortened, while others were completely removed. Burton said, "In terms of the show, it was three hours long, but we weren't out to film the Broadway show, we were out to make a movie, so we tried to keep the pace like those old melodramas. Sondheim himself is not a real big fan of movie musicals, so he was really open to honing it down to a more pacey shape." Burton and Logan also reduced the prominence of other secondary elements, such as the romance between Todd's daughter Johanna and Anthony, to allow them to focus on the triangular relationship between Todd, Mrs. Lovett, and Toby.
Casting
DreamWorks announced Burton's appointment in August 2006, and Johnny Depp was cast as Todd. Christopher Lee, Peter Bowles, Anthony Head, and five other actors were set to play the ghost narrators, but their roles were cut (Head does appear in an uncredited cameo as a gentleman who congratulates Depp after the shaving contest). According to Lee, these deletions were due to time constraints caused by a break in filming during March 2007, while Depp's daughter recovered from an illness. Burton's domestic partner Helena Bonham Carter was cast in October 2006, as well as Sacha Baron Cohen. In December 2006, Alan Rickman was cast. In January 2007, Laura Michelle Kelly was cast as Lucy Barker. Timothy Spall was added to the cast, and said he was urged to audition by his daughter, who wanted him to work with Depp. He recalled, "I really wanted this one – I knew Tim was directing and that Johnny Depp was going to be in it. My daughter, my youngest daughter, really wanted me to do it for that reason – Johnny Depp was in it. (She came on set to meet Depp) and he was really delightful to her, she had a great time. Then, I took her to the junket – and (Depp) greeted her like an old pal when he saw her. I've got plenty of brownie points at the moment."
Three members of the cast had never been in a film before: Ed Sanders was cast as Toby, Jayne Wisener as Johanna, and Jamie Campbell Bower, who auditioned, and after four days got the part of Anthony said, "I think I weed myself. I was out shopping at the time and I got this call on my mobile. I was just like, 'OH MY GOD!' Honestly, I was like a little girl running around this shop like oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god."
Filming