Sweeney Todd

[mmcirvin]

The movie is very good. Tim Burton's done some ill-advised things in recent years, but this is not one of them. I think the rule with Burton films is that you can usually tell whether or not he should be messing with a given project from the one-sentence pitch. Tim Burton Planet of the Apes? No. Tim Burton Sweeney Todd? Do you even have to ask?

I have to say, though, that if you are at all squeamish about blood or knives, you should not see this movie. I would have thought that such a warning would be unnecessary, but evidently not.

I did not know until now that the story predated the musical (some claim it originated as a true story, but that sounds as questionable as these types of claims usually are). The basic elements of Sweeney Todd the demon barber, Mrs. Lovett making his victims into meat pies, and even the mechanical trapdoor chair and Toby and some form of Joanna were all there early on, though the revenge plot with the monstrous judge is a 1970s addition.

Comments

[smashingstars.livejournal.com]

I read some version of Sweeney Todd when I was a little kid, probably 10 or so. I discovered a stash of dad's kid's books, which contained much nonkidness, such as ST, Sleepy Hollow, Animal Farm and The Scarlet Letter. If I recall, the book was actually some little pamphlet thingie that went with a movie. (Yes, IMDb says there was a 1936 movie. That booklet would be worth quite a bit now, I bet.)

It never occurred to me that it was based on truth. I thought it was true in the way "Fargo" was true.

[samantha2074.livejournal.com]

According to the Wikipedia article you linked to, the main proponent of the "Sweeney Todd is a true story" idea is Peter Haining, who is notorious in Doctor Who fandom for writing mistake-riddled compendiums about the show. I have the 25th anniversary volume, I believe.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Somebody needs to write Sweeney Todd vs. Spring-Heeled Jack crossover fic. (Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody already wrote that around 1865.)

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I had memories of seeing part of a stage production of the Sondheim musical on TV that had John Lithgow playing Sweeney Todd, but I can find no evidence of this and I was probably misremembering it. Angela Lansbury was definitely playing Mrs. Lovett, though--a role she seems to have played for quite some time.

[urbeatle.livejournal.com]

I don't remember if it was John Lithgow or not, but yeah, there was a video taped version of the stage musical with Angela Lansbury. According to the Wikipedia, it was originally aired on the Entertainment Network (did that become E!, or A&E?) However, I saw it on PBS. Or rather, I saw the opening on PBS, my mom decided she needed control of the TV, and I listened to the rest on my TV radio.

The first time I had heard of Sweeney Todd, though, was in a DC horror comic in the '70s, probably House of Mystery. Some doofus who somehow got locked in a wax museum witnesses a necromancer using a grimoire (I think they actually called it The Necronomicon) to animate wax models of three or four of the worst villains in history, including Sweeney Todd and Vlad Tepes. (Moments ago, I knew the third villain, but now I can't remember. Dammit!) Anyways, Mr. Doofus is horrified, but manages to remember the magic incantation and uses it to animate Daniel Boone. So, basically, this was like that one episode Star Trek.

Since I recently finished one book of Colin Wilson's Mammoth Book of True Crime, I can safely say there was no mention of Sweeney Todd, not even as a legend, but there was at least one confirmed and one possible instance of a murderer eliminating evidence by baking meat pies. The closest I can think of to the trick barber chair is the trap doors and secret passages in the H. H. Holmes murder hotel

[smashingstars.livejournal.com]

Yes! I saw it on PBS as well, back when I still lived in Missouri. IMDb says it was 1982, which means my memory isn't completely shot.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

It probably was that one, with George Hearn as Sweeney.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

I hope you liked Mars Attacks.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

It was OK. Nice silly visuals, but a bit aimless; the initial concept and source material were kind of thin, and it felt like it would have worked better as a short.

Mmm, meat pies

[cpr94.livejournal.com]

Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus also features corpses made into meat pies. That's probably the main reason someone referred to that play as being "from Shakespeare's Tarantino period".

There was an unforgettable visual of this in the movie adaptation Titus. In fact, that very flawed movie is worth seeing just for that shot.

Re: Mmm, meat pies

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I kind of liked Titus--having decided to adapt Titus Andronicus in the first place, Taymor did about the best job she could.

It's true, that may be the referent of many human pies in literature. Especially where revenge is involved, though Sweeney Todd wasn't typically out for revenge prior to the Christopher Bond stage play that the musical was adapted from (and even then, the pies are kind of incidental to the revenge).

[paracelsvs.livejournal.com]

This is more of your weird American folklore, isn't it? I recognize it because you talk about things that make absolutely no sense and that I have never, ever heard of, as if they were common knowledge.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

British, which is why I was unfamiliar with it myself aside from a Stephen Sondheim musical and film adaptation of same.