Sweeney Todd is set in London during the early 19th Century where a man named Sweeney Todd (Ray Winstone) runs a barber shop in Fleet Street, one night a jailer (Roger Frost) from Newgate Prison pays for a shave. The jailer reminds Todd of his childhood he spent in Newgate where he was abused by the jailers & in a moment of rage slits the jailers throat. After giving a woman named Nellie Lovett (Essie Davis) an abortion Todd falls for her & buy's her a shop from which she sells meat pies, Todd suddenly hits on the idea of slitting his customers throats, cutting them up & giving the meat to Lovett to turn into pies which quickly become very popular...
This English production was directed by David Moore & was almost certainly made to cash-in on the then forthcoming Tim Burton musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) with Johnny Depp, some say the character of Sweeney Todd was based on a real person but I don't think there is any hard evidence that he was. The script by Joshua St. Johnston plays it straight as a grim drama rather than an over-the-top musical or horror, as one might guess a lot of this films duration is spent trying to get inside the mind of Todd & develop a real character who had real motivations & feelings. Despite this there's not much reason behind his killing, sure the first victim reminded him of his unhappy childhood but thereafter it's not quite so clear cut. The main focus is on the relationship between Todd & Lovett, it's fairly deep & the character's are well fleshed out but Todd's throat slitting activities were of more interest to me so I sort of lost interest in the film as a whole as it decided to concentrate on personal angst & drama. This is not a bad adaptation at all, it moves along at a decent pace, it's well written & tells a good story but it never really grabbed me.
Made for British telly I was surprised to learn that Sweeney Todd was shot in Bucharest in Romania, I mean it was set in London & made by a London based company with British money so why film in Romania? Then again I suppose modern day London looks nothing like it did back in the 19th Century, maybe Romania is a closer match. This is quite gory for a TV production, there's a few gory slit throats, a rotted corpse, sliced up body parts, a severed hand, a tongue severing, a stabbing plus an operation to remove a gall stone & one to remove a bullet. I was disappointed with the way this looked, it just looked flat & cheap especially if you have seen Tim Burton's wonderful visuals on his recent version.
Technically this is alright, I must admit the production design didn't impress me that much & it felt a bit cheap. The acting was fine, Winstone was an interesting choice to play Todd & puts in a restrained performance while it was nice to see David Warner in a small role.
Sweeney Todd is a slightly above adaptation of the often told tale of the demon barber of Fleet Street, it's not bad for what it is but it's hardly life changing & I doubt I will remember anything about it in a week.
This English production was directed by David Moore & was almost certainly made to cash-in on the then forthcoming Tim Burton musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) with Johnny Depp, some say the character of Sweeney Todd was based on a real person but I don't think there is any hard evidence that he was. The script by Joshua St. Johnston plays it straight as a grim drama rather than an over-the-top musical or horror, as one might guess a lot of this films duration is spent trying to get inside the mind of Todd & develop a real character who had real motivations & feelings. Despite this there's not much reason behind his killing, sure the first victim reminded him of his unhappy childhood but thereafter it's not quite so clear cut. The main focus is on the relationship between Todd & Lovett, it's fairly deep & the character's are well fleshed out but Todd's throat slitting activities were of more interest to me so I sort of lost interest in the film as a whole as it decided to concentrate on personal angst & drama. This is not a bad adaptation at all, it moves along at a decent pace, it's well written & tells a good story but it never really grabbed me.
Made for British telly I was surprised to learn that Sweeney Todd was shot in Bucharest in Romania, I mean it was set in London & made by a London based company with British money so why film in Romania? Then again I suppose modern day London looks nothing like it did back in the 19th Century, maybe Romania is a closer match. This is quite gory for a TV production, there's a few gory slit throats, a rotted corpse, sliced up body parts, a severed hand, a tongue severing, a stabbing plus an operation to remove a gall stone & one to remove a bullet. I was disappointed with the way this looked, it just looked flat & cheap especially if you have seen Tim Burton's wonderful visuals on his recent version.
Technically this is alright, I must admit the production design didn't impress me that much & it felt a bit cheap. The acting was fine, Winstone was an interesting choice to play Todd & puts in a restrained performance while it was nice to see David Warner in a small role.
Sweeney Todd is a slightly above adaptation of the often told tale of the demon barber of Fleet Street, it's not bad for what it is but it's hardly life changing & I doubt I will remember anything about it in a week.