Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
-Stars Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, an English barber and serial killer who kills his customers with a straight razor to their throats and turns them into meat pies with the help of his accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, played by Helena Bonham-Carter
Did You Know?
-This is the 6th Depp/Burton collaboration. Their prior collaborations include Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
-In order to prepare for her role as Mrs. Lovett, Helena Bonham-Carter studied baking and underwent very extensive vocal training
-For his audition, Sacha Baron Cohen sang all the music from Fiddler on the Roof
-To prepare for his role as Adolfo Pirelli, Sacha Baron Cohen hired his personal barber as his assistant to teach him on shaving techniques, and took 16 hours to learn how to hold and handle a razor.
-During production, Helena Bonham-Carter was pregnant with her and Tim Burton's 2nd child and throughout the film, her breasts appear to change size noticeably
-The jacket worn by Johnny Depp is a Belstaff dark leather trench, designed exclusively for the movie
-4 Harry Potter stars appear in this movie: Helena Bonham-Carter(Mrs. Lovett/Bellatrix LeStrange), Alan Rickman(Judge Turpin/Severus Snape), Timothy Spall(Beadle Bamford/Peter Pettigrew), Jamie Campbell-Bower(Anthony Hope/Gellert Grindelwald)
-2nd musical Johnny Depp has appeared in, this is the first one he actually sings. Cry-Baby was his first musical, but he lip synched to it
-Tim Burton insisted the movie be as bloody as it can be. He thought the stage versions cut back on the bloodshed, robbing it of it's power. For him "everything is so internal with Sweeney that [the blood] is like his emotional release. It's more about catharsis than a literal thing".
Plot
-In the 19th century, Benjamin Barker(Johnny Depp), a skilled barber, returns to London with the alias 'Sweeney Todd', accompanied by sailor Anthony Hope(Jamie Campbell Bower). 15 years prior, Barker had been falsely convicted of his wife's murder and banished by corrupt Judge Turpin(Alan Rickman), who had lustful fantasies about Barker's wife Lucy(Laura Michelle Kelly). Meanwhile, at Mrs. Nellie Lovett's(Helena Bonham Carter) meat pie shop in Fleet Street, he learns that Lucy poisoned herself with arsenic after Turpin raped her. Todd's teen daughter Johanna(Jayne Wisener) is now Turpin's ward and is the object of his obscene love. Todd wants revenge for his wife's murder, so he opens a barber shop above Mrs. Lovett's with the straight razors she returned to him.
-While roaming London, Anthony sees Johanna in an upstairs room of a large house, singing to her birds and a passing beggar woman tells him her name is Johanna. The house belongs to none other than Judeg Turpin and Anthony is immediately attracted to her. Turpin invites him in, only for his assistant Beadle Bamford(Timothy Spall) to throw him out the back door. Bamford warns Anthony that he will be severely punished if he is seen around the Judge's house again. Anthony is then convinced that he and Johanna were meant to be.
-After getting some help from Bamford, Turpin, with the intention of proposing to Johanna, pays a visit to Todd's barber shop. Todd shaves Turpin while preparing to slash his throat; before he can do so, Anthony interrupts, busting in and revealing his plan to elope with Johanna. That's when he realizes Turpin was there. He leaves, vowing never to return. Now in a black, angry rage, at missing his chance for payback, he swears revenge on the entire world, taking his rage out on his customers while waiting for another chance to kill Turpin. He is discreet about his killings, believing that he is punishing the aristocracy for their exploitation of those below them, while saving the lower class from their miseries. Mrs. Lovett becomes his accomplice, making a suggestion that they dispose of the boidies by turning them into meat pies. Todd then creates a new barber's chair, with a specially designed trap door underneath, so as after he kills someone, he steps on a lever and it drops them through into Mrs. Lovett's bakehouse. Elsewhere, Anthony is desperately searching for Johanna, who he later learns was sent to Fogg's insane asylum by Turpin after discovering their plans of eloping.
-The barber and pie business prosper financially, and Lovett takes Toby in. With both shops being successful, Mrs. Lovett informs Todd of her plans to move to the seaside. Anthony discovers Johanna's location and under advice from Todd, he poses as a wig-maker's apprentice, who are allowed into the asylum to collect hair for wigs, providing him with the access he needs. Todd then comes up with a new plan: he has Toby deliver a letter to Turpin telling him wher eJohanna will be brought when Anthony frees her. Toby has become increasingly suspicious and wary of Todd, and tells Mrs. Lovett, unaware of her role in the crimes, that he promises to protect her, loving her as a surrogate mother. Beadle Bamford arrives at the barber ship, informing them that neighbors are complaining of the horrid smell coming out of the chimney. He is killed by Todd, and Mrs. Lovett informs him of Toby's suspicions. The pair search for Toby, who Mrs. Lovett has locked in the basement to keep him out of the way. Toby is nowhere to be found, hiding in the sewers after seeing Beadle's body drop into the room from above, along with finding a toe in the pie. Elsewhere, Anthony frees Johanna, and brings her to the shop in disguise, locking an asylum staff member in a cell, where it is suggested that the inmates kill him. In Todd's shop, Johanna hides in a trunk while Anthony finds a coach
-The crazy beggar woman who has been pestering Todd, Lovett and Anthony througout the film makes her way to the shop, searching for Beadle. As Todd enters, she claims she recognizes him. Just then, Turpin's voice is heard. Todd slits the woman's throat and drops her body through the trap door. As Turpin enters, Todd explains that Johanna had repented and offers a free shave. Todd reveals his true identity to Turpin and stabs him in the neck various times and dropping him through the trap door, creating the biggest bloody mess in the movie. Johanna peeks out, Todd spots her and prepares to kill her, not knowing she is his daughter. Upon hearing a scream from Lovett, he is distracted. He tells Johanna to "forget my face" and leaves her alive in his barber shop. Todd runs to the basement, where she tells him that Turpin was still alive and grabbed her dress before bleeding to death. Seeing the corpses in the light of the oven fire, Todd finds that the beggar woman was his wife Lucy, who he thought was dead because of arsenic poisoning. Todd realizes Lovett knew Lucy was alive and she tries to convince him that she misled him for his own good, confessing she loves him. Toff pretends to forgive her, dancing to the Waltz around the basement only to throw her into the open furnace and lock her in, thus letting her burn to death. He returns to Lucy and cradles her dead body in his arms. Witnessing the death of the only mother figure he ever knew, Toby, now angry and vengeful, emerges from the shadows and picks up the discarded razor and slits Todd's throat, his blood now running over the dead body of his wife Lucy.
-Johnny Depp: Benjamin Barker/Sweeney Todd
-Helena Bonham-Carter: Mrs. Nellie Lovett
-Alan Rickman: Judge Turpin
-Timothy Spall: Beadle Bamford
-Jamie Campbell Bower: Anthony Hope
-Jayne Wisener: Johanna Barker
-Laura Michelle Kelly: Lucy Barker
-Sacha Baron Cohen: Adolfo Pirelli/Davy Collins
-Ed Sanders: Toby Ragg
-Anthony Head: Man in the Street(uncredited)
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