Showing posts with label Sweeney Todd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sweeney Todd. Show all posts

Dark, yes. Thoughtless? No.


FRAN REPORTS:


So every once in awhile there is a movie that causes a difference of opinion here at Rogue. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street would be one of them. Bernerd has already stated that the lack of redemption in this movie was his biggest turn off. In no way was it a slam against the quality of the movie or it's creator's, more of a question of content. I agree that Tim Burton is my favorite director because of his redemptive qualities. There is always a moral, a message, something to give you hope. It's the kind of hope that actually makes you believe in something, not the cheesy hope you get from watching a Sandra Bullock flick. It's a hope that lasts for more than 10 minutes, one that puts a smile on your face because you know that at the end of the day all is not lost, there are still people out there who care, who feel, who love.

While Sweeney Todd did not have this glimmering hope, this light in the darkness, I think that it would be foolish to toss it aside as mindless. (NOTE: Many people claim this of Burton and his work, this, however, is not the case in regards to Bernerd. End Note.) While the musical is uncommonly dark and is definitely an exaggeration of general human behavior we must not forget that the bad guy does not prevail.

*SPOILER ALERT!!*

You see, many who watch Sweeney Todd will feel a heightened sense of justice for him and will find his obsession merited. Again, I will reiterate that Burton's story line is quite extreme, but nonetheless, when broken down it becomes clear that people will like Todd because they will identify with him.

We are human, we are sinful, there is no getting around it. All, at some point or another, have felt revenge. All have felt that it is their duty to bring wrongdoers to justice, not realizing in our fury that taking revenge is a sinful act in itself.

This is where the message or the moral comes in, and yes, in my opinion this movie really does have a moral. To outline it very simply Benjamin Barker is a Barber who has a beautiful wife and a lovely daughter. Judge Turpin, a judge in London, is an evil man who wants Barker's wife as his own. So he unjustly throws Barker in prison thus ensuring that his wife would have no one to care for her. Fifteen years later we meet up with Barker who is now called Sweeney Todd. He is angry, he has been paying a debt that he never should have had to pay in the first place while this dirty judge took everything that held meaning to him. Todd feels like it is his right, his privilege to take judge Turpin's life. After all those years, after all of his work, the man who took his life away would get what was coming to him.

However, fate should never lie in the hand's of a mortal. Death should not be determined looking through a man's eyes. It becomes an obsession. His lust for blood takes over him and he becomes so enthralled in what he is doing. He starts killing others, people that he had never set out to kill in the first place, however, I do not think this is random. I honestly think that Burton is trying to show a progression of insanity here; how once focused on something so intently, it becomes who you are. Sweeney Todd was in prison for 15 years, that's 15 years of mulling over the same injustice over and over again.

He eventually kills Judge Turpin in a short-lived moment of glory, for within the next couple of minutes he also kills his wife whom he thought had been dead for years. In his obsession, in his insanity, he ended up killing the one thing that he had wanted to protect all along. You see, the murder wasn't what he was doing anymore, it was who he had become...a murderer. It seems that his wife's cold dead body brings him back to reality, but only for a short moment, as Todd himself his killed at the hand of a child, by his own blade.

This movie is in no way redemptive, in fact it is actually quite hopeless. However, I can honestly say that I enjoyed this movie for what it was, a depiction of the sinfulness of human nature. If I had to sum up Burton's message in one sentence it would be that Sweeney Todd is about a man seeking the ultimate revenge, but as he travels further down this path of hatred and destruction he travels further into the darkness, not only ultimately costing him his own life, but the life of the one he cared for most.

Let us not forget that while hope is a wonderful belief that no one should ever lose sight of, this world is not perfect. Evil does exist and while depicted very darkly in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the good does win out in the end.

Fran

The REAL Modern Fairytale.

BERNERD REPORTS:
After watching “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”, I couldn't help but realize how similar his experience was with a little man named Edward Scissorhands. It could almost be viewed as volume two in the scissorhand-series. Looks like Burton had a differnt end in mind after all. The true ending is that The Uncommonly Gentle Man buys into The Culture of Death.

So here, for the first time, is the complete story of that man: “Edward Scissorhands: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”.

Once Upon a Time, there lived an inventor. He made many things I suppose. But he also created a man. He gave him insides. A heart. A brain. Everything. Well, almost everything. You see, the inventor was very old. He died before he got to finish the man he invented. So, the man was left by himself – incomplete and all alone. His name was Edward.

Edward lived for many years, all by himself. He worked in his garden. He enjoyed the sunshine. He was a kind man. An uncommonly gentle man. Then, one day, a woman arrived from the local development and brought Edward home.

There, Edward learned a lot of things. He learned about friendship. He learned about hard work. He learned about family. And, most importantly, he learned about love. He fell in-love with a girl named Kim. He protected her. He cared for her. He even created the snow for her. And when he was tricked into taking the fall for something he didn't do, he took the punishment gladly, because it was for her.

Kim: It must have been awful when they told you whose house it was.
Edward: I knew it was Jim's house.
Kim: You... you did?
Edward: Yes.
Kim: Well, then why'd you do it?
Edward: Because you asked me to.


But things were about to change. The people in the development did not understand Edward. They were afraid of him because he was different. In their ignorance, they drove Edward from their town, sending him back to his mansion on the hill. This is how Edward learned about hate. His love was taken away from him, and he spent the next 15 years in exile.

As the years past, the anger grew inside of him. Humanity was a stupid and barbaric race. Those who loved were naïve and stupid – as he had been. He and Kim had deserved to be smashed, to be destroyed and forsaken. Love had no place in a world so full of hate and ignorance. He reflected on his story with little pity.

There was a barber and his wife,
And she was beautiful.
A foolish barber and his wife.
She was his reason and his life,
And she was beautiful,
And she was virtuous,
And he was... naive.

So, Edward decided to have his revenge. Not only on the people who drove him away, but on every human being. No one was worthy of this life.

Welcome to the grave... I will have vengeance.
Not one man... No, nor ten men... Nor a hundred can assuage me.
I will have you! And I will get him back even as he gloats;
In the meantime I'll practice on less honorable throats.

Edward killed without mercy. He used his scissor hands to cut their throats. They spoke of beauty before they died, but what did they know? No human could look on beauty without defiling it. Even Edward himself.

There's a hole in the world like a great black pit
and it's filled with people who are filled with shit!
And the vermin of the world inhabit it.

And just to top it off, he devised the best part of his plan. He would feed them on their own. He created food from the dead and fed it to the living. What better way to prove his point?

For what's the sound of the world out there?
Those crunching noises pervading the air!
It's man devouring man, my dear!
And who am I to deny it in here?

He killed women. He killed children. He even killed Kim. And in the end, when one was faster than him, and it was his blood that graced the barbershop floor, he knew it was right. For all was wrong, and nothing was good. The world would be a better place if he never learned to love, and never discovered his hate. Because all love is hate. And all beauty, lust. And all dreams, illusions.

Afterall, the uncommonly gentle man was the biggest fool of them all.


NOTE: Tim Burton is a genius. There's no question about it. And I want to say upfront that this article in no way deals with the talent of the people involved or the quality of the film being discussed. That said, I am miserably disappointed at the message of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”. Especially coming from Mr. Burton, who has always been a shining light in the darkness – providing the world with not only exceptionally well-made films, but also some of the only films to portray a redemptive storyline in modern Hollywood.