PBS was broadcasting the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert this evening and after watching it I was in the mood for a musical for the night's movie. After some contemplation I chose Sweeney Todd.
Adapting a popular musical to film is a big challenge. A talented director must keep the closeness and the connection that an audience forms with a live performance and yet open the film up to the possibilities of film. This is not an easy task and can go drastically wrong. Just check out the recent film versions of The Producers, Phantom of the Opera and Rent to see what I mean.
When done correctly you will have the Jets and the Sharks singing and dancing on the streets of New York City, or Sister Maria singing her heart out in an alpine meadow on top of a mountain.
Movies have advantages that the stage does not, and in a musical like Sweeney Todd, Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are just the trio to utilize those advantages to there fullest possibility.
Sweeney Todd is not an easy musical to work with. The complex score has been compared to an opera and in fact, the stage productions only has about 20% dialogue. Everything else is sung. Johnny Depp had to learn to sing for the role and he does very well with Sondheim's challenging lyrics and harmonies. His voice is not great but it is perfectly suited to a singing maniacal barber. Director Tim Burton opens up the play and creates an authentic London with just the right amount of gloom
A Unique challenge for the musical is the blood and gore. On stage the musical is a kind of Grand Guingol of camp horror, but on film the black humor is missing and the special effects allow for some truly gory moments that are a little too real. This musical has a lot of blood in it.
And the blood never looked redder than it does on the high def Blu-ray disc. The audio and video are superb, just what one comes to expect from the standard bearer in home video.
If you did not see Sweeney Todd in theatres it is definitely worth checking out at home. It's bloody good.
At the Movie House rating ***1/2 stars.
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