We saw Sweeney Todd this weekend and, while I respect Tim Burton for keeping the material operatic (there's only about 10 minutes worth of spoken dialogue, with all the rest sung), the man just cannot shoot a musical. Stephen Sondheim's musical play, based on a figure of 19th century English folklore, is about a man who goes mad and becomes a serial killer because of his desire for revenge. A barber by trade, he sets out to kill the judge who sent him away to prison, stole his wife (which apparently led to her suicide), and currently has his grown-up daughter under lock and key. In addition to wanting to kill the judge, he's also decided that all of mankind is worth getting rid of, so he starts slashing the throats of his barbering patrons, and his landlady, who runs the pie shop downstairs, gets the bright idea of using the corpses to make meat pies.
The stage production was gory and bleak and so is the movie. Most of the color has been bled out, so to speak, leaving blacks and grays and blues, with bright red for the frequent slashings. Johnny Depp is not a great singer, but he's good enough here, and Helena Bonham-Carter as the landlady is even better. Alan Rickman was born to play the sleazy judge, though the actors who play the younger romantic pair are total washouts. The movie hasn't been opened up much, but the real problem here is that Burton seems to be actively fighting against the idea of shooting a movie musical. Granted, there are no real "production numbers" in the stage version, though there are some choreographed dances, but perhaps in order to heighten the darkness and claustrophobia, Burton has used almost all close-ups and tight two-shots, resulting indeed in claustrophobia, but also making an ugly movie in the process. Every time the movie feels like it's going to shoot off into movie musical heaven ("A Little Priest" and "God That's Good," both songs dealing with the meat pie operation), it plops right back down to earth. It's good enough to make me wish that it was way better, and it makes me feel sad about the state of the movie musical. One step forward (this year's Hairspray), one step back, I guess.
6 comments:
Michael, dear Michael. What you see as weaknesses about Tim Burton's magnificent film of Stephen Sondheim's masterwork are in fact the film's greatest strengths. Burton's refusal to resort to the over-caffeinated hyper-editing of CHICAGO, the frantic swooping camerawork of DREAMGIRLS and the inane miscasting of HAIRSPRAY make SWEENEY TODD the finest musical film since the alleged Golden Age of the Musical. I am amazed to see that you are complaining that Tim Burton has actually decided to concentrate on the characters, the people and the events of the story, rather than on producing bogus "production numbers." Would you have preferred that all of the songs take place in the music hall in Sweeney's head? Or should they have all been elements in Tobey's therapy, as in the recent stripped down revival?
Burton is not killing the movie musical. He is reminding the entire world of they should be made.
I know exactly what you think about CHICAGO, and while I agree with you to some extent, I think there is a middle ground between the hyperkinetic editing there and the boring ugly close-ups here. Close-ups do not necessarily translate to concentration on characters. I felt more for Renee Zellweger's character in CHICAGO than I do for anyone in SWEENEY TODD. As far as production numbers, bogus or otherwise, that's what musicals were all about, or should be. I'm not asking for the material to be violated for the sake of a showy dance number, but surely there was room for some sweep, some choreography, some form of "transport" (as in transporting the viewer to some place we can't access anywhere else). We don't get that here, and it might as well have been a non-musical.
Well, it looks like the material simply isn't your cup of blood. I did feel the concentration on character and emotion that you didn't feel. Are musicals really all about production numbers? Shall we just cut Over The Rainbow or Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas from their respective films because they aren't production numbers?
I stand by my previous comment. The movie musical needs production numbers, and virtually all of the classic musicals have them. As you well know, both MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS and THE WIZARD OF OZ have them in addition to having lovely smaller intimate songs. It's hardly an either-or situation. As far as the material, I very much liked Sweeney Todd on stage and I own the Original Cast album. Burton's movie is OK, but I had hoped for more than that.
Michael, where is it written that the movie musical needs production numbers? Must all movie musicals grind to a halt for a big dance number? And why would you expect production numbers in a film version of SWEENEY TODD? There were no production numbers in the original Broadway production, except possibly for "God That's Good" which does have a bit of a crowd of customers. Sorry, but it does sound like you wanted the material to be violated for the sake of a showy dance number.
I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you mean when you say that the film provides no sweep or transport to place we can't access anywhere else. I know you're not complaining that the film sucks because it isn't all happy and showbizzy razzle dazzley, I have way too much respect for you to be thinking that. I really don't get what the problem is. Can you elaborate?
All I can do is refer to my previous remarks:
1) Underdeveloped characters--some of the songs that were cut did open the characters up more
2) It looks ugly, with too many close-ups. I know it was an aesthetic choice to go with washed out gray and blue and white, but I don't think it worked very well
3) I don't know how else to say it lacked sweep. It never soared, in the music or in the performances or in the cinematography
4) Can you come up with a mainstream movie musical without production numbers? It's written in the Books of Berkeley and Fosse that musicals need them. Why film it as a musical, after all? The play, in addition to the "God That's Good" number also had scenes with the chorus that were close to being "production numbers," but Burton cut the Chorus out completely. And you can count me as someone who is really pissed off that "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" is missing except as background music. When I imagined this movie in my mind many years ago, I assumed that would make a great, if somewhat unorthodox production number
5) It doesn't have to be happy--All That Jazz is one of my favorite movies of any genre, and it's definitely not an upbeat movie. But frankly, I *do* like a little razzle-dazzle in my musicals. We're just going to have to agree to disagree, as we do about so many movies!
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