The Midnight Train Crossing

We went to see it at the second run theatre on a whim. All I knew about the show was that Sweeny Todd is a barber who kills people, and the woman (Mrs Lovette) in the shop below him grinds up the bodies and sells them in meat pies.
And that Johnny Depp played Sweeny Todd.
And that there was blood.

So Sweeny (What kind of a name Is that, really now?) doesn't just arbitrarily kill people. I figured that there had to be more to him because he has to be a somewhat sympathetic character.
He actually just wants to kill one person (or maybe two) - the judge who sent him away under false charges so that the judge could get to his wife, and the henchman of the judge. The judge, by the way, took Sweeny's daughter Joanna, and raised her as his ward, then fell in love with her, which is rather creepy.
When trying to kill the judge doesn't work out so well is when he decides to just off random people.

The fun started with dramatic organ music for the Dreamworks logo, then this rather long sequence of blood - rather gooey looking blood - flowing along some clockwork things, down a pipe, and into the river before we got to the title.

The whole movie was rather dark - I mean lighting wise. Even the scenes that took place in daylight were still pretty dark. The only bright scenes are the flashbacks in the song "The barber and his wife" - logical because it is thinking back on happier days.
Another bright scene is during the song "By the sea" where Mrs Lovette imagines them going to the sea. But unlike the memory scene, the brightness is cold, harsh, like it's being lit above by a lightbulb with no shade.
It's not very colorful either - everyone wears dark clothing for the most part. Not all black, but just dark. Dark blues, greens, grays and browns.
A few notable exceptions are Joanna, who wears a blue dress in one scene, and Signor Pirelli who wears bright bright blue.

First met is Anthony - an innocent, naive young sailor - who is singing about the wonders of the world. I thought he was rather pleasing on the eyes, and his voice was pretty good too. He is the other plot line of the story. Well you can't have a musical without a love story right? And Sweeny Todd isn't really likely to fall in love with anyone.
I liked the song "Joanna" which was his main one, sung in counter with Sweeny Todd.

There aren't many pretty ballads in this movie. "Joanna" is the closest one to it. I guess given the subject matter, that makes sense. Most of the songs are quick paced which was cool, although if you weren't listening carefully, you could miss quite a bit.

I was confident that Johnny Depp would do a good job, because he seems to be pretty fantastic at whatever he does, but the big question was can he sing?
Answer: Yep.

I rather liked the character of Mrs. Lovette, creepy as she was. It seems strange that I liked someone who decides to grind up people into pies and sell them, but I liked her. I think that I liked her songs - mostly they were very fast and you really had to listen to what she was saying.
I liked the song "The worst pies in London" where she is referring to her own, and smashing bugs with her rolling pin. The other song I liked was "A little priest" when they discuss the various people to put in their pies.
I liked how she was explaining the idea to him, while trying to avoid saying it.
"When you get it/If you get it..." and then at his expression, as understanding dawns, "Good, you got it!"

Another line that I rather liked of Sweeny Todd's was:
"The history of the world, my love --/Is those below serving those up above!/How gratifying for once to know/That those above will serve those down below"
And then they waltz around, her with a rolling pin and him with a meat cleaver.

Another amusing scene is after Sweeny claims his first victim. She scolds him, saying that he can't just go killing innocent people. Sweeny responds with telling her that he was going to blackmail him.
"Oh," she responds, "That's alright then."

The other scene that I really liked was the scene belonging to the song "By the sea" where she sings about how her dream is to have a house by the sea... and marry Sweeny Todd.
It amused me because it's her fantasy, so it keeps switching scenes, and she and Sweeny keep changing costume.
At the start of the song, he is brooding because he still has not gotten to kill the judge yet. So he has this sort of distant expression which never changes through the whole song.
It looks rather funny.

So, despite the fact that Sweeny Todd is given a good reason for wanting to kill the judge, and then he's also given a reason that he goes mad and starts killing random people, he still kills people. With his barber razors, in his chair... by slitting their throats.
There is blood. Lots of it splirting all over the place. Yes, its gross.

But... it happened so many times... that it sort of got old. I think I was desensitized.
The first murder was messy. But he wasn't very good at it yet, and I don't think that he planned on it.
Later on, when there was victim after victim, he seemed to take it in stride, and it was less messy about it. Although the final killing that he did with his razor was again rather messy, with blood all over the place. But, it was the killing he had been waiting for.

I was not entirely sure if I liked the ending or not, but thinking about it now, it made sense. Anthony and Joanna sort of just... vanished, but I guess it was alright because the story wasn't really about them.
The ending was very quiet. Just Sweeny Todd and his wife, reunited at last.