Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is an Academy Award-nominated 2007 musical film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler musical of the same name. The film stars Johnny Depp in the title role, in his sixth collaboration with director Tim Burton. Helena Bonham Carter also stars as Mrs. Lovett. The film was released in the United States on December 21, 2007 and in the United Kingdom on 25 January 2008. It won the 65th Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) and Best Actor (Comedy or Musical).
Talented barber, husband and father Benjamin Barker (Depp) is falsely arrested, charged and sentenced to a life of hard labour in Australia by the jealous, corrupt Judge Turpin (Rickman) who covets Barker's beautiful wife Lucy and his young daughter, Johanna. Returning 15 years later a vengeful shell of a man aboard a British ship, Barker adopts the alias Sweeney Todd before bidding farewell to young sailor Anthony Hope and descending into his old neighbourhood on Fleet Street.
Todd returns the old apartment building he once shared with his family, where he meets Nellie Lovett, the owner of an ailing meat pie shop beneath the apartment. She recalls that after Barker's arrest, his wife was raped by Turpin, causing her to poison herself in shame. Following that, Turpin took Barker's daughter Johanna as his ward. Todd vows revenge upon those who have destroyed his life and reopens his barber shop.
As Anthony wanders the streets of London, where he meets and becomes smitten with Johanna, now a grown teenager. His attraction forces a confrontation with Turpin and his associate Beadle Bamford, who beat Anthony and leave him alive with a warning. Todd meanwhile, after murdering rival barber Pirelli following his attempts at blackmail, is approached by Mrs. Lovett, who suggests using the corpse as meat for her pies. Todd agrees, and retrofits his barber shop to allow his barber's chair to empty the bodies of his victims into a chute to Lovett's basement bakehouse. Mrs. Lovett meanwhile takes Tobias, Pirelli's former assistant, under her care and employs him at the pie shop.
Judge Turpin discovers Johanna's plans to flee with Anthony and sends her to an insane asylum. As Todd's barber shop and Lovett's pie shop prosper financially, Mrs. Lovett confesses her desire to marry Todd, moments before Anthony returns to reveal that he has found Johanna. Todd instructs Anthony to disguise himself as a wigmaker's apprentice and infiltrate the asylum to free Johanna, offering him sanctuary in the barber shop until he can escape London. Following Anthony's departure, Todd notifies Turpin of Anthony's plans, and Turpin leaves for Todd's shop.
When Tobias voices his suspicions of Todd's murderous intentions, Mrs. Lovett lures him into the bakehouse and locks him inside, where he discovers the remains of several dead people and the meat grinder. As Lovett warns Todd of the boy's suspicions, they are both surprised by Beadle Bamford, commissioned by the neighbourhood to investigate the bakehouse and its peculiar odours. Todd lures Bamford to his barber shop and murders him, dumping him into the bakehouse, where a terrified Tobias flees into the sewers, narrowly avoiding Todd and Mrs. Lovett.
Anthony and Johanna return to Todd's shop, where he leaves her to wait. Disguised in men's clothing, Johanna hides in a trunk when the beggar woman enters, looking for Beadle. Todd returns to the shop and is surprised by the beggar woman. She says she recognises him from somewhere. Upon hearing this, Sweeney kills her and sends her body down the chute. Turpin arrives moments later and accepts Todd's offer of a shave. Looming with his sharp razor over the vulnerable Turpin, Todd reveals his true identity and brutally murders Turpin.
As Turpin dies, Todd discovers Johanna hiding in the trunk and, not recognizing her, prepares to kill her, only to be interrupted by Mrs. Lovett's scream. He leaves Johanna with a warning and races to the bakehouse to find Mrs. Lovett fretting over the beggar woman's body. As Todd prepares to help Mrs. Lovett dispose of it, he recognizes the beggar woman as his wife, Lucy. Lovett finally reveals that Lucy survived her own poisoning, which drove her mad. Recognizing Todd's anger, Mrs. Lovett tries to persuade Todd of her love for him. Todd brightens, coaxing Mrs. Lovett into a waltz, then throws the brightened Mrs.Lovett into the furnace. Mrs. Lovett screams as Sweeney Todd closes the furnace door. Sweeney Todd then sits with his now dead wife and sings a reprise of "A Barber and His Wife". Tobias emerges from the sewer and picks up the razor. Todd stops the singing and lifts his head up to expose his neck, letting Tobias slit his throat and kill him. Tobias walks off, leaving Sweeney Todd with his head bowed over his wife, his blood falling on her and pooling around them on the ground. They are together at last.
Johnny Depp plays Benjamin Barker / Sweeney Todd, a barber who had been deported to the Australian Penal Colonies for fifteen years for a crime he didn't commit. Returning to London, he slits the throats of innocent customers in madness after the loss of his wife and daughter. Depp first learned of Sweeney Todd in 2000, when he was given an original cast recording of the musical by Burton. Depp was not a fan of the musical genre, but liked the musical. Depp asked rhetorically when he signed on, "How many chances do you get at a musical about a serial killer?" The actor cited Peter Lorre in Mad Love (1935) as his influence, and practiced the songs while filming Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Depp recorded demo tapes of himself in West Hollywood, working with an old friend and music producer Bruce Witkin to shape his own vocals without a voice coach. Much of Sweeney's dialogue was cut from the musical. Depp said, "We focused on the dangerous and unsettling idea of stillness, that he doesn’t look many people in the eye, or say much", an idea Burton compared to Boris Karloff and other actors in classic horror films, where "his eyes and the music [...] tell the story."
While Depp had formed a band as an adult, he was unsure of whether he could sustain Stephen Sondheim's lyrics. He liked that they were "a lot of half-steps... kind of go G to A-flat to A to B-flat. It's super, ultra complicated; these notes that shouldn't work together at times." Producer Richard Zanuck admitted it was "millions of dollars committed on an assumption. [But] we all said to one another, 'Johnny is a smart guy. He would never put himself in this position if he didn't think he could do it.'" Sondheim felt, "I figured he'd have a light baritone... I love him as an actor, and always have. Put those things together, I didn't hesitate for one second." Sondheim explained to Depp the performance would be more about acting than singing. Depp chose a punk rock approach to his performance, citing inspiration from Anthony Newley and Iggy Pop, the latter whom he called a "very aggressive crooner. Especially in the early stuff, there’s something about [Sweeney's] attack that’s haunting."
Helena Bonham Carter as Nellie Lovett, Todd's partner-in-crime who bakes the corpses of victims into pies. Bonham Carter, a fan of the musical since she was age thirteen, wanted to prove to herself that being cast would not be an act of nepotism on partner Burton's part. The actress was trained to sing by Ian Adam, and Sondheim watched around twelve of her audition tapes, which he approved of: "Even in a recording studio, wearing a schmatte, she is as beautiful and sexy as they come." In total she spent three months on singing lessons while pregnant during the production of the film. The character is often singing while she moves and behaves, a behavior which Bonham Carter dubbed "the Olympics of multi-tasking". In addition she practised pie baking for many hours while singing her lyrics at the same time, commenting "you had to do it to syncopated Sondheim rhythm and sing at the same time."
Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, a wicked and corrupt judge who locked away Todd and raped his wife. He adopted Todd's daughter, Johanna, as his "ward", on whom he spies voyeuristically through a hole in her wall. He intends to marry her, although she is no older than 15 or so. Rickman said, "The music is sort of constant, and it slips in and out of speech and song. Because it's in real rooms and real spaces, the move from speaking into singing becomes much more organic." Therefore, he was quite surprised to see himself singing on screen.
Timothy Spall as Beadle Bamford, Turpin's brutal henchman.
Sacha Baron Cohen as Signor Adolfo Pirelli, Todd's rival and former employee. In his audition, Baron Cohen sang songs from Fiddler on the Roof. Burton commented, "I wish we had a camera, because he literally went through the whole score of Fiddler on the Roof."
Laura Michelle Kelly as Lucy Barker, Todd's wife. During her husband's absence, she has become a crazed beggar due to the rape from Turpin and the poison effects she used for suicide.
Jayne Wisener as Johanna Barker, Todd's daughter. She is intended to marry Turpin although she is underage
Jamie Campbell Bower as Anthony Hope, a sailor who befriends Todd and falls for Johanna. Anthony's character, although he sings far less than in the original stage production, is important in advancing the plot.
Ed Sanders as Tobias "Toby" Ragg, Pirelli's gin-loving former assistant who later joins Todd and Lovett. He worked and lived in a workhouse during his early years before being taken in by Pirelli. Although Pirelli mistreated him, it was a better circumstance than the workhouse.
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