My Favorite Musical

Andrew over at Encore's World of Film & TV invited me to participate in his musical blogathon. He requested me to do a review or write my thoughts on my favorite musical. Having already reviewed it, I might as well write down my thoughts on my favorite musical. What is it, you ask? Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

I have admitted I'm rather squeamish when it comes to blood and guts. And I can "thank" Sweeney Todd for making me more weak in the stomach. I have toughened up since seeing it and have since seen several crime-based movies (The Godfather trilogy, The Untouchables, Road to Perdition, Goodfellas). But still, if there's blood splurting all over the place I'm covering my eyes.

Most musicals are bright and colorful, I prefer dark and moody. So Sweeney Todd works on that level for me. And since it's directed by one of my favorite directors and features one of my favorite actors, that also works.

In some ways, Sweeney Todd is like an anti-musical. As I stated above, most musicals are bright and colorful. Sweeney Todd is dark, bloody, depressing and really messed up. Oh, and very good, too.

Not only is the mood of Sweeney Todd dark, so is the lighting. Take note that the lighting is only bright when the mood of the character in the scene is bright as well. Good examples would be Todd's life before being imprisoned and Mrs. Lovett's dream life with Todd.

This is my second favorite collaboration of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp (my favorite being Ed Wood). Depp delivers one of his best performances and a damn good singing voice. Burton shows his trademark dark directing style, but in this case it's more morbid.

So there's my contribution to Andrew's blogathon. I mentioned the link above in case you want to participate. Details are on the link.