“sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” Movie and Six Perspectives
“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” movie and six perspectives
The story discussed in this project has gone through hundreds of years of retelling and has been told many different ways. Producer Tim Burton has recreated this story and brought it to life through his movie magic by using six perspectives: personal, historical, technical, ethical, cultural and critical. These six perspectives connect with each other and allow a better understanding of the message of Sweeny Todd and how one man can be driven to insanity as a result of his lifes influences.
Through intense imagery, Burton captures every sense and emotion that is personified through the music and the performance of Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett and Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, a man who returned to Victorian London after years of being in exile for a crime he was falsely accused of. Sweeny Todd is the man formerly known as Benjamin Barker. When he returns, he finds that in his absence, his wife committed suicide and his daughter is now under the guardianship of Judge Turpin, the man who framed him and forced him into exile. Enraged, Sweeny opens a barber shop with the assistance of Mrs. Lovett, his landlord and the local meat pie shop owner, so he can lure victims in and murder them with his straight razor. With the swift pull of a lever, a trap door opens and the dead bodies slide out of the barber chair and into the basement where they are butchered and put into meat pies. His revenge is insatiable and he seeks out anyone and everyone because of what happened to his family.
Personal Perspective.
This movie has a pretty powerful personal perspective. Many of us would like to take revenge for certain situations we experienced. That is one of the reasons that the movie spoke out to me and, perhaps, to many other people. Although Sweeney Todd eventually ends up being a bad guy, you feel for him because of the situation that he is in. I felt like the character had been through so much in his lifetime that it was no wonder he turned out the way that he did. It was extremely haunting to think about the fact that a person can be falsely convicted for a crime and lose 15 years of his life. That would be such a long time that everything that the individual knew about life would be completely different in 15 years. His child was grown and a young adult by the time he escaped from prison and he had missed the entire childhood of her growing up.
Historical Perspective
The movie takes place in the 1800s in Victorian London. The historical perspective that was used to enhance this movie was the digital photography. From my perspective, the digital effects added drama and brought out messages that would never have been seen.
In the nineteenth century, the difference between the wealthy and lower classes