* Briefly describe the opening
Sweeney Todd is set in London in the 1900’s and follows the story of barber Sweeney Todd’s revenge on Judge Turpin. In order to steal Todd’s wife and daughter, Judge Turpin had sent Todd to prison for no reason fifteen years ago. As the story unfolds we watch Sweeney Todd’s thought processes develop to find his method of revenge. We are filled with horror and disgust as we find that not only is he going to kill but he is going make and sell pies out of the human flesh.
The opening of Sweeney Todd begins with animated images of Victorian London with rain (this suggests dreary Victorian London) turning to blood and a barber shop (the setting). These images introduce the main ideas of the film with the red blood contrasting starkly with the grey and black images of London. The characters are not introduced in the title sequence of the film. This allows the audience to absorb the ideas to be presented without being distracted by the characters. The actors’ names are juxtaposed against their settings for example Johnny Depp (Sweeney) inside his barbers room beside an old Victorian silhouette picture of him and Alan Rickman’s (Judge Turpin) name is shown on the barber’s chair (the place of his murder). The images of blood suggest the horror themes: first as drops, then down from the portraits, over the barber’s chair into the cogs and then down into the sewers. The title of the film is shown midway through the blood's journey to the sewers. This is good use of dramatic effect, with the music underpinning the tension throughout.
* How does it fit into the film as a whole
The title sequence of Sweeney Todd effectively suggests the themes and plots of the film almost in a subliminal or subconscious way as you do not see the characters. It gets the audience thinking about the story that is going to develop. The film is mainly shot in tones of gray and black which creates the dark threatening mood, with flashbacks to the “happier” past shot in bright colour to create the feeling of better times.
* Why did it appeal to you
I have chosen Sweeney Todd because I think it is a very effective translation and development of the musical by Stephen Sondheim into a horror film filled with suspense, drama and effective film techniques. As Sweeney Todd was a musical I also think the music is a very important element in the film. As a musician I am very interested to go into some detail about this further on in the assessment.
