Sweeney The Movie

Early this past December, before the release of Tim Burton’s film of Sweeney Todd, I wrote the following in an online forum thread concerning the forthcoming film:

Having little affection for American musical comedy, and even less for cinematic adaptations of same, I came very late to Sweeney Todd (some quarter-century late, actually), and was overwhelmed by it — most particularly by its musical treatment. I, too, wondered how so much of that music being cut in a cinematic adaptation of the musical could result in the film being anything but a resounding failure. But I trust Tim Burton implicitly. His cinematic sense is all but infallible, and according to all I’ve read, he clearly understands the work as envisioned for the stage. Cut music or not, I look forward to seeing how he re-envisioned the work for the cinema. Unhappily, as I refuse to attend a movie theater (three occasions excepted, I’ve not stepped foot in a movie theater since 1973), I won’t be able to see the film for some months to come when it makes its appearance in DVD release.

I can hardly wait.

Since the film’s release, it’s received almost unanimous praise from the critical press which pretty much lauded it to the skies, as the saying goes, including this latest from Ol’ Stormin’ Norman:

After the screening [of Burton’s film], cup of tea in hand, [Stephen] Sondheim himself made a claim so extravagant I had to ask him to repeat it. ‘This,’ he declared, ‘is the first musical that has ever transferred successfully to the screen.’

[...]

Is [Sweeney Todd] then, as the composer claims, the first stage musical ever to make a successful switch to the movies? After several weeks' reflection, I’d go one further: I cannot recall any modern theatre play — Pinter, Miller, O'Neill, Albee, Neil Simon, whoever — that has made the leap to screen carrying so little of its stage baggage while its character remains intact. Sweeney Todd is a gripping, skilful, troubling, ineradicable masterpiece of a 21st century movie. All that came before is gaslight.

Even given the source, it all sounds just as I expected it to be, and I’ll almost certainly weigh in here again after I’ve screened it on DVD for myself. And as I’ve already said, I can hardly wait.