ABCs of Art

Sweeney Todd

Of course I saw Sweeney Todd, and of course I liked it. We saw it in a theater in Ft. Meyers, Florida, which was interesting in itself; there were approximately six people in the theater, of which Bob and I were two, and Bob and I were the only ones laughing.

Anyway, the movie was faithful to the original story, which I appreciated, and Johnny Depp delivered an interesting performance, despite the fact that he doesn’t really sing. To me, though, the most notable part was Tim Burton’s use of color. The colors were mostly dark and muted, which was appropriate for nineteenth century London, but there were two obvious exceptions. The first was the blood, which was bright, screaming red, and stood out nicely against the otherwise dark background. The second was Mrs. Lovett’s fantasy sequence, which was bizarre and macabre, and enhanced greatly by the sudden onset of day-glow colors. Mrs. Lovett and Mr. Todd remained pale and death-like in the fantasy sequence, but the background was bright and cheerful, creating an amusing contrast. Here, you'll see what I mean.