THE TRAILER FOR SWEENEY TODD!!
(SUGGESTION: Watch the trailer before reading my thoughts below. I don’t want to influence your experience of it.)
A few things catching my eye here:
I think it LOOKS great. I do. I said that already. I love Alan Rickman, Johnny Depp. I SO want to love this movie. You have no idea. Still …. I can’t help but notice ….
It’s a 2 1/2-minute clip and there is virtually NO singing. We hear Sweeney singing the bit I mentioned before, “I will have vennnnngeance; I will have salvaaaation!” but nothing else. I mean, did I miss something?
There was none of this:
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.
His skin was pale and his eye was odd.
He shaved the faces of gentlemen
who never thereafter were heard of again.
There was none of this:
Mrs. Mooney has a pie shop.
Does a business, but I notice something weird.
Lately, all her neighbors cats have disappeared.
Have to hand it to her!
What I calls,
enterprise!
Poppin’ pussies into pies!
There was none of this:
Do they think that walls can hide you?
Even now I’m at your window…
I am in the dark beside you,
buried sweetly in your yellow hair!
There was none of this:
Pretty women
Fascinating…
Sipping coffee,
Dancing… pretty women
Pretty women
Are a wonder.
Pretty women!
Or THIS:
No one’s gonna hurt you, no one’s gonna dare
Others can desert you,
Not to worry, whistle, I’ll be there!
Demons’ll charm you with a smile, for a while
But in time…
Nothing can harm you
Not while I’m around…
NOTHING. NUH-THING. I know I got swept away there but, damn, Sweeney just SOARS with great music, great lyrics. I mean, them’s just the tip of the ol’ iceberg, there.
When you make a movie of a musical — one that is generally considered the most operatic of Sondheim’s work, no less — how can you make a trailer with only ten seconds of singing?? The show is almost entirely sung!
This, I think, is an ill omen.
Omen.
Ill.
I sat here after watching it a few times and asked myself, “Why, Tracey? Why would they create a 2 1/2-minute trailer for ‘Sweeney’ and wildly de-emphasize the singing?” and I came up with the following three reasons.
1) The moviegoing public, in general, doesn’t like musicals. They’re a hard sell these days. So why not just market the movie as a dark and violent revenge tale featuring Johnny Depp? Everyone loves Johnny Depp. He can open a movie, no problem. Get the butts in the seats and let ’em find out about the music later. By then, the butts will have already plopped down their ten bucks. This seems like a short-sighted solution, but maybe that’s it.
2) The singing isn’t good. This will be bad news for lovers of musicals and Sweeney in particular. The rabid, crazed, can’t-see-straight fans like me. So just market the movie trusting that the crazed fans (like me) will show up anyway (I will!) on the hope, the blessed, shining hope, that the singing will be good. Maybe even, uhm, great. Let ’em find out the truth after they’ve plopped down their ten bucks.
I will pray every night between now and December 21st that this is not true. IT IS NOT TRUE; RIGHT, GOD??
3) The music part of this musical has been drastically cut back, because the caliber of the singing isn’t great. Seriously, it needs to be GREAT — in my opinion — for Sweeney. It is a DAMN. HARD. SHOW. TO SING. My voice has never worked as hard as it worked for Sweeney. I’m not sure my voice could even SING those notes again. I swear. It is a WORKOUT.
Anyway, I notice, watching this trailer, little bits of dialog added that I know aren’t in the original script. This makes me wonder if music has been traded for dialog. If this is true, it’s a HUGE bummer to me. I know I’m an obsessed, rabid fan and maybe people just write off the ramblings of obsessed, rabid fans. (Actually, it goes beyond that for me. Whatever level is beyond obsessed and frothing is what I am, I suppose. That’s just how it is and I can’t help it.) Still … I do know this: Everything you need to know to follow the plot of Sweeney is revealed in song — brilliant songs, dark songs, hilarious, moving songs. If you know the soundtrack, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Some of the most bloodpounding, beautiful music you’ll ever hear. To sacrifice it for more dialog is a crime to me. Flat-out wrong. I hope I’m wrong on this one. I hope I’m wrong on these last two, actually.
I desperately want to be wrong. Please prove me wrong, Sweeney.
(Oh, wait. I forgot: Uh, what is WITH the Elfmanning of the music?? I don’t know what that is for the first minute and a half of the trailer, but it ain’t from the original Sweeney. I’m sorry. I smell an Elfman and I want him to go away.)
I would probably go see it solely to hear Alan Rickman talk. I’m one of THOSE.
I hope this movie does not let you down Tracey.
Well, I hope he can sing, too, ASM. 😉
Yeah, I hope the movie doesn’t disappoint the hardcore fans. Visually, it looks FANTASTIC. I love movies that take the trouble to really totally create a world like that.
But like you, I’m apprehensive about the music. It’s getting to the point where all of Elfman’s stuff sounds basically interchangeable to me…some of the riffs in the trailer sounded like stuff from “Corpse Bride.”
I have to say I’m a bit concerned about Depp singing. What little I heard, his voice seems too high and thin for the role.
And they needed someone a bit plumper (or at least less consumptive-looking) than Helena Bonham Carter for her role.
Depp is a tenor, from what it sounds like to me. The role of Sweeney is NOT. Still, I’m hopeful on the acting front. I really am.
HBC — yeah, toooo skinny. But as I said before, maybe that’s the joke. Maybe she’s living proof that she truly does make the worst pies in London. If so, I kinda want her to get more and more plump as the story moves along. 😉
And, you know, I’m not sure if Elfman is involved or not, but if so, why? Really, WHY? The original score is brilliant. It does not need changes or additions. Just leave it alone, mkay?
No – Elfman is not involved in this project at all. It’s all Sondheim’s music.
Oh, okay. Never heard that music before — guess he wrote some additional for the movie.
I looked on the IMDB page and his name is nowhere in sight!! At least I couldn’t find it! What’s Tim Burton without Elfman, I ask you?? I read some funny comment from a Burton fan who said something like, “At least we can be sure this won’t be his last movie – because you KNOW he’ll choose Elfman to do the music for his swan song!”