Frederick- Sweeney

Sweeney Todd is an odd favorite movie for so many people today. The subject matter, a barber who kills people and a woman who makes them into pies to sell to others to eat, is weird and disturbing. Burton as a director overcomes the moral revulsion society has about this topic in his film.

Firstly, Burton uses character development to have the viewers sympathize with Sweeney Todd early on in the film. The background information and the flashbacks show the injustices Barker/Todd had faced and how tough his life had been thus far. It also showed how much he had lost. Barker lost his life, his job, his wife, and his daughter because of the judge. He even lost his identity as Benjamin Barker, and so he became Sweeney Todd. The characterization of the judge also helped us to sympathize with Sweeney. We see the judge torment Barker's wife, be cruel to Anthony, cage Johanna and then sentence a very young boy to death for his "life of crime". All of this pushes us to in some what see Sweeney's revenge as just. The viewer supports Sweeney's goal to murder the judge and have him pay for what he has done. The characterization causes the viewers to even believe the world would be better and more harmonious without him.

Secondly, Burton uses cannibalism as a metaphor in the film. It's shown as literal, but understood to have an underlying message. Before in his films, we've seen Burton scoff at suburbs, and also at modern cities. Batman's Gothan was always shown as dark, claustrophobic and sinister. Sweeney Todd's London is shown in a similar way. Burton says that these modern cities are ruining people and ruining society. He certainly doesn't seem to think they are good. Cannibalism is a symbol of the way that the city would swallow up the people who went into it in the 1800s. People left their rural towns to find something more in the city, but instead of finding fortune and food, they ended up disappearing into the chaos. There was starvation and many poor, so instead of eating they starved. This could also bring up myths of people eating people to survive. Starvation, crime and poverty lead to many people dying in the city of London at this time, and that would lead to urban legends of murderers and human pies.

 The city chews them up. This is sort of what happened to Bejamin Barker. Society chewed him up and spit him out as Sweeney Todd. They ruined his life so he decided to literally do the same to them by killing the people of London, with Ms. Lovett's help, and making them into pies to feed to society. The viewers first  understand in a way his rage. His descent into madness and killing everyone else happens in a way that the viewer accepts that too, because after all society did allow for this to happen to him. At the end the viewer still sympathizes with Sweeney, because the movie forces the viewer to believe that Sweeney's life has been so ruined and he's been driven mad by the crimes against him that he has become a monster. Of course Sweeney is responsible for all he's done... but perhaps he never would have become a Demon Barber if it weren't for London.