Young - Sweeney Todd

Though Burton is known for incorporating elements of the grotesque, his adaptation of the play Sweeney Todd demonstrates how graphic his movies can be. Throughout Burton's movie, the characters of Sweeney Todd and Miss Lovett should seem completely evil. However, Burton creates a world in which the viewer sympathizes with the amoral Londoners due to their quality of life and the quality of society in general. Although Miss Lovett and Sweeney Todd turn their blood thirst from the judge to preying on the people of London, Burton makes the viewer ultimately sympathize with them due to the affects of cities on Victorian London.

When Sweeney Todd first returns to London, he seeks revenge against the judge for kidnapping his wife. His motive here is basically revenge against one person, and he has a one track intention. However, as he and Miss Lovett peer out the window and speculate who their next victim should be, they realize that all Londoners are the same. Thus, because they do not consider anyone to be an individual, everyone becomes a target.

Sweeney Todd then goes upstairs and sings "No Place Like London," which contains the phrase, "There's a hole in the world like a great black pit/ And it's filled with people who are filled with shit." Here, Sweeney Todd looses his faith in humanity as a whole and sees London as a filthy town caused by urbanization. Consequently, he does not feel sorry for anyone he is about to murder.

Miss Lovett seems to be pure evil, yet the viewer does not completely loathe her because of her situation. She is a widow with a run down pie shop and is suffering due to the urbanization of London. The viewer is able to sympathize with her because many businesses of the time were suffering as a consequence of the factories and again, the urbanization.

In conclusion, normally the viewer would see cannibalism as horrific and cruel. However, Burton's version of Sweeney Todd presents it in a way that makes the viewer sympathize with its inhabitants, specifically Sweeney Todd and Miss Lovett. This sympathy stems from the fact that the factories put many small business out of commission and caused extreme poverty amongst the general population. Thus, the viewer sympathizes with the specific lives of Lovett and Todd.