Is SWEENEY TODD Burton's Best Film?

I've been starting to question that lately. It's definitely one of my favorites from him and waaaaaaaay better than pretty much everything he's done since MARS ATTACKS!. It's definitely the most visually beautiful and contains the best art direction, but I'm not sure if it's the best overall film. If I were to rank my top three Burton films, they would be this, ED WOOD, and PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE....but in what order?

NBC wasn't directed by him.

No it's not his best, but it's definetely up there along with Ed Wood, Batman, and Beetlejuice IMO.

---

No. I'd personally rank Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands above it.

. . .not by a long shot.

I have to agree with Patronus...I'd place it 3rd, after Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands. There is a common factor, of course.

Yes. SWEENEY TODD is Tim Burton's masterpiece. Consistently excellent from beginning to end, beautifully made, brilliantly acted, the film that should have swept the Oscars this year. For Tim Burton not to have even been nominated while those Coen twits carried home an armload of knicknacks is only further proof of how inane those awards are.

I love a lot of Burton's other films. Until SWEENEY, I'd have claimed ED WOOD as Burton's best. I'm also a fan of most of BATMAN RETURNS, and most of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and most of PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE and most of SLEEPY HOLLOW. I even like parts of MARS ATTACKS. I'll even admit to finding sections of PLANET OF THE APES (especially Paul Giamatti's brilliant performance) watchable.

But SWEENEY, for me, is the big one, the one where Burton really went for broke and showed what he was capable of, that the darkness in his films isn't just for show. I can't wait to see what he'll do next.

---

I agree with besty. Sweeney is a lesser film in Burton's cannon, IMO.

My favorite is Ed Wood, followed by Edward Scissorhands.

Sweeney is above Charlie and the Chocolate Factory though. That was awful.

---

"I rather liked CHARLIE until that idiotic coda outside the factory. What a load of crap that was."

Agreed. That whole "father" subplot was unnecessary, had nothing to do with the story or the original book, and was just annoying. But I liked MOST of this remake.

I still prefer the Gene Wilder version by a mile.

---

CHARLIE was a vapid disaster.

His best is still BEETLEJUICE...old-skool stop motion animation, Catherine O'Hara and Jeffrey Jones being brilliant, an off the hook Michael Keaton performance, and Alec Baldwin squinting through glasses and never sexier. Plus jaunty Harry Belafonte songs and Dick Cavett!

---

funny, Sweeny is the only musical in recent history that I refuse to purchase.
While I loved the film, it was far more bloody than it had to be, and frankly for me it was a second-rate slasher film, and it didn't have to be.....ranked right up there with Freddy Krueger in that way.

No, most definately it would be at the bottom of his list, for me anyway

---

Updated On: 5/23/08 at 10:35 AM

I read somewhere that the blood in the American release was toned down. The British and other foreign releases of SWEENEY were bloodier.

I thought the blood was the point. It is supposed to be bloody and messy and painful. What did you expect? These are throats being slashed open, after all.

---

I like EDWARD SCISSORHANDS quite a bit and think it's a funny movie, but, in my opinion, it has such a lame ending. It feels like it either goes on autopilot or the studio forced that ending upon Burton.