TV airing of The Tale of Sweeney Todd

[sesot]

Posted: 1/1/08 at 8:33pm

The ION network is airing The Tale of Sweeney Todd starrring Ben Kingsley jan. 5th @ 9pm. Has anyone seen this version of the story? Is it any count?

[Atrias]

Posted: 1/1/08 at 8:38pm

It's certainly an interesting version. There's an American protagonist for some reason.

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 1/1/08 at 8:55pm

"is it any count....?" huh?

[nmartin]

Posted: 1/1/08 at 9:20pm

Retroboy, "Is it any count?" is a Southern expression. The poster is either from the South and has been around people who are/were.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 1/1/08 at 9:42pm

"Is it any count?" is a Southern expression

Wow, really? I have lived in S.C. virtually my whole life and I have never heard of that expression.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 1/1/08 at 10:01pm

I kinda want to see it, as there's a good cast (including Joanna Lumley and Campbell Scott). But it's on ION, which I think is the Christian channel, so I do wonder if some extra editing may be happening, seeing as I think this was released in some European markets with and adult rating.

[sesot]

Posted: 1/1/08 at 10:01pm

Yes it is a southern expression- I currently live in GA- family from TENN. We say it all the time here.

[futurenala]

Posted: 1/1/08 at 10:23pm

Apparently its not in S.C.

Updated On: 1/2/08 at 10:23 PM

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 1/1/08 at 11:28pm

apparently lol

[sally1112]

Posted: 1/1/08 at 11:38pm

I saw an ad and wondered what this was.

When was it made?

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/1/08 at 11:51pm

Allow me. sally, IMDb. IMDb, sally.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0147582/

[sally1112]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:01am

Sorry. I meet lazy first, and we hit it off really well!

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:12am

It's very good, but very different. Not based on the Christopher Bond play, like Sondheim's musical.

It's set at the end of the 18th century when the original "legendary" stories first originated. So the characters look more like "1776" than "Oliver!" (to give you theatre references)

Kinsley and Lumley are wonderful as Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett. And the kid (yes, a boy) who plays Tobias is very good too.

Those are the only characters you would recognize from the musical. The rest (Judge, Beadle, Pirelli, Johanna and Anthony) were inventions that came along at a later time.

[nitsua]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 1:22am

I've got it scheduled for recording.
It'll be interesting to see it w/o the usual characters.
I love me some Patsy!

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 1:36am

I watched it a couple weeks ago. It's not bad. Pretty violent actually.

It didn't seem quite faithful to the original tale.

Toby's name in this is not even Toby...they call him Charlie.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 2:00am

"It didn't seem quite faithful to the original tale."

And Sondheim's version is? b12b just posted that Turpin, Beadle, Pirelli, Anthony, and Johanna were added inventions. I don't suppose there is an original, definitive account.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 2:04am

When did I ever say the Bond/Sondheim/Wheeler adaption is closer to the original tale?

This TV movie just seemed really far off. I thought it would be based on "The String Of Pearls" (the original tale) - but it wasn't.

There actually IS a Johanna in "String of Pearls"...but it's not the Johanna we know.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 9:24am

There is no "original tale." That would be like trying to find the original rumor of something.

This was folklore, passed down orally through the streets of London, starting in the late 18th century. It wasn't written down and published until almost 50 years later (around 1840) with the Penny Dreadfuls.

Before that, you'd have many different versions of what "may or may not have happened" in a barber shop and pie shop on Fleet Street.

I'm sure this version took bits and pieces of the legend, and added their own salt & pepper to the pie crust... like changing Toby's name to Charlie, adding the Campbell Scott character, etc.

Just like Christopher Bond's version where he took it upon himself to add "revenge" as a motive, plus a tragic backstory for Sweeney.

Updated On: 1/2/08 at 09:24 AM

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 9:50am

I saw another version in the DVD section starring Ray Winstone.

[artscallion]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 9:53am

I'm reading The String of Pearls right now. Came across it in the bookstore while trying to find the companion book to the film. The edition I have includes the full original 1846 story that was published as a 'penny dreadful' series. It also includes a very extensive and detailed chronology of the tale from its vague beginnings through its current Burton incarnation. It has the giant Depp head on the cover.

I'm only a few chapters into it but it is interesting to note that the series' first chapters were written with the intention of presenting a romance story of Johanna (as Ljay says, not the one we know) and Mark. Sweeney is presented in the first chapter as a murderous plot device to explain how someone bringing a message to Johanna went missing. It seems that the public became so captivated by this character that the subsequent chapters gradually shifted to focus of the story away from the lovers towards Sweeney and Lovett.

Tobias does exist in this story as an apprentice to Sweeney. There is no Pirelli connection. And, so far, his main connection is to Sweeney, not Lovett, who he hasn't even met yet. Though there is some hint that Sweeney does already have an 'arrangement' in place with her.

This is a much more extensive story than I imagined it to be. The book is a good 300 pages of small print. It's quite a fun read so far.

Updated On: 1/2/08 at 09:53 AM

[artscallion]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 9:56am

Now we know where "Is it any count?" comes from. Can we get a translation of what it means?

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 10:38am

Is it worth counting? Worth noting? Or worth remembering?

Is there any relevance to it?

(that sort of thing)

[artscallion]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 10:45am

Thanks, Besty. I was thinking along those lines, maybe, "Is it of any account?"

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 10:52am

is this the version that's playing on "on demand" this month?

i watched it a few days ago... i was disappointed that it wasn't a musical

i watched a really good version when i was younger.... it was by some little independent film company... i wish i remembered who it was by and who was in it so i could find it again.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:14am

The Ray Winstone version is excellent - a little closer to "The String of Pearls" version of the Todd/Mrs. Lovett relationship, and the Toby is a boy in this version, too.

The book tie-in to the ST movie (with Johnny Depp on the cover) is a reprint of the serial penny-dreadful from the 19th Century when the Sweeney Todd urban legends were first set forth with the names and details that we are familiar with. The introduction traces how those legends arose (rural mistrust of the impersonality and violence of expanding urban life), and it is very interesting that the author does not believe there was an actual situation like that reported. Much of the detail was lifted from Dickens, apparently.