Sweeney Movie/Stage Differences (SPOILERS)- Page 2

[jewishboy]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 2:17am

I don't know the lyrics, but before Lucy gets killed she sees something that reminds her of when Joanna was a baby and starts singing some ditty about "Jo"(this when I first realized that the Beggar Woman was really Lucy).

Also, in A Little Priest, after Todd says the line "I'll come again when you have Judge on the menu," he backs away from the table. Mrs. Lovett proceeds to say "Wait! True, we don't have judge yet, but we've got something you might fancy even better." Then, hands him a meat cleaver and Todd says "What's that?" Mrs. Lovett then says "Executioner." There's a great pause and they proceed to finish the song.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 2:37am

^ That's that "Beggar Woman's Lullaby" it's used in some productions. I don't think a Broadway production has every used it. I'm pretty sure the Opera companies use it.

And sadly almost all the dialogue is missing from PRIEST. Including the great Executioner part.

[Jon]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:50am

I think they cut the whole "potter - hotter, butler - subtler" section from A Little Priest because it was too theatrical - almost a vaudeville/music hall comedy routine. Burton and Logan wanted a more realistic style.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:40pm

Biggest difference, the stage version wasn't totally gross.

OK, I know I'm weeks late in giving my assessment of the film, but I thought it was really awesome 97% of the time, and then all that blood came along. It wasn't even gory or scary, just gross. The blood was so bright and phony and, ewwww. Seriously, was all that spurting really necessary? What kind of blood pressure did these people have? At 180/120 Sweeney could have just given them some pork rinds and waited a few hours for heart attacks to finish the job.

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 12:43pm

I didn't buy Sweeney releasing Johanna unless he really recognized her, but it sure didn't seem that way.

He has no reason to kill "the sailor". He's accomplished his mission, the judge and beadle are dead. Sweeney doesn't need to kill anymore. His revenge has been sated.

[roquat]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 1:30pm

The "sailor" has seen and heard two murders. You're telling me Sweeney would just take "his" word for it that he won't say anything?

[worrell4077]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 2:27pm

"was all that spurting really necessary?"

Well that's what happens when you cut an artery or in this case, the jugular, and I think that at the moment he puts that blade across their throats and starts to slice, I think the heart starts beating faster since the person is scared.

In the stage version's second act Johanna, Todd only kills two people and then the third comes in with his daughter and Todd sees both and makes a pouty face like he's thinking oh s***. In the film he kills more in that sequence.

I don't remember if it was mentioned, but it's only in the film that Turpin is stabbed in the neck at the end and then has his throat slit.

The Beadle doesn't actually attack Anthony on stage like he does in the movie. The stage Beadle is more like a big man with words and not so much his actions.

The Library of Pornography was only for the film along with Turpin inviting Anthony in to the house.

That whole sequence with Turpin sending Johanna off to Fogg's Asylum and Anthony running after is only in the movie.

Posted: 1/2/08 at 2:44pm

1) Sweeney Todd was considered EXTREMELY bloody when it debuted on Broadway in 1979. I remember reading a NY TImes article about theatre patrons walking out and complaining about the "Extreme violence."

2) Isn't it amazing how different your opinion of a movie can be once you actually see it? I guess that's why most people actually WATCH the film before blasting it.

[TWSFan4Ever]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 8:34pm

So, for the film, when Pirelli reveals himself, did they just make him English, instead of Irish (like in the stage production)?
Updated On: 1/2/08 at 08:34 PM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 8:42pm

Watched the DVD of the Hearn/Lansbury touring version the next day after we saw the movie & do not find radical differences between the movie & show

The movie made Turpin & the baedle sleazier. Johanna is more ethereal in the movie but the stage version had her a more of a ditz. I found the biggest difference was that Depp was a far darker Sweeney than the stage version. Depp was perfect for the role. Carter was younger & seemed to have more of a crush on Sweeney than Lansbury did

A person with us when we saw it covered her eyes at the bloody parts. They were over the top but what else should we expect from Burton. This may be his best directorial effort to date.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:06pm

They took out one of my favorite moments, which is when we find out why the "green finch and linnet bird, nightengale, blackbird" really sings. Anthony asks the person selling the birds why they sing and he says "We blind them."

They also took out my favorite musical part of "Poor Thing," when you hear those elegant-sounding strings that sound like party music, and then the rest of the orchestra cuts in and it's completely sinister sounding.

Also, when the Beadle discovers Anthony, he kills the bird as a way of warning him, rather than beating him.

Updated On: 1/2/08 at 11:06 PM

[roquat]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 11:17pm

Plus, she isn't actually singing to a greenfinch and linnet bird (unless we're supposed to think she had three birds in that cage, including her lark.)

[Lenexajones]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 9:36am

Do yourself a favor and watch the Landsbury version [or even the Lupone concert version]. Most public libraries [at least here in Kansas] have both of them on the shelves. If not, get them at Blockbuster or Netflix.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 10:56am

Plus, she isn't actually singing to a greenfinch and linnet bird (unless we're supposed to think she had three birds in that cage, including her lark.)

Well, she also asks it to teach her how to sing while singing, so perhaps it's because the poor dear is a little touched.

[worrell4077]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 12:11pm

"Also, when the Beadle discovers Anthony, he kills the bird as a way of warning him, rather than beating him."

I actually like The Beadle beating him rather than taking a bird and killing him to warn him because having The Beadle beating him shows that he means business and that he's violent, just taking a bird and killing it still shows those two, but it also makes him more of a big talker and not really someone who can really back up what he says.

[Jon]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 12:21pm

Anyone who thinks the spurting of blood was overdone obviously doesn't watch Gray's Anatomy. In the last episode of this season (pre-writer's strike), Seth Green played a patient who's neck artery burst. GALLONS of blood shot out like a geyser.

[thespian geek]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 1:39pm

I think I was more grossed out by the neck artery bursting than I was watching Sweeney. Maybe because I wasn't expecting it on Grey's... or, well. I saw it coming but not up until a split second before it happened and I didn't have time to prepare myself for it, haha.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 4:43pm

Well, I wasn't after a comparison to Grey's Anatomy or anything else. I just thought it did nothing to heighten the realism or the effectiveness of the film. I'm not having nightmares overit, just thought it was icky.