Day 28 - What film has the best soundtrack?
Answer: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
I know I'm probably cheating with today's challenge. I'm picking the soundtrack to the film adaptation of my favorite musical. Eh, screw it. This is my choice for Day 28. I'll tell you why too. It is my favorite musical. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street changed my mind on what musicals can be. I used to think that musicals were just a bunch of happy singing and dancing and all that jazz. I hadn't ever considered the fact that there might be musicals out there that play to my interests. That's when I came across Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. It's about the English boogeyman about a barber who kills people and serves the human flesh up as meat pies with his partner in crime.
Stephen Sondheim took that story and added a twist to it. By twist, I mean it's basically a darker version of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. It's pretty much exactly the same thing beat for beat. Our main character is Benjamin Barker and he's living a happy life with his wife and child. That's when Judge Turpin sees Barker's pretty wife and decides to wrongfully sentence Barker away to prison. 15 years later, Barker returns to the streets of London under the new identity of Sweeney Todd. He's come home to find everything has changed and that his wife had killed herself. Judge Turpin currently has custody of Barker's daughter. As Sweeney Todd, he decides to get his revenge on everyone involved with ruining his life.
I know I've heard some people criticize the film adaptation of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Some people have said that the cast can't sing and whatnot. I don't know. I don't hear it. I think Johnny Depp has an alright singing voice. It's actually him this time. He's not being dubbed over like in the film Cry-Baby. Helena Bonham Carter does a fine job as Mrs. Lovett. That character is pretty much right in her wheelhouse. Everyone does fine. That's just my opinion, though. I don't claim to be some kind of expert on musicals and the performers who sing in them. This is my choice for the best soundtrack to a film.
