Positive reviews for Sweeney Todd (reprinted from a comment in someone else's LJ)

[fpb]

I see. They like it because it makes mass murder and cannibalism entertaining. Well, as a historian, I have had enough of that in my subject, and I must say that I do not see the fun in it. Hollywood, however, does, ever since The Silence of the Lambs and Fried Green Tomatoes. But then, an industry that relies on the regular destruction of its own personnel may not have any trouble with cannibalism. I wonder - has anyone ever checked the ingredients in Hollywood restaurants and caterers?

Comments

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Oh, good grief. Go watch it, if you're that interested in maligning it. The music is wonderful, and it's not a film (or musical, since it was written for the stage) glorifying murder and cannibalism, it's a morality play (as much good horror is): the moral is that when you focus your life around vengeance, you only harm yourself and the ones you love the most.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It was, of course, necessary to have dozens of "funny" murders (the fact that Sacha Barron Cohen was cast as one of the victims tells its own story) to make that point. And the point itself one we have never met before, right? It is also one that is vital to our civilization: just exactly how many people do you know who are focussed on vengeance? As opposed to, say, the search for increasingly disgusting pleasures? If you want to make a morality play, make one about pornography. That would be a serious modern concern. Which is why nobody will ever make one - certainly not the Burtons of this world.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Well, I know nobody can make you change your mind, so....believe whatever you like. I normally do not like gore (not for its own sake; I am interested in what stories can reveal about character, about human nature--including our desire for justice to triumph, which is why I love mysteries and detective stories), but this film I did enjoy, because it was creepy and macabre, and I didn't think it glorified the violence at all. It was quite effectively disturbing. Hence my own positive review in my LJ.