In Sweeney Todd, Tim Burton & Johnny Depp Portray Revenge

The most vivid memory I have of a revenge plot portrayed on film is in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill." Beatrix Kiddo, also referred to as "The Bride" in this riveting film takes out an elaborate revenge plot to kill the people responsible for destroying her wedding and killing her unborn child. Revenge has taken over her entire being and has even become her sole purpose for living.

Revenge can play such a powerful role in life; as such it is portrayed in movies as an even more fantastic emotion. It creates purpose, drive and entices every emotion all at once from sympathy to anger. What made the revenge plot so interesting in "Kill Bill" is the cosmic tension between her and her mark: Bill. It seems as if it's almost destiny even from the first moment that Bill enters the movie, before he destroyed the wedding. It's also very interesting in that "The Bride" is portrayed as almost noble, rectifying the loss of a baby's life; while killing, mercilessly, in cold blood. Basically, revenge makes for top notch entertainment!

My Favorite scene in Kill Bill is her unlikely escape from a wooden casket, buried 6 feet into the ground. The scene is so intimate and you almost feel as though you're inside the wooden space with her. The contrast between her brief recollections of her intense martial arts training with Hattori Hanzo while waiting patiently inside the grave is also a great scene.

Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, is a new movie out starring Johnny Depp and produced by Tim Burton. The theme of the new movie is also revenge and with a star cast like Depp and producer Tim Burton, there is no telling how far the movie will take this already intense human emotion and strangely capture the magic of it on film. The imagery is sure to capture every sense and emotion, the trailer is a beautiful mini film in and of itself.

Just as revenge seems to completely rearrange human decency and give way to our inclination to what Freud calls, the "id." Sweeney Todd is the story about a man who is thrown from the life he built for himself into a drastically alternate reality, transforming him into a strange and obtuse killer (probably more closely related to the Johnny Depp characters we all know and love.) What I've already seen through the trailer and reading up about this upcoming film, it seems to have the perfect concoction of humor, fantasy, raw emotion and imagery that you can always expect from a Tim Burton film. Check it out for yourself!