Film Analysis: Sweeney Todd, Who is the Hero?

(Warning, this contains spoilers)

So a song (specifically "Johanna") from the movie/musical Sweeney Todd popped into my head and I couldn't get it out of my head, nor could I stop thinking about how multifaceted it is.  The story written is a magnificent one and gives me more appreciation for Stephen Sondheim who already is my favorite Broadway composer.  I've always liked him because after a while, I got tired of the same old kind of Broadway show with the sparkles and big cast numbers, basically most of Andrew Lloyd Webber's work.  I like something dark, something that is edgy, something that makes me think and Sonheim's work is almost always all three of those things and at minimum, just taking everything from a different, interesting viewpoint (such as Into the Woods).  But back to the big question, who is the hero of Sweeney Todd?

The Power of the Voice

The human voice is an extremely underrated instrument.  As a pure instrument, it may be the most versatile one we humans possess.  Yes, the guitar has many effects that people have used throughout rock music, but the human voice has been able to replicate many of those tones.  The voice can also imitate a bass, or the drums.  Add on the fact that it is the easiest method of conveying your story to your audience, you have a pretty versatile instrument.  I may have my biases because I have been a singer for a long time, but that just gives me more of an appreciation and understanding of what the voice can do.

Beatles Hate...?

I don't get some of the Beatles hate, especially from those that truly appreciate music.  I get some of the arguments why people don't like them, though I don't agree.  "They are overrated", "they are just pop music", "some of their stuff all sounds the same", "they are just not my style".  Those are all opinions and I respect other's opinions but any true connoisseur and student of music, how its made, and its history comes to respect the Beatles.  They undeniably have an enormous influence on music, arguably more than  any other band.  They pioneered in many of the things they did, down to even how they recorded.

Jimmy Stewart: Hollywood's All-American man

This is a tribute to Jimmy Stewart, the All-American man of Hollywood.  Throughout his career, he always played your classic protagonist.  Its hard not to love Jimmy Stewart because not only was he a great actor, but he played characters who it was often very hard to hate.  As an actor, he brought a great deal of Pathos to his roles and made them more sympathetic than they already were.  Its not by pure coincidence that his roles were always sympathetic, the passion and charisma he brought out in his roles just made you fall in love with every one of them. 

Pearl Jam: Undervalued Grunge

Well, forgotten may be a slightly exaggerated term but Pearl Jam often doesn't get their due when it comes to good Grunge music.  When people think of grunge now and when they talk about the innovation involved, its always Nirvana.  They were the first Grunge band to make it big but Pearl Jam was right on their heels.  Some will say that Pearl Jam would never sold as well as they did if it wasn't for Nirvana but its just not true. Nirvana definitely helped their popularity, but you cannot mention what grunge did without mentioning Pearl Jam or Nirvana.

Poem or Song? Part II

I decided to do a part II of one of the posts I had done some on, but only listed as a part I (because I wanted to do more on the subject).  To me, there is never a bad time to examine the poetic aspects in music.  Like poets, many musicians use the lyrics in their music as a sort of autobiography.

Modern Times

Youtube has a very nice selection of very good movies that can be watched off of it for free.  So I was looking for a specific scene from a Charlie Chaplin movie that is famous (from the movie City Lights) and saw in related videos something that said "Modern Times Part 1", so I was naturally curious.  Turns out they have the whole movie of Modern Times and I decided to watch it since I had never watched it all the way through.

Omar Little: An Introduction to The Wire

This post is a shout out to my favorite character in maybe my favorite TV show, that show being The Wire.  This is the first post I have made referencing it, but it certainly won't be the last.  I would rather focus on movies than TV shows because as an art form combining writing, cinematography, and storytelling I think they are a far superior medium.  TV shows have to end after either ~20 or ~40 minutes, however movies can be over 2 hours.  Shows allow for more character development over time, but as a medium, movies compare more favorably to other art forms as "true art", however The Wire breaks a lot of the rules.

Once more with feeling! (pt 1)

There are a lot of great technical singers out there, but that isn't what makes someone great.  Some of the best musical performances are not done with precision but with pure, raw emotion.  There are some music purists that say "oh, emotional music, that's just emo".  Well, they're wrong because playing with emotion has been a part of modern music for decades and some of the greatest artists and singers in history have gone on pure emotion.

The Beatles: And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make

Where can you start with the Beatles.  Easily the most famous group in the history of music, they tend to be quite polarizing.  More than most bands out there, you love them or you hate them.  Generally, those who dislike the Beatles tend to do so because of a feeling that the Beatles are overrated.  I however disagree.  When I see the Beatles, I see a band that on their merits of the quality of their work, easily deserve their place as one of the best (if not the best) group in history.  

Separating the Actor from the Character

I have been on vacation, which has made it hard to keep up a blog, but while on vacation I started thinking about a subject I found quite interesting.  Oftentimes, people have trouble separating the character from the actor playing that character, especially if that was a "breakout role" for that character and they are not known for a ton else before it.

The Clash: More Then They Seem?

I was looking through my iPod for something to listen to and settled on The Clash recently.  I figured "hey, I haven't listened to them in a little while".  I started listening and was thinking that they didn't sound all that much like what I know to be punk.  People refer to them in the same vein as The Sex Pistols and The Ramones because they were the forerunners of Punk Rock.  However, The Clash has a sound that is much more.

The Concept of Drama.

An Idiot commenter got me thinking about drama recently.  It was on an AV Club article about how Attorney General Eric Holder wants there to be more episodes of The Wire.  Someone commented that they couldn't sit through the pilot because it didn't have enough action.  It got me to thinking, have the action movies of our day diluted people's views of drama?

Poem or Song? Part I

Poems are lyrics and lyrics are poems.  Take many songs out of the context of music and they sound like true poetry and set poetry to music and they are fantastic lyrics.  Some of my favorite music is where the music has a story to tell, a poetic story, and it does it through the medium of music.

Concept Albums

Where are all the good concept albums these days?  One of the things I love most about music is how it can tell a story.  The lyrics are the basis for the story and the melody provides the raw emotion behind the story.  In many ways, its like poetry set to music and concept albums are like epic poems in the strain of Homer's Odyssey.

What is House?

What is House music?  Essentially, it is Electro-funk, however it is more than that and is much more complex than what first meets the eye (or ear).

SOAD and the Double Harmonic Scale

SOAD is an acronym for System of a Down, which is a band I have recently started to enjoy.  At first, they did not seem to be up my alley, but after listening to some of their music without knowing it was them, it was really interesting to hear.  The one thing I took away is they are very creative and musically gifted.  The thing they do that is my favorite is their use of Double Harmonic Scales/Phrygian Dominant scales.

Introduction/First Foray into Classical

Let me first introduce myself and my background.  I have been studying music in some form since the age of 6.  From ages 6-11, I took piano lessons where I showed I had inherited my grandma's natural ear for pitch.  At the age of 11, I picked up the Clarinet, which I stopped playing at the age of 13.  At that time, I found that my ear for pitch and my decent singing voice lent itself well to choir.  I was involved with choir for several years.  I now play the piano, sing, and can play a bit of guitar.  The music I like ranges from Johann Bach, to The Beatles, to Pink Floyd, to Daft Punk.  I love listening to complex music build on itself.