MovieChat Forums > Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) Discussion > the ending (spoilers)

the ending (spoilers)

posted 8 years ago by mille-91651
7 replies | jump to latest

Just watched this movie for the first time and I really liked it! The music was really good (although I couldn't tell what they were saying half the time) and I enjoyed the story. Very Count of Monte Cristo (with more blood and death). I also enjoyed Alan Rickman's performance and the subdued performance of Johnny Depp, compared to his usual over the top antics.

However, it really bugged me that in the end Mr. Todd doesn't recognize that Joanna is his daughter (or vice versa) and we never find out if she and the sailor escape to happiness. While his discovery of his wife was tragically poetic, I almost thought it would have been more powerful with the addition of the realization that she was his daughter. His recognition of the monster he had become would have been magnified because of her innocence.

[–] TheFatDruidofNacyl 8 years ago

I don't think he ever actually seen what she looked like when he came back. All he knew was the Judge had her and that the Sailor wanted to be with her.

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[–] cocoa-bean 8 years ago

He knows that Johanna is his daughter. Watch it again.

[–] BestOfAllPossible 8 years ago

There's a beautifully tragic moment when the family is fully reunited, though in the moment none of them are aware. Johanna is in the trunk hiding watching Sweeney kill the Beggar Woman. Johanna doesn't know those are her parents, Sweeney doesn't know that's his wife, neither of them knows Johanna is there.

In the stage show it ends with Johanna and Anthony running into the bakehouse with two policemen just in time to see Toby pull the razor across Sweeney's throat. It gives a tiny bit more information than the film did, though we are to presume that even if they end up together, they are left scarred by the events. The stage version also more clearly shows the detrimental effects the madhouse has on Johanna.

Because of how the story is constructed, Sweeney is too blinded by his need for revenge to recognize Johanna in that moment. He didn't even recognize his own wife when she was standing in front of him, and he hasn't seen Johanna since she was an infant. It's only the sight of his dead wife that can break him out of his fog, just long enough to kill Lovett and let Toby kill him.

[–] Shred_Master 7 years ago

When Todd last saw his daughter, she was but an infant. How could he be expected to recognize her 15 years later?

Victims, aren't we all?

[–] chancedelhomme 7 years ago

I heard that in one of the stage versions, Toby escaped to America with Antony and Johanna as stowaways on a ship!

[–] BestOfAllPossible 7 years ago

Maybe one of the other stage versions of the original penny dreadful, but definitely not in the musical.

[–] fede_4488 7 years ago

I thought the ending was too sudden.