Sweeny Todd

What does vengeance look like? If you want to know, check out this movie. If you don't care or think you have a handle on it, save yourself $10. This was the most gory movie I've ever seen. The message is clear. All of humankind deserves to die, why not help them out and degrade them in the process. Ah, revenge!

The movie's message shows just how easy it is for us to bite and devour one another through our sick, and often misguided, sense of revenge. Sweeny Todd shows how revenge darkens our lives, blinds us to what is real, and turns us into something equal to, or worse than, those we seek revenge on. In Sweeny Todd, revenge steals a man's soul and causes him to miss the points of beauty that come his way at unexpected times and in unexpected ways. Lewis Smeedes once said, "We never bring closure to vengeance. In the exchange of pain the accounts are never balanced. The reason is simple. When I am on the receiving end, the pain you cause me always feels worse to me than the pain I cause you. When I am on the giving end, the pain I cause you never feels as bad to me as the pain you cause me." In fact, the only thing that heals the poisonous drink of revenge is something equally compelling--forgiveness. Hmm. So how do we get that?

The movie is very dark both in its theme and in its visual effects. It recently won a Golden Globe award so someone thought it was worth seeing. It's a musical. One of my kids said, "Why would you want to go see that movie?" I answered, "Because a friend recommended it." I'm not sure I can, personally. I wouldn't see it again, but it does depict the reality of something deeply rooted in the soul of every man and woman so it is worthy of consideration. But for me, the Chinese food and conversation we had with a good friend afterward was more compelling, and not nearly as gross.