Watched Oliver! a few days ago and have been a bit obsessed with the soundtrack for a few days now. Oliver! was the first musical I’ve ever seen I think, back when I was in year 4 and we had to watch it to learn the song “Consider Yourself”. Even though looking back, it’s certainly not the best musical ever with only about half the songs being any good, it nonetheless kick started my enthusiasm and love for musicals in general (some exceptions of course, one of them being the movie, Rent).

Watching Oliver! again reminded me how terrifying a villian Bill Sikes is. You know how you can tell he’s a horrible person? He doesn’t sing. Everyone else in the movie sings, even the horrible governor in the beginning who sells Oliver to a creepy and white trashy undertaker people, whom at one point, throws Oliver into a coffin then sits on it to stop him coming out. There’s of course those extras who don’t get singing lines but at least they dance! Sikes doesn’t dance either.

Oh and there’s the other stuff he does. Spoilers ahead (are spoiler warnings necessary for a movie that’s 40 years old based on a novel that’s 169 years old?).

Did I mention Sikes is incredibly violent? In one of the songs that Nancy, his girlfriend, sings, she says

“Though you sometimes do come by
The occasional black eye
You can always cover one
‘Til he blacks the other one
But you don’t dare cry. “

I totally missed that verse when I was a kid, but it horrifies me now how nonchalant and joyous she was singing about serious domestic violence.

Oh and the other thing. He kills Nancy at the end of the movie by clubbing her to death. I don’t mean the dancing-at-a-bar kind of clubbing either. To be fair, we don’t see it directly, but when it’s happening we watch Oliver watching it, we hear the sounds of her screaming and him killing her and we see Oliver squirming and being traumatised. Did I mention this movie was rated G and is considered a family movie?

People complain nowadays of kids watching violence on TV and what not, and how that never used to happen but I don’t think such acts would ever get a “G” rating these days.

In other news, I’ve finished my last University class last week. As in… no more Uni classes ever. After my next two assessments (one that I’m supposed to be doing right now) University should be officially over!