(no subject)

[naath]

This weekend I went to my parents' in order to watch my Uncle perform in Oliver! as Fagin (not in the West End, unfortunately, just the local amdram people.). It was very good, yay Uncle!

Someone somewhere last week posted asking about the attitudes in films towards consent and such stuff (I forget who, sorry, I suck like that). Anyway, in this regard Oliver is a BIG PILE OF FAIL. There's the "I shall scream Mr Bumble" song, where whatserface (later Mrs Bumble and I'm sure she has a name but I suck at names) is clearly saying "no" whilst meaning "yes" (and whilst I do think that this is a valid thing to do *with prior, clear, negotiation* I think it's pretty silly otherwise). And of course Nancy is basically your typical Abused Girlfriend, who is somehow still devoted to Bill, of course this turns out to be a Really Bad Thing for her.

Also Fagin is *creepy*.

Comments

[lavendersparkle]

It was me posting about consent in films. I'm not sure that Oliver is such a bad example because all of the people who do things without consent etc. are clearly Badens and get their Just Deserts, although the musical makes Fagin more sympathetic than he is in the book or the stage play, which is problematic. Also the portrayal of Nancy makes it seem almost noble to stay with your psychopathic criminal boyfriend and get murdered by him. It plays into the "good women die young whilst they're still pretty" meme in our culture.

[naath]

Yes, I mean, I don't think it makes Sykes out to be a model man - clearly you should not be like him. But Nancy is a Good Person, and perhaps you should be like her. But saying, and meaning, that you would do "anything" for someone like Sykes (maybe for anyone) is, er, not especially sensible behaviour. And the musical is somewhat aimed at young children (certainly it has young people performing in it), which I thin makes it worse as role-model stuff goes.