Consider Yourself Our Mate

That there is Jack Wild, my very first crush. I've still got a bit of a soft spot for cheaky chappys but it must have all started with the Artful Dodger. Oliver Twist is one of my favorite films of all time, it was a huge production filled with excellent songs and London spirit and to be honest Jack Wild's Artful Dodger really made the film for me. It was the confidence with which he played the part, you wanted to be his friend, you wanted him to take you back to Fagen and you even wanted to help him pick pocket down the streets of London.

I watched the film very recently and although there is a huge amount of comfort in it, every time I watch it I feel the film becomes more sinister. This has a lot to do with how much stricter we are on violence in children's films nowadays, you are far less likely to see a woman being bludgeoned to death in a Disney film than you used to, which is a crying shame really. Joking aside films like Oliver Twist and Pinocchio and even Dumbo to an extent would not be made today, there are very few children's films that show heartache or separation or violence, which is weird because the world we live in now seems to be so prone to fear mongering.

Anyway my new favorite moment in Oliver Twist is where you get to see the dodger reacting to Bill Sykes hitting Nancy. There is this moment when the Artful Dodger looks up to the man he sees as his role model and looses all his respect for him. It's a great way to deconstruct Bill Sykes character very quickly as he goes from a hero to a threat in an instant, and in his panic at getting caught he becomes a coward and a brute rather than a trickster who has one-up the upper classes.  Maybe I'm reading to much into the whole thing, but Oliver Twist is a great example of doing bad but being good. So often in life we are put into circumstances where we must do what we can rather than what we should, or as J K Rowling put it, we must choose between what is right and what is easy. Fagen's kids weren't bad, they were just lost and alone and trying to survive, to be bad you have to really mean it, you have to become Bill Sykes. 

This whole post makes me sound like I've done something bad and am convincing myself I am actually good but I promise if that is the case it is subconscious at best. In other news I did get to go to the country this weekend, and will be writing all about it tonight to post for you tomorrow. I didn't stand at the window and sing 'who will buy this wonderful morning' but where I went was so beautiful I bloody should have...can't wait to post up some pictures.

Hope all you weekends were lovely, even if you didn't see any fireflies. - yes London friends FIREFLIES
More on that tomorrow

avec beaucoup d'amour Meryl

PS Jack Wild went on to do Pufnstuf, a children's television show about a magic talking flute...no I'm not making this up check it out here, careful thought it will mess with your mind.