User blog:12345B/PE Proposal: Bill Sykes



What's The Work
Bill Sykes is the main antagonist of Disney's 27th full-length animated feature film Oliver and Company, freely based on the classic novel Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens.

Who is the Candidate? What They Did?
Bill Sykes is a powerful and dangerous underworld criminal and money lender. He has lent large amount of money to petty yet kindhearted with Fagin for some unknown reason, sending his two Dobermans, Roscoe and DeSoto, to tell Fagin to go up and meet with him. Fagin, unfortunately, finds himself unable to pay money back and begs for more time. Sykes tells him that he has three days to make money, or else he knows what will happen to Fagin, his home, or his dogs. Then, he honks his horn to call his dogs back, which frightens Fagin, causing him to fall off the dock and into the Hudson River. Fagin arrives to Sykes' office, where he reveals his plan of ransoming a pet kitten named Oliver (the protagonist of the film) to have his family called the Foxworths to come by to the docks tonight to pay the money in return for their pet's safety. Realizing this and noticing Oliver's gold pet collar, Sykes is very impressed by this and allows Fagin an additional 12 hours, warning that this will be his last chance. However, Fagin notices when a young girl named Jenny (the youngest member of the Foxworth family) came to the docks, where she brought the money back to her piggy bank, with Sykes and her dogs unknowingly watching from afar in his Cadillac. When Sykes sees Fagin abandoning the plan by freely handing Oliver back to Jenny without asking the money, he seizes his chance by driving up, pulling Jenny into his car, taking his warehouse after throwing Oliver out the window, much to Fagin's objection. Before driving off, Sykes orders Fagin to keep his mouth shut, telling him that his debt is now fully paid since he finally got the money to himself. At his warehouse, Sykes ties Jenny a chair in the center of his office, boasting about his dogs jelly that he'll have his dogs are on a business conference meeting in Rome). Sykes then calls Jenny's butler Mr. Winston to inform about the situation, demanding that he get Jenny's parents on the phone to discuss business otherwise Jenny would be hurt. Fortunately, Oliver and his gang of friends pursued Sykes and rescue Jenny, but before they could reach the exit, Sykes managed has them cornered. Before Sykes can order his dogs to attack, however, Fagin bursts through the window on his scooter and the gang along with Jenny. Sykes and his dogs follow them in his car. Hell-bent on killing them, Sykes chases Fagin and others on a subway, gas-filled steps and full speed, causing his car to tire away and run on the tracks. He bumps into Fagin's scooter, causing Jenny to fall onto his hood. He grabs her by the arm. Oliver jumps on and bites Sykes' hand, but Sykes throws him into the backseat with Roscoe and DeSoto. Dodger managed to jump on and fights off Roscoe while Oliver fights off DeSoto, causing the two Dobermans to fall onto the electrified tracks and killing them. Sykes pays no attention to what happened to his dogs and continues to chase the gang. He goes up through his car roof, grabs Jenny's leg, and tries to pull her back in. Just as he is pulling his prey back in, Dodger and Oliver jump onto Sykes and fight him off; causing him to lose his grip on Jenny. Even as Sykes manages to throw both the cat and dog off his car, the crime boss then turns to see the subway train heading straight for him. Realizing this too late, Sykes screams in horror as his car collides into the incoming train, killing him in a fiery blaze and sending the remains into the Hudson River.

What they did
Sykes has several very serious crimes. He is a usurer well aware of the fear he inflicts on others, and therefore uses methods such as intimidation and torture (in one scene he is seen talking on the phone with one of his assassins, giving him instructions on how to torture a man, in what is undoubtedly one of the darkest scenes ever seen in a Disney Classic) and obviously murder, crimes that for him are now commonplace. He trained his Dobermans to attack the man, and he is hinted that he also used them to devour his victims. He is also a blackmailer and there is no problem even kidnapping and threatening children. For most of the film it seems that Roscoe and Desoto are the only beings he is fond of, but the ending of the film clearly belies this hypothesis, as he harshly reproaches them and, during the final chase, shows no displeasure for their death (of which, moreover, he is partially responsible). All the characters in the film (except Roscoe and Desoto) fear him and feel horror for his cruelty.

Freudian Excuse/Mitigating Factors
No justification for his crimes and no rethinking or hesitation on his part in doing them.

Heinous Standard
Surely the abduction, torture, murder and having trained his dogs to kill and devour people (including children). Hesitation on his part in doing them.

Final Verdict
Sykes is one of the most frightening, cruel and inhuman Disney antagonists ever. I think we can get it back into the Pure Evil category without too many problems.