Oliver! (1968)

Don't Believe the Hype

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

My wife and I can't stand this film.First of all, this film sugar-coats the deplorable condition of children in Dickens times. Unless one was from the upper classes in England, children suffered in England at this time. They certainly didn't go around singing and dancing!Secondly, the music all sounds the same and is truly forgettable. No Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Harry Warren, Rogers and Hart, Leonard Bernstein, Alan Jay Lerners wrote this score.Thirdly, the entire cast is awful. One cannot identify, relate, or feel for any of the characters they portray.Anyone who enjoyed this film must be deaf, blind, or mindless.

British film studios have not been known for turning out large numbers of first-rate musicals. But "Oliver" is a HUGE exception.The 1968 version of Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist," based generally although not slavishly on his original story, absolutely sparkles with great music, very fine acting, and some lessons about life, and people, that many of us may not notice the first or second time we see the film. Which is a good reason to watch it several times -- as I have, over the years.Oliver Twist is a little boy in a British orphanage, where the unfortunate youths are forced to perform hard manual labor all day, and are fed almost solely on thin gruel by the miserly managers of the place. Emboldened by his mates to tell the head whip-cracker, "Please, sir, I want some more!", poor Oliver is expelled from the orphanage and sold ("Payment upon liking," says his new "owner," a skinflint undertaker)as a virtual slave.Events enable Oliver to escape the undertaker's cellar, where he has been cast down for "misbehavior," and he winds up in London, where a vagrant boy about his age, The Artful Dodger, introduces him to the "orphanage," so to speak, run by a criminal named Fagin, who teaches "his" boys to pickpocket, and fences goods stolen by a burglar named Bill Sikes.It is worth noting that, while Fagin exercises strict control over the young boys living with him, he appears to feed them better, and to treat them with more respect, than the establishment orphanage bosses.Oscar becomes the favorite boy of Sikes' beautiful live-in girlfriend, Nancy, and that eventually leads him into trouble. Sikes' first appearance in the film comes at a crowded pub, late at night, after he has pulled a very profitable burglary. Preceded by his large, ominous-looking shadow as he walks in, he is a tall, unsmiling thug -- someone who "you wouldn't want to mess with," as we would say in the U.S.Sikes is good at bullying and intimidating elderly men (Fagin), women (Nancy) and boys (Fagin's wards at his evil orphanage). But in the disturbing climactic scene, as he attempts to escape the London bobbies and outraged citizens after killing Nancy, while holding Oliver as hostage, a policeman's gun proves to him that all bullies and thugs, eventually come to a bad end.The music, and the dancing, in "Oliver," are absolutely superb. One extended music and dancing scene, which takes place in a circular plaza in an upper-class neighborhood, was so good that it caused me goosebumps.Ron Moody as Fagin; Shani Wallis, as Nancy; Oliver Reed, as Bill Sikes; Mark Lester, as Oliver; and Jack Wild as The Artful Dodger, play their parts to absolute perfection. This film won five Academy Awards, and in my opinion, should have received more. If you're a Dickens fan, and you want to see a really great musical with a different accent than the usual Hollywood kind, go see "Oliver."

Oliver! is a swell musical adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens novel. The film puts a darkest twist on the source material, but nonetheless it makes for an entertaining family film. The songs are done very well and everyone showed true musical talent. It is a film about the willingness of a boy to survive despite living in poverty and even being kidnapped by ruffians. In all, one of the underrated films of the 1960's. This film is about a boy named Oliver who runs away from the orphanage and decides to live with a bunch of boys who are trained as pickpockets by the villainous Fagin and Sikes. I thought the acting was fairly good. Mark Lester as Oliver did a good job , and is better than most child actors from that time period. Oliver Reed stole the show as the evil Sikes and Ron Moody likewise as Fagin. Finally, I think Jack Wild did a pretty good job as the Artful Dodger. Overall, Oliver! is a fine movie and a good musical adaptation of the classic Dickens novel, Oliver Twist. As a family movie, it works perfectly! The whole family can sit down and enjoy this tale about a boy who gets himself into trouble. The movie can be serious at time, but there are some funny moments to be had thanks to the bumbleness of Fagin. A rather good source for family entertainment. My Grade: A-

As a child, I owned this on the same VHS as 'Annie (another favourite musical of mine)' but never saw it in full up until now because I always used to watch 'Annie' in full but only about the first act of this film due to the vast length of the VHS. Renting the DVD gave me a chance to view 'Oliver!' in its entirety and jot down some notes about it for my university assignment on the portrayal of London in film (see also my 'Mary Poppins' and 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' reviews).The music is what makes this the most appealing and interesting live-action adaptation of the three I've heard of (this one, obviously, the black and white 1948 version that I watched a bit of with my mother and found boring and the 2005 version in colour that, according to its trailer, looks similar to this one but without the songs) and they made the film relatively swift albeit its length of nearly two and a half hours. My top five songs are, in no particular order, 'Food Glorious Food,' 'Oliver!,' 'Consider Yourself,' 'You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two' and 'I'd Do Anything,' all of which are performed during the first act. The songs during the second act may not be the most memorable (probably due to not having watched it when I was younger) but the ones I liked best from that act were 'Who Will Buy?,' Fagin's dark performance of 'Reviewing the Situation,' Nancy's poignant performance of 'As Long As He Needs Me' and the catchy 'Oom Pah Pah.' The choreography is creative, especially during 'Consider Yourself,' 'I'd Do Anything,' 'Who Will Buy?' and 'Oom Pah Pah.' Further to the incidental music, I liked its old-fashioned feel and some parts of it being brief, instrumental arrangements of some of the songs. I also liked the brief arrangement of 'London Bridge' being played in the background during 'Be Back Soon, ' which in some way links to the London Bridge scene later in the film.Whilst watching this film, I could see some similarities to Disney's 'Oliver and Company (released 20 years after this film was)' such as Oliver the boy being taken into Mr Brownlow's care, Nancy and Sikes (?) taking him back and this version of Oliver returning to Mr Brownlow being similar to Oliver the kitten being taken into care by Jenny, Dodger and the rest of the dogs returning him to Fagin and Oliver the kitten being returned to Jenny at the end. In this version, the best characters are Oliver, Mr Bumble, Dodger, Fagin, Sikes, Mr Brownlow and Nancy. The story is filled with dark, funny and moving moments: the dark ones consisting of Oliver being trapped in the cellar at the undertaker's, Nancy's murder at London Bridge and the angry mob approaching Sikes; the funny ones including the pickpockets forming a horse and carriage during 'I'd Do Anything' and the brief shot of a Punch and Judy show; and the moving ones including Oliver's performance of 'Where Is Love,' Nancy's performance of 'As Long As He Needs Me' and the ending, which nearly reduced me to tears.Besides the songs I found forgettable, I found the title cards of St Paul's Cathedral shown during the overture, opening titles, intermission, entr' acte and the exit music tedious yet iconic. The cathedral was shown in daylight to represent more easy-going scenes while it was shown in darkness during darker parts of the film. London Bridge was also depicted in a dark way due to Sikes murdering Nancy and threatening Bullseye at that exact location.All in all, this is my absolute favourite live-action version of the Dickens novel and is strangely on par with Disney's 'Oliver and Company.' 9/10.