Oliver! (1968)

Oliver! is the musical adaptation of Charles Dicken's classic novel, Oliver Twist. I actually have not read the novel and had very little knowledge of the story beyond what I could read on the back of the book. If this film did anything, it piqued my curiosity about the novel. I would like to read it for myself and get the full story (even though I am not a huge Dickens fan). Otherwise, I must say I wasn't very impressed with the film.

I generally enjoy musicals, but I think the many songs made for a sparse plot, which in turn caused me to not enjoy this musical. It seemed as if there was a song every five minutes. I was astounded at the number of performances in this film. I lost track. I found myself generally bored during the songs and eager to see where the plot would end up. I didn't feel like the musical numbers really helped move the plot along, and there was little time for the character development to take place. This made it seem unrealistic and the actors unbelievable--especially Bill Sikes.

I do feel I should say that the musical numbers were well done and the choreography pretty impressive considering the large groups of people in many of the songs. But, I really didn't enjoy them, as I said earlier. I don't find the songs to be that repeatable (with the exception of "Food, Glorious Food.").

Though I haven't read this particular Dickens' novel, I do think the film failed to capture what Dickens was trying to convey about the ill treatment of children in 19th century England. It was far too playful. I know Dickens is famous for trying to draw attention to the plight of the orphan (Great Expectations, David Copperfield, etc.). In this film, there was only one scene I felt really depicted this--during the musical number, "Boy for Sale." As Oliver is marched through the snow, the Beadle, Mr. Bumble, tries to sell him and has to keep lowering his price as no one wants him. He ends up selling him to an undertaker--showing the plight of many children of that time--death.

I would only recommend this film to theater types who enjoy a good melodrama (the whole thing was over-acted) and lots of songs with little thought for a detailed plot.