Oliver! (1968)
Decided to start watching all of the Oscar best picture winners, in order. I hadn’t heard of some of these movies, some I love and have seen multiple times already and I actively hate others, planning to never watch them again. Fair warning, there will be spoilers in these and other reviews to help explain my point of view.
Considering the movie is named after him, it is strange just how little the story focuses on Oliver. This musical version of Oliver Twist starts out strong as we see his willingness to stand up to authority and ask for what he wants (…more, please.) from the very beginning. Oliver remains strong throughout, as he is sold(!) to a local undertaker, then runs away, meeting up with The Artful Dodger, then he somehow loses his mojo. The problem is that Oliver bounces from one scenario to the next, much like a pinball, simply reacting to what he encounters, rather than actively making any decisions. Even when he asks for more gruel, he is pushed to do so by other orphans. When he runs away, he does so only after leaning against a window and discovering it to be unlocked. When he should act in his own best interest at the end of the story, when he is being held by Bill, he merely cowers in the corner, even when he can run away. Bill would have had to chase him down, he didn’t have a weapon; Oliver could have gotten away and sought refuge with the other adults in the vicinity. It is frustrating to have the character’s story end this way. Even the movie decides Oliver isn’t important enough to give him a last line in his own movie. The last words spoken are by Fagin and Dodger! My other beef is that the movie focuses too much on Fagin; I don’t care about him or what happened to him once Bill led the police to their hideout, yet we follow him for at least 20 more unnecessary minutes.
I was pleasantly surprised by the child actors, they all did a good job, most of the songs are great; many of which I already knew but didn’t know were written for this musical. The sudden brutality at the end of the movie, with the murders of Nancy and Bill comes out of nowhere and is quite jarring. So much more so because we end with Fagin and Dodger dancing and singing as they literally walk off into the sunrise together. A quick cut to Oliver going back to live with his Great-Uncle is just that, quick, with nothing said by Oliver as the credits roll. This is so abrupt, I don’t quite understand it.
Overlong, with some musical numbers that go on about 1–2 minutes more than they need to, Oliver! is still entertaining enough I would watch it if it happened to be on TV, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it again. I would have enjoyed this more if Oliver were an actual presence in his own story and without the murders at the end. This is the last musical to win Best Picture until Chicago in 2002, so make of that what you will. Good child actors and some great songs equal 2 out of 5 stars.
