Oliver!

Oliver!
1968

Two years ago, back in ninth grade, I fell in love with Charles Dickens. For lit class we were to read one of his books over the summer. The book assigned was Oliver Twist. Instantly, I was amazed. What a wonderful story! That book to this day still is one of my very favorites and has a special place in my heart.

So when I heard there was a movie version that was a musical, I was ecstatic. What could be better than my favorite book with songs? I tell you nearly nothing. But, as I watched this film, I ran into one major problem.

IT DIDN’T STICK TO THE BOOK!

Why must movies do this? Do they really think they can improve on perfection? Are the directors and writers that stupid? I highly doubt it. But like most movies based on fantastic books, this one strayed from its original just like a little lost puppy strays from its owner.

Oliver is an orphan. He lives in a work house and is poorly fed. All of the boys draw straws to see who gets to go ask for more food and guess who’s the lucky winner? Oliver right! So he goes up and famously says, “Please sir, I want some more.” This lands him sold off to a undertaker. That sounds so joyous doesn’t it?

Well, just like everyone so far in the movie, the undertaker is not treating Oliver very nicely so he runs away to London. There he meets up with the Artful Dodger, who is possibly the cutest little kid I have ever seen in my whole life. To them it’s clear they’re going to get along. Teehee.

Oliver is taken back to Dodger’s place. We now know that Dodger is a pick pocket and a pretty good one too! He works for Fagin, the guy with a pointy beard. Fagin and Dodger begin to teach Oliver how to steal and soon he’s good enough to go out on a job. Somewhere in here we meet Nancy and Bill. They’re together. Nancy is nice. Bill is bad. Alliteration is amazing.

When Oliver goes out for the job, he ends up taking the blame for Dodger’s stealing a Mr. Brownlow’s wallet. But that’s okay; Mr. Brownlow’s nice and takes Oliver home to live with him. They then find out Oliver’s mommy is Mr. Brownlow’s dead niece. It truly is a small world after all.

Back at Fagin’s, Bill and Fagin are worried that Oliver will squeal on them. So they use Nancy against her will and steal him back. Poor Oliver. Just when he was happy somewhere he’s stolen away again.

This is when Nancy’s conscience begins to grow. She goes to Mr. Brownlow and tells him she will deliver Oliver to him at midnight that night. She I told you she was nice! But Bill wants to take Oliver out that night for a job since he can fit through the window. Luckily, when at that job, Oliver ruins it and knocks stuff over, waking everyone up.

Now Bill, Fagin, Nancy and Oliver are all chilling at a pub and it’s midnight. So in order to distract Bill and Fagin and sneak Oliver out, Nancy get’s the whole pub singing and dancing a song about oom pah pah. I kid you not! And it works! It’s so awesome! I love Nancy! And exclamation points!

Unfortunately, it didn’t work perfectly. Bill follows them and beats Nancy to death. Which is honestly quite sad. She was quite wonderful. Oh well moving on. Bill and Oliver run through town avoiding the angry mob that wants to kill them. It doesn’t work to well because Bill is shot and Oliver goes home to live with Mr. Brownlow. The En-

Nope! Fagin contemplates going straight. As in not being a thief anymore I mean. He expresses it in a beautiful song, until the Dodger shows up with a even more beautiful wallet full of money. They decide they make a glorious team and skip off into the sunset. Literally. The end.

Well, this would have been a lovely movie. The songs were just splendid. But, I am a literature purist. My movies based on books must be at least somewhat like the books! In the book Dodger gets shipped off to Australia for being a thief! Not that I am complaining about the particular ending in this movie, but I have to like the book more. It’s just who I am. Another problem. They cut out an entire major character Rose. Um, I still don’t get why, I really liked Rose. She was wonderful. I could go on about little details like Bill was hung and such, but I am tired and don’t feel like it. If they had just stuck to the book it would have been a grand movie.