Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Lawbolisted Powerful

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Bill Slocum "Oliver Twist" the novel rests at top of mind for the general public when it comes to Charles Dickens. Dickens wrote better novels, so why is "Oliver" so magisterial in his canon? Maybe I'm at fault for not liking the book more, but I suspect the answer has much to do with David Lean.Lean's adaptation of "Oliver Twist" is a textbook example of how a director can boil away the dross and bring out the core of a great story, adhering to the spirit of the author's intent but rediscovering it as a product of its place and time in a way that makes it timeless. The Expressionistic camera-work, its deep-focus lens pulling out details from a seemingly slapdash set, married to an unobtrusive yet penetrating score and a variety of brilliant character actors lending face and voice to a true group effort. It's like "Citizen Kane" meets Hogarth.When we first meet Oliver, he is inside his dying mother as she makes her painful way to a solitary light on a hill, a light that proves more ominous as she gets closer. Her painful journey is later made light of by one of Oliver's first enemies, a beadle named Bumble who sees her strength and bravery as exposing an animal nature that allows for his mistreatment of her son. "God Is Love" says the message on the brick wall of Oliver's workhouse, but there is no love for the boy in the first third of the film, a harrowing journey for any sensitive viewer to make.Francis L. Sullivan plays Bumble, an actor who gives the best performance in Lean's earlier Dickens movie, "Great Expectations." He's quite fine here playing quite a different role, both menacing and funny, but other actors make even deeper impressions.Alec Guinness gives his breakout performance here as Fagin, the crafty thief and seducer of virtue. Yes, Fagin as written by Dickens is also known as "the Jew," and with his big prosthetic nose Guinness plays with that stereotype more than a bit, but he also gets at the core of Dickens' villain by using that to accentuate his role as the consummate outsider, finding diabolical angles in a world where he is not welcome. Guinness was such a cerebral actor that it's hard to adjust to the feral nature of his performance here, except it makes the part and thus the movie.Fagin is a frightening villain, as is first-billed Robert Newton as the crazed Sikes, because we get the fear at the core of their villainy. Dickens wrote "Oliver Twist" not as adventure story but social exposé of his native London, a cruel city of dire poverty and no second chances. Seeing young Oliver (John Howard Davies) at its mercies is no easy thing, and we realize how Fagin and Sikes are products of that society. Watching them face a mob bent on their comeuppance is both thrilling and horrifying, because we know by then how cruel their world is.When the undertaker Sowerberry (Gibb McLaughlin) complains to Bumble early on about the small price given for his services to the workhouse, Bumble just smiles: "So are the coffins!" How he can smile at such a thing is harder to reckon than any of Fagin or Sikes' awful crimes.Being plunged into such a world, one wants for the relief Oliver first finds, than loses, with kindly Mr. Brownlow (Henry Stephenson). Much streamlining is called for here, and aptly done by Lean and co- screenwriter Stanley Haynes. Ditching a maudlin subplot involving a young woman Oliver befriends named Rose Maylie is a stroke of genius given how little she is missed. More problematic is the matter of Oliver's mysterious stalker, Mr. Monks, who does show up here but in a way that raises more questions than answers.Could Oliver have been better incorporated into the film's second half? Howard Davies does great with what he's given, and I for one wanted more. But I think what you do get is pretty classic in its own right, a finale that ranks up there with the best filmdom has ever offered.You will want to read the book after seeing the movie, if you haven't already. And you will likely admire it, as I do, for its humanity and bracing power. Still, for getting across both Dickens' story and its underlying social commentary, no one, not even Dickens himself, did as good a job as Lean and company do here.

sgcim I can't believe that only one person in the review section, and no one in the message board section has commented on the magic of the film score for OT. Arnold Bax, the composer, was one of England's greatest composers, and this was the only film he scored, even though he was asked to do others. Perhaps the fact that people didn't even notice the music, yet enjoyed the tone and mood of the film is a reflection on how well the score worked. In any event, I saw this film when I was a kid back in the 60s, and it's amazing how so much of it has stayed with me after all these years. I never even realized that it was AG who played Fagin till I saw the credits! The last scenes of the entire city rampaging through London to hunt down Bill Sykes was wild! I think it may have caused me to imagine that something like that should happen to a certain corrupt leader of NYC...The scene with the dog was much more powerful than showing the actual violence that was going on. Excellent film making.

TheLittleSongbird David Lean is a brilliant director, directing classics such as Lawrence of Arabia, Brief Encounter and Great Expectations. Oliver Twist is superior to all of these expect fot Lawrence of Arabia of course. Not only that, but this is definitely the best adaptation of the Charles Dickens book. I haven't seen the version yet with George C. Scott as Fagin, and although the Roman Polanski version was good, it felt bloated. I have one question, why isn't this in the top 250? I have no problem with Great Expectations and Brief Encounter being there, but this so deserves to be in the top 250 also, and I will dedicate the rest of this review to explain why. First of all, it had gorgeous cinematography, the beginning reminding me very much so of Great Expectations, with the howling wind and everything. The music was gorgeous and suited the film to perfection. But it was the quality of the acting and direction that made this film, Lean directing with his usual artistic flair and temperament, that make all his films so compelling. The best aspect of the film was the outstanding performance of Alec Guinness. I couldn't believe he was only 34 when he did this, you could never tell. Now this was condemned on release as anti-semitic, but Dickens is to be blamed for that, not Guinness, because Ron Moody in the musical had exactly the same criticism. Also, dickens was anti-semitic, and every one of his books conveyed the reality of living in the Victorian Era. Guinness's portrayal of Fagin was closest to that of Fagin in the book, oily, manipulative and somewhat charming. Ben Kingsley disappointed me, but I had no problem with Ron Moody in the musical. Speaking of the book, in the chapter "Fatal Consequences", Dickens likened Fagin to a predatory animal, and you'd think me a bit of a wimp, but Dicken's description of Fagin in that chapter frightened me a lot. Also Fagin is more of a villain than Sikes, because he manipulates Sikes into killing Nancy, knowing the extreme nature of his violence. Sikes says something like "I'll push a waggon over his head" and Fagin ironically says "You would" and deliberately doesn't tell Sikes that Nancy betrayed him, until Sikes swears he'll kill his betrayer, and when he says that, he means it. Anyway back on target. Guinness was also surrounded by ham Robert Newton as a genuinely frightening Bill Sikes, Kay Walsh as a more sympathetic Nancy (Nancy's death was brutal enough to make you cover your eyes, it was so brutal and what makes it more sad is that she offers Bill a way out, and Sikes shields his hand so he doesn't see what's he's done)and newcomer John Howard Davies as Oliver, plus if there was an Oscar for animals the dog should've got one. All in all, a magnificent film, that is a 10/10 from me. Bethany Cox.

totallytom-1 This is the definitive Film version of Oliver Twist. Great noir Cinematography, edited with proper respect for the material and performances, and brilliant performances from all concerned. But Alec Guiness and Robert Newton are standouts. Guiness as Fagin is both socially pathetic and criminally contemptuous, a fiend in rags. And Newton's Sikes may be his best - you can smell the booze and rotten teeth in his head and sense his brutal youth on the mean streets of early 1800's London. A loveless Blurry Eyed Brute with a singular talent for violence and crime. London's underbelly is given it's due as a character as an unjust and oppressive metropolis. Full of promise and pain as sides to the same coin. Both John Howard Davies as Oliver and a very young Anthony Newley as The Dodger give some of the best performances from children on Film that stand up even by todays standards. Absolutely unmatched by any other version, from the master director David Lean.