I just finished watching Oliver! the 1968 movie version of the musical. Which is, in turn, based on the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

Why I Watched This (For the Curious)

I just started watching the TV reality show, "I'd Do Anything", which is a British show where Andrew Lloyd Webber enlists the help of a panel of judges and the British public to select an unknown to play Nancy. Simultaneously, minus the help of the British public, they'll be choosing three boys to play Oliver.

There have been two previous shows based on this format, casting for Maria in Sound of Music and Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. They're a lot of fun to watch, which I say as a non-fan of American Idol. Plus, John Barrowman from Dr. Who and Torchwood is one of the judges.

Since I've never read the book or seen the musical, to my recollection, I thought I ought to remedy that. I was in luck, as the library had a copy of the movie/musical on VHS.

Plot

Oliver is an orphan in a workhouse. He gets sold to an undertaker, but that gig doesn't last long. He eventually escapes and runs away to London, where he meets up with a boy called The Artful Dodger. A skilled pickpocket, Dodger introduces Oliver to Fagin who takes him in as one of his boys. Fagin's got a good thing going, with his gang of pickpockets keeping him fed. But he relies on a thug named Bill to score the real loot for him. The best of the lot, he's saving for his retirement.

Nancy's a young woman who's stole for him when she was a kid and who's a barmaid now. She's in love with Bill, though goodness knows why. She brings the boys some food at one point, so she's somewhat of a mother figure to them. (At least if you buy into the Wendy-as-Mother theme from Peter Pan.)

Oliver nearly escapes this life of thievery to be taken in by some well-to-do people, but Fagin, Nancy, and Bill steal him back. And, what-ho, maybe Oliver's parentage isn't a complete unknown after all. Maybe his lot in life will be permanently improved.

And some other plotty things, but I don't want to give everything away.

Music

This being a musical, there's a lot of singing. And along with the singing, there's a lot of dancing. The music's good, the singing isn't bad, and the big choreographed numbers can be fun to watch. However, it was rather jarring when Oliver would open his mouth, not lip-sync terribly well, and sound like a woman.

When the other kids would sing, they sounded like boys singing. Oliver just sounded like some older, female angel or something. It was weird.

Fagin looks remarkably spry when he's dancing about, as he seems to be in his 60's. Though IMDB says his actor was only 48 at the time; I'm accounting for makeup.

Oddness

Every time they were drinking in the pub, they seemed to be drinking water. Either they were all downing a lot of gin from various non-gin-like containers, or it really was water. Were they trying to avoid giving the audience the wrong idea? But then in other scenes, some of the boys are smoking. And I couldn't figure out how they could fake that, so I do believe they really were smoking. It was an odd contrast.

I felt like The Artful Dodger should've been a few years older than he was. And that Nancy should've been younger, but that latter might be an opinion colored by comments made on "I'd Do Anything".

Points to Ponder

This is a movie, a musical, a story that really makes you think. By that, I mean, it points to a lot of gender and class issues. Though I've never read the book (I've read other Dickens), I can see how English teachers would really want to dig into this. You can compare and contrast the life of the boys in the workhouse with that of the boys in Fagin's group. How one group of adults legally use the kids, while Fagin illegally uses them, for illegal purposes, yet treats them better.

Then you could talk about how Nancy is an idiot and a doormat, before you start talking about the life of Oliver's mother. And you can wonder if Fagin has a thing for little boys and that's why he has no girls working for him.

What I found interesting as a writer, though, is that this isn't Oliver's story. It can't be. Oliver is more of a doormat than Nancy is. At least Nancy does a thing or two on her own initiative. Oliver is just pulled and pushed around like a pawn, doing nothing but singing and looking pretty. Even the famous "Please, sir, can I have some more?" scene, which in this version at least is "I want some more.", is not a brave boy standing up for his rights. He just drew the short straw (well, long straw) and thus was decreed by fate and no choosing of his own to be the one boy who had to go up there and ask. More a dare than anything else.

So if it's not Oliver's story, whose is it? You'd think it might be Nancy's, but she doesn't show up for a good while and isn't around by the end. So I had to come to the conclusion that this was Fagin's story. He's one of the ones who acts, and he's the only one with real opportunity for change.

If this is how it is in the book, I don't know. But it looks to me like this movie is Fagin's story.

Final Thoughts

We sang most of these songs in school choir one year. Most of them, I didn't even know what they were about until I watched the movie today. So here I had all these lyrics and songs in my head for years and years (and more years) without really knowing who was singing them to whom about what. It's kind of an odd experience.

So, now I've filled in a gap in my education, and I can watch the reality show with more of a clue as to what I'm watching. Though I am left with the question:

Who the heck wants to be Nancy?

Or Oliver for that matter?

Baron Lloyd-Webber should be casting for Fagin, seems to me.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12