OLIVER! is a strong contender for the title of best screen musical of the 1960s. It's a pitch-perfect adaptation of the famous Dickens novel with the addition of a number of wonderful songs which have expertly-written dialogue. The cast, many of whom transfer across from the stage version, are particularly strong here: Ron Moody delivers the best role of his career as the surprisingly likeable Fagin, while Jack Wild goes down in history as the irrepressible Artful Dodger. Oliver Reed graduates from his slimy Hammer days as an equally imposing villain and even Mark Lester comes across well as the likeable Twist. The production values are exemplary, the story is told at just the right pace, and this goes down in history as not just a fine musical but one of the best Dickens tales adapted for the screen.

Oliver is a musical starring two famous child actors Jack Wild and Mark Lester, about an orphan named Oliver seeking to find a home and family but trouble afoot as Sykes, a greedy man takes oliver for granted and kidnaps him to get money. He meets another orphan named dodger who lives with other orphans and their guardian Fagan, they live together peacfully with no labor, in contrast to where Oliver originally lived. As you can see in this movie, there's more singing than talking hence its a called a musical.This movie has extremely good set just like Mary Poppins, i am amazed at how many people worked to get this movie done. The dancing, the singing, the locations, you could tell they spent top dollars to get everything. Whats also great about this movie is the songs (of course) its what makes the movie go. My favorite is the I do anything sung by Jack Wild along with Consider yourself which was also sung by him.As good as this can get, this film is long, and i mean REALLY LONG. 2 hrs and 33 mins to be exact. they broke the movie to 2 parts as if it was an act of a play. and at times when there not doing anything and just talk, it can get pretty boring. but i digress, Oliver is a great film and worth the watch if you like musicals, or for a school day. i give it 8/10

British film studios have not been known for turning out large numbers of first-rate musicals. But "Oliver" is a HUGE exception.The 1968 version of Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist," based generally although not slavishly on his original story, absolutely sparkles with great music, very fine acting, and some lessons about life, and people, that many of us may not notice the first or second time we see the film. Which is a good reason to watch it several times -- as I have, over the years.Oliver Twist is a little boy in a British orphanage, where the unfortunate youths are forced to perform hard manual labor all day, and are fed almost solely on thin gruel by the miserly managers of the place. Emboldened by his mates to tell the head whip-cracker, "Please, sir, I want some more!", poor Oliver is expelled from the orphanage and sold ("Payment upon liking," says his new "owner," a skinflint undertaker)as a virtual slave.Events enable Oliver to escape the undertaker's cellar, where he has been cast down for "misbehavior," and he winds up in London, where a vagrant boy about his age, The Artful Dodger, introduces him to the "orphanage," so to speak, run by a criminal named Fagin, who teaches "his" boys to pickpocket, and fences goods stolen by a burglar named Bill Sikes.It is worth noting that, while Fagin exercises strict control over the young boys living with him, he appears to feed them better, and to treat them with more respect, than the establishment orphanage bosses.Oscar becomes the favorite boy of Sikes' beautiful live-in girlfriend, Nancy, and that eventually leads him into trouble. Sikes' first appearance in the film comes at a crowded pub, late at night, after he has pulled a very profitable burglary. Preceded by his large, ominous-looking shadow as he walks in, he is a tall, unsmiling thug -- someone who "you wouldn't want to mess with," as we would say in the U.S.Sikes is good at bullying and intimidating elderly men (Fagin), women (Nancy) and boys (Fagin's wards at his evil orphanage). But in the disturbing climactic scene, as he attempts to escape the London bobbies and outraged citizens after killing Nancy, while holding Oliver as hostage, a policeman's gun proves to him that all bullies and thugs, eventually come to a bad end.The music, and the dancing, in "Oliver," are absolutely superb. One extended music and dancing scene, which takes place in a circular plaza in an upper-class neighborhood, was so good that it caused me goosebumps.Ron Moody as Fagin; Shani Wallis, as Nancy; Oliver Reed, as Bill Sikes; Mark Lester, as Oliver; and Jack Wild as The Artful Dodger, play their parts to absolute perfection. This film won five Academy Awards, and in my opinion, should have received more. If you're a Dickens fan, and you want to see a really great musical with a different accent than the usual Hollywood kind, go see "Oliver."

A lot of serious themes are breezed through and sung about in this musical adaptation of Oliver Twist. It covers child poverty and exploitation, a time where those in the orphanage were no less corrupt than the hucksters on the street. The scenes with Bill Sikes are quite violent and the violence against women is not a main theme but it does rear its ugly head. In fact, the song where the lady explains her illogical attraction to Bill by singing "He Needs Me" was a little bit too real and a sad reflection of what happens to many women in the real world. It's a good movie, a lot of fantastic characters and some great acting. But for me the serious undertones left me with mixed feelings. 7/10