Oliver!
Nov 17 - Nov 18, 2007
Carol Reed, UK, 1968, 35mm, 153 min
Sponsored by Broadway Market Video
Hard times never looked so good as they did in this glossy screen adaptation of Lionel Bart's hit musical, based on Charles Dicken's classic novel. OLIVER! was the last musical film of the 20th century (and only G-rated film ever) to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It also won a Best Director award for Carol Reed as well as four other Oscars. Mark Lester plays the young waif, who runs away from an orphanage only to fall in with a group of pick-pocketing hoodlums, including Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed) and Fagin (Ron Moody). Still, this is a Dickens tale, and lurking underneath the glitzy exterior of this production is a story filled hungry orphans, ruthless thieves, opportunistic undertakers, fallen women, and one very murderous villain. The payoff (beyond the beauty of the film itself) is the timeless message: Outcasts have souls, too - magnificent, deserving, tender and conflicted souls that are worthy of saving both by individual acts of kindness and a responsive, compassionate society.
Appropriate for ages 7 and up. Parents should use their discretion as the story contains violence.
"Not for a moment are the children in the cast treated as children. They're equal participants in the great adventure, and they have to fend for themselves or bloody well get out of the way. This isn't a watered-down lollypop. It's got bite and malice along with the romance and humor."-Roger Ebert