Overview
Oliver! (1968) Learning Beyond the Classics
The Learning Beyond the Classics series on the year 1968 kicks off with what might seem like an odd choice. While the films of 1968 often evoke ideas of radical and/or direct politics, it is incredibly important to remember the majority of films from the moment were much more standard fare. One way to gauge that is to see what won the Oscar for Best Picture, which in 1968 went to this adaptation of the Broadway musical based on the Charles Dickens novel that sees 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist (Mark Lester) fall in with a group of street-urchin pickpockets led by the Artful Dodger (Jack Wild) and masterminded by the criminal Fagin (Ron Moody). When Oliver's intended mark, Mr. Brownlow (Joseph O'Conor), takes pity on the lad and offers him a home, Fagin's henchman Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed) plots to kidnap the boy to keep him from talking.