My first thoughts on Oliver! are that is was one of the least deserving films to ever win Best Picture and that it was one of the least entertaining films that I can remember while working on this project. In fact, aside from about 30-45 minutes in the second and third acts, there wasn’t a lot about this film that I liked at all. The songs weren’t good. The story, while compelling was ruined by the songs. The acting was unremarkable. The art direction and production design were well done, but you can’t rely on those things to carry a film. Here’s the sad part. I had never seen this film before last weekend, and my expectations were very low. The film did not even meet my low expectations.

Oliver! is a musical, and it was the fifth musical to win Best Picture since 1958 and was the fourth musical to win in the 60’s alone. Musicals dominated the Oscars in the 1960’s in a way that they hadn’t before or since with varying degrees of quality. I generally like musicals, and I generally liked most of the musicals that won in this stretch, even if I didn’t necessarily think that they were all worthy of winning Best Picture. All of them had at least some quality that made them entertaining even if the story wasn’t as strong as it could be, and that was usually in the quality of the songs and the choreography, which was consistently top notch. However, Oliver! didn’t have much in it at all that was appealing.

This may end up being one of the shortest blogs I’ve ever written, because I’m just not that interested in rehashing this film. I spent two and a half hours watching it, and I’d rather not spend a ton of time dissecting it. I think the biggest problem with it was the songs. They’re just not that good, which is obviously going to be poison for a musical. The other problem with a lot of the numbers are either way too long, or just not entertaining. For example, Consider Yourself seems to go on forever. It’s a huge number that seems to involve the entire population of London. The choreography is fine, but it’s too long. I’m out of the story. Another number that has problems is As Long as He Needs Me. I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic when I say that it might be one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard in a musical. The tempo drags like a wet rag and there isn’t any rhythm to the song or any real direction. Nancy, who for some reason is in love with Bill Sikes, the villain of the story, drones on and on (at times I swear she’s off key) about how she’s going to keep putting up with Sikes’ abuse because she thinks he needs her. It doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t make me care about her.

The one musical number in the whole film that works for me is Oom-Pah-Pah. That number is actually entertaining and it helps progress the story. Sikes has kidnapped Oliver from the life of luxury that Mr. Brownlow is providing for him because Sikes is afraid that Oliver will reveal to the authorities all of the illegal activities in which they’ve been involved. Nancy helped him do it, but now she’s feeling regret and wants to take him back to Brownlow, but she knows that Sikes will never allow it. While they’re in their local watering hole and Sikes is busy making plans with Fagin, Nancy strikes up the band with Oom-Pah-Pah, and gets everyone singing and dancing as a way to distract Sikes and get sneak Oliver out of the bar. It almost works, and sets up the climax of the film.

There is also a stretch in the film after Sikes has kidnapped Oliver that the film actually gets pretty good. Director Carol Reed, who inexplicably also won the Oscar for Best Director, belayed the singing for the longest stretch of the film and actually crafted a nice plot with a dramatic story. It was almost as if they forgot to interrupt the story with misplaced singing and dancing and a dramatic structure unfolded. I actually found myself starting to enjoy the film and care about the characters in a way that I hadn’t to that point. But by then, we were an hour and a half into the film.

By far the biggest problem with the film is that I never really cared that much about Oliver. The people around him, the good people that is, seem to have affection for him, and characters like the Artful Dodger and Fagin were actually well crafted and well-acted characters that were entertaining to watch. Oliver, however, is a passive kid who never is proactive about anything. Everything that happens in this film happens to him, other than when he runs away from the undertaker. After that, he meets the Artful Dodger who takes him to Fagin. Dodger tries to pick Brownlow’s pocket, and Oliver gets blamed for it and taken to court. The judge is ready to sentence Oliver to hard labor when a witness miraculously shows up and says that it wasn’t Oliver at all. Having sympathy for the poor boy, Brownlow takes custody of him. Then Sikes kidnaps him and forces him to break into another house before Nancy ultimately attempts to rescue him, triggering a chase through the alleys of London where it looks like the city’s entire population is after Sikes.

I’d like to talk about that for a moment as well. The climax couldn’t have been any more anti-climactic. The entire city is chasing Sikes, and it’s obvious that there’s no way that he’s getting out of this. The only thing that would create any suspense would be the fear that he’s going to die and take Oliver with him. Except that we really don’t care what happens to Oliver at this point because he’s a totally ineffectual character. I was just really happy when “The End” finally appeared on the screen.

I apologize for the snarky tone of this post. I just found Oliver! to be one of the most, if not the most, disappointing Oscar winner to date.

Did the Academy get it right?

I’m sure that you’ve guessed by now that I’m going to say no, they did not get it right. In fact, it wasn’t even the best musical nominated in 1968. That honor should have gone to Funny Girl with Barbara Streisand and Omar Sharif. Unfortunately for Funny Girl, it was also a romantic comedy, and only courtroom dramas seem to get snubbed with more regularity than do romantic comedies. Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo & Juliet was also nominated that year, and it was a true adaptation of what might be William Shakespeare’s most popular play. I don’t know if the fact that West Side Story, which was also an adaptation, although with a modern take, that won just seven years earlier worked against this more accurate adaptation, but it certainly was more worthy than was Oliver!. I have never seen Rachel, Rachel, so I cannot speak to its quality or Oscar-worthiness. I will say, though, that the film that would have received my vote, had I had one, in 1968 would have been The Lion in Winter. It starred Peter O’Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, and Timothy Dalton. That is a wonderful film with amazing acting and a story that is compelling and dramatic. It was a powerful film that was certainly much more worthy of winning Best Picture than was Oliver!