Oliver Twist

This seldom-seen television movie from the early eighties does the best of any adaptation(up to that time)of capturing the dispair and wretchedness of life for the poor in 19th century London. George C. Scott's Fagin is oily and vile, and Tim Curry's Sikes is chillingly psychotic. The sets and photography convey a sense of grim poverty and desolation all but absent from most versions. Dickens wrote a Victorian horror story of abuse, starvation, and isolation, and this film does his grim novel justice.

This is quite an accurate adaptation of the novel,and for the most part,quite satisfying.Curry does a good job,although I always thought of Sikes as a more burly chap.West does what he can as Bumble,but is miscast.Bumble's pride,arrogance,monumental conceit and collosal ignorance are to be matched by a hulking obese brute,masquerading as charity,piety,and responsibility.West comes across as a silly,dotty,and senile clod-he's just not grotesque enough.The muscular Scott lacks the physically frail quality for a proper Fagin-and his attempt to save Nancy at the end is totally out of character.Dickens created a villain-true,persecuted,discriminated against,and the victim of religious and racial bias-but a calculating,vicious,treacherous snake all the same.Everything else being considered,this is quite watchable,entertaing,and captures much of the spirit of the novel.

This is a good version of Oliver Twist I remember from my childhood. I saw it on TV in the US. However, I want to the poster who says that the scene where Oliver asks for more is missing entirely. It most definitely WAS filmed!It was very moving when shown on TV, as it has Oliver ask for another starving urchin--not exactly the way it was in the book, but let me sound a bit blasphemous for suggesting the scene one-uped Dickens. The scenes leading up to the coffin-maker are there as well. This poster seems to be referring to the VHS that was released briefly in the ninties in the US. For some unknown reason, this version omits these very scenes just like the poster says. It cuts out the very heart out of the movie! Also, the blurb on the back sounds more like Great Expectations than OT, as if whoever wrote didn't even know the story! However, this poster claims to be from London, and this page is referring to a British release of the film, which is not even available in the US. Were these scenes somehow lost?

As a Dickens fan, I was very excited to see the 1982 Oliver Twist, starring George C. Scott as Fagin and Tim Curry as Bill Sikes. The musical version of 1968 is one of my favorites, and I also hold the 1948 adaptation in very high regard. However, this version was lousy. It was so awful, I nearly (and should have) turned it off on several occasions. Why pollute my brain with something so inferior when there are other, better versions I could have watched instead?

I was really surprised by how cheap this television production of Oliver Twist seemed, since it was under the helm of Clive Donner, director of the George C. Scott A Christmas Carol, which was so well done. Everyone's costumes looked clean, the wigs were laughable, and the camera was placed and framed like it was the director's debut. George's lack of a Cockney accent was appalling, Cherie Lunghi's acting was straight out of community theatre, and little Richard Charles as Oliver was hardly a better choice than Mark Lester was fifteen years earlier. I know it's tempting to watch every version ever made, especially if you like the story and love Charles Dickens, but you don't have to watch this one. Entire portions of the story are cut, so you won't even be treated to a faithful adaptation.

I will tell you, the 1948 David Lean film is magnificent, and the definitive version of Charles Dickens' classic novel. Now I liked this; it did have a decent script, director Clive Donner does more than acceptably portray the harshness of the Victorian era, and fluid camera-work considering it is noticeably lower budget an adaptation of the novel out of all the adaptations I have seen. The performances were very good; George C.Scott was oily, vile, manipulative and shrewd like Fagin should be. I will admit, although I am a massive Tim Curry fan, I was initially perplexed why he was cast as Sikes. Curry isn't exactly big and burly and I don't associate him as a violent murderer, but in terms of acting, he was extremely chilling and very effective in his role. Especially when he sees images of Nancy after he kills her, and speaking of the death scene, that was very brutal. In fact, this film is one of the more violent adaptations of the novel I've seen. I liked the dog too. Cherie Lunghi is as lovely as ever, and indeed vulnerable as Nancy, and Michael Horden is a splendid Mr Brownlow. In fact the only two weak performances came from Richard Charles as Oliver-he just couldn't carry the film on its own- and Timothy West sadly is miscast as Mr Bumble not being grotesque enough. The plot was hugely condensed of the content from the book, and consequently lacked the masterly storytelling that made the David Lean film such a classic. All in all, a flawed but respectable adaptation of a complicated book. 7/10 Bethany Cox