Oliver! story
Oliver! is a 1968 British period musical drama film directed by Carol Reed from a screenplay by Vernon Harris, based on Lionel Bart's 1960 stage musical, itself an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1838 novel Oliver Twist. It stars Ron Moody, Oliver Reed, Harry Secombe, Shani Wallis, Jack Wild, and Mark Lester in the title role.
18 total · 2 choice · 8 major · 8 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| social inequality | choice | The story deliberately juxtaposes upper- and lower class people in 19th century London in order to highlight the disparity between them. |
| what it is like to be impoverished | choice | The story explores what it might have been like for poor children in 19th century England. The opening scene was of a child workhouse in Dunstable. The story follows a group of orphan boys trying to eek out a living in London as pickpockets. |
| child abduction | major | Oliver was kidnapped by Bill Sykes and returned to Fagin's lair where there was much disagreement over what to do with the boy. |
| great need vs. breaking the law | major | A central dilemma posed by the story is whether the various impoverished people in the story were morally justified in resorting to theft in order to stay out of the gruesome workhouses. |
| human childhood | major | The story follows a group of orphan boys trying to eek out a living in London as pickpockets. Oliver was a stereotypically blue eyed and bushy tailed child. |
| life in Victorian England | major | The story offers an idea of what life might have been like for rich and poor alike in early 19th century London when industrialization was picking up speed and problem people were confined to workhouses. |
| life's unpredictable journey | major | It is a point of the story that Oliver was born to a rich family but through a stroke of misfortune had been born in a workhouse. Through various chance encounters he implausibly ended up reunited with his family. |
| orphanhood | major | The story follows Oliver's difficult journey as an orphan in Victorian England. After fleeing the workhouse where he was subjected to harsh exploitation, he fell in with a ring of child pickpockets before ultimately discovering his true origins and taking his rightful place in respectable society. |
| rich character vs. poor character | major | Upper class people like Mr. Brownlow were compared and contrasted with the truly down-and-out, like Mr. Fagin. |
| theft | major | Oliver was taken in by a band of pickpocketing street urchins, lead by Mr. Fagin. |