SummaryAfter being sold to a mortician, young orphan Oliver Twist runs away and meets a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor.
Directed By:Carol Reed
Written By:Lionel Bart, Vernon Harris, Charles Dickens
Oliver!
Metascore
Generally Favorable
74
User score
Generally Favorable
7.2
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
74
64% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
36% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
100
Oliver! is a timeless classic that will be as lovable in 10 or 20 years as it is today.
90
It's not only a musical entertainment but an imaginative version of the novel as a lyrical, macabre fable.
User score
Generally Favorable
7.2
69% Positive
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
23% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
8% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Mar 25, 2020
9
By itself, Carol Reed’s production is as grand and confident as any of the big Hollywood juggernauts of the 50s and 60s. But in that tradition, Oliver! also has ****’ story, and a suitably involving dramatic through line to fall back on. It’s one of those overture-and-intermission movies that wows you with its spectacular production value while gently weaving together a sturdy, affecting story.
Jan 18, 2020
6
Fairly enjoyable musical with some great numbers though not perfectly cast nor scripted.
80
Oliver! is better than most screen musicals of the 1960s, a period when oversized, poorly rendered songfests virtually killed the genre.
80
Some of the set pieces are overdone but the final scenes take on an almost operatic quality.
60
Reed is craftsman enough to make an efficient family entertainment out of Lionel Bart's musical, but not artist enough to put back any of Dickens' teeth which Bart had so assiduously drawn.
60
Even if you're not a 'fan' of the musicals, Oliver is so witty, so bright and so endearing that even the iciest viewer should start melting in it's corona.
50
The focus of the movie is so wide, and the logistics of the production so heavy, that Oliver himself, dutifully played by 9-year-old Mark Lester, gets flattened out and almost lost, as if he had been run over by a studio bulldozer.
