Just watched Oliver Twist last night. IMDB users give it a rating of 6.8. You can watch the trailer here. The movie was 2hrs long, but was actually quite fun. I’ve never read the book so I can’t tell you how closely it resembled the work of Charles Dickens, but it is directed by Roman Polanski (director of The Pianist and The Ninth Gate, etc.), so it can’t be that far off. Amazon.com is selling the DVD for $17.37 which will be released on Jan. 24, 2006.
Spoilers:
If you’ve read the book, there’s no point in reading this spoilers unless you intend to find the discrepancies, which I doubt you will since my spoilers aren’t really that detailed.
It starts off with an orphan and his cruel life and his chain of unlucky events. They never fed him enough and make him do boring work (although they legitify it by calling it a trade). When he unlucky gets chosen to be the one to ask the adults if they could give him some more food, he gets marked and they try to get rid of him, offering anyone to take him for for £5. Some chimney sweeping guy almost gets him, but Oliver begs the judge not to sign him off. I’m not really too sure why a judged needed to do it. Probably because the orphanage was owned by the government.
It’s funny how Oliver Twist got his name. Apparently the guy that names these orphans has a who list of names to use and he names them alphabetically. When Oliver Twist came, it was the letter T. He has names all the way to Z. I wonder what happens when he reaches Z. Does it start at A again?
He later gets sold to some coffin selling business owner. He was actually doing good here, but a bit slow. Some bully there mistreats him and calls his mother names. He gets into a fight and only Oliver Twist gets punished. So he runs away to London, 70 miles of walking. On the way there, he collapses due to starvation and a nice old lady takes him in and gives him some food. The old lady never shows up again, but I was hoping Oliver Twist would visit her once again at the end of the movie.
He reaches London and meets another boy name Dodger, who is part of gang of boys that steal stuff for a living. They’re led by a creepy old guy by the name of Fagin. Fagin teaches Oliver Twist the art of stealing and he picks up quickly and also eats and lives there for free. He tells Fagin he’s ready and he sends him off with Dodger and another boy. I’m not sure if Oliver Twist is totally innocent here. At this point, it really felt like he was willing to pick pocket. However, while the 2 other boys did the act, Oliver just watched. But he ran when they started chasing him and he gets caught.
The bookstore owner that saw the act vouches that Oliver Twist wasn’t part of it. However, Oliver had a high fever and the person who got robbed decided to take car of him. This man was actually pretty well off and decides implicitly to addopt the boy. I’m not sure if it was ever stated outloud.
Dogder reports that Oliver had been caught by the cops, and making sure Oliver doesn’t leak anything, they track him down. Oliver is living the good life, in a fancy house with tons of books and in fancy nice clothes. However, he gets kidnapped right in front of a ton of people. He is once again trapped in Fagin’s hands. What’s worse was that the old man had believed in Oliver wouldn’t steal from him and given him a task to return some books and a £5 note to the book store owner. The thieves took both the books and the money.
Oliver’s next task was to help this group rob the old man that had treated him so nicely. Oliver resists but they point a gun at him. They needed over to climb through a small window and unlocked the front door. He makes a ruckus and wakes up the family and somehow gets shot in the arm. The bad men take him away and decided to get rid of him. Nancy, Bill’s wife didn’t want to see Oliver get kill, so she finds this old man and tells him about Fagin (not her husband Bill though). Dodger was keeping tabs on her and finds out this and tells Bill and Fagin about this. Bill goes home and kills Nancy out of rage for betraying them.
Both Fagin and Bill suddenly becomes wanted men. However, they still had Oliver Twist as a barganing tool. They ending goes as you probably know it. Bill manages to slip and hang himself. Fagin gets caught and will be executed by hanging him in the public. I’m not sure what the rest of the boys became, but Oliver Twist seem to be living the good life from that point on.