Customer Reviews

Oliver Twist, BBC: 1985

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This version of Oliver Twist was a real pleasure! While a dramatization that stays fairly close to the original, the producers did this one right by giving it the time it needed. While the cast is of people little-known in the US, fans of classic literature should sit up and take notice of this one.

Ben Rodska does a wonderful portrayal of Oliver Twist that really brings home just how difficult life was in the workhouse. Dickens' book brought the plight of the poor into the public light in Britain, causing the dismantlement of the workhouse system and the poor laws. The actors and acresses in this episodic telling of the story convincingly prove to the viewer just how bad life could be in the early-to-mid 1800s.

Bill Sikes is frighteningly well played. Fagin is absolutely disreputable. Nancy is pitiable and trapped in a life filled with misery--and knows it.

Performed in twelve half-hour episodes, Oliver Twist has a simple musical score that enhances the rich visual imagery. People and places abound. This is the England of 1825 you long to see.

Oliver says it best: "Please, sir. I want some more!"

I have been waiting for this version, as it is , in my opinion, vastly superior to many of the newer version. The characters stay with you for a long time to come, and I have found myself using this a the yardstick to measure others with. It is funny touching, absorbing, gripping and a highly satisfactory production. To praise one character over the rest of the cast is not fair. Eric Porter, of course, is welknown, whereas the rest are fairly unfamiliar, but everybody does a splendid job.
If you don't know this version! You are in for a treat!

Very good rendition... a few segments are a bit drawn out at times... and a number of the shots are very dark (lighting)... I guess to simulate the pre-electric point in time. Made it difficult to "see" some of the details in the scenes though. Well worth the sale price that I was able to obtain.

I enjoyed this BBC version of Oliver Twist (1985) starring Eric Porter as Fagin. The film was very loyal to most aspects of Charles Dickens' novel * and contained relatively good acting. The biggest negatives of this film version is the AGE and QUALITY. If this film could have combined its script with Oliver Twist (2005)'s acting and sets, it would have been a great miniseries.

However, the sets do not make this film seem real enough - it is easy to tell it is a television program rather than real life. Now naturally, Oliver Twist is not a true story. Yet, it is difficult to really feel sympathy for Oliver in this film or hate for Fagin and Bill Sikes. If a remake could be created with better acting and more elaborate sets (plus better picture quality) than it could be a 5-star film.

* includes Mr. Bumble's marriage and future married life / includes Edward Leeford's role (including the locket) / includes Rose Maylie as portrayed in the novel (i.e. remember who she loves and who loves her) / includes Noah Claypole's trip to London and association with Fagin, etc.

Supplementary notes:
If you want a miniseries that contains better picture quality at the expense of some loyalty to the novel, purchase the 1999 miniseries from Masterpiece Theatre.

If you want a film that best portrays the psychological at the expense of many minor characters and considerable change of plot, purchase the 2005 adaptation with Ben Kingley as Fagin.

As for the 1997 Disney production and the 2007 BBC production, they are not worth mentioning, since each takes so many liberties from the novel and Charles Dickens' intent.

The 1985 BBC production of Oliver Twist is the closest to the actual book that I've seen. It's one of those films that bring out the best of a Charles Dickens classic. The characters are memorable and engaging. Every character is portrayed the way Charles Dickens had them in his book. You have the sinister Bill Sikes (Michael Attwell) and Monks (Pip Donaghy). You also have the likable characters such as the lovely Rose Maylie (Lysette Anthony). You don't have to read the book Oliver Twist to appreciate this movie version. A couple of the other film versions of the story retell it in some way. Not this one! Its closeness to the book makes this BBC version a nice introduction to Charles Dickens.

Twelve episodes again for this super-classic story, twelve stations on this way of the cross. That gives the director the time he needs to get down to details since he has three times more time than a normal film director. To see the twelve episodes in one go is also a great privilege because each episode is fresh in your memory when you move to the next. This dramatic suspense is essential in this story if you want to enjoy the social Deus Ex Machina used by Charles Dickens to make a bleak and sinister story into a fairy tale.

The story is, at the time of Charles Dickens, about the monstrous social system and its social over-exploitation of orphans and the poor. It is the practice of municipal workhouses in which the poor and orphans are enslaved into doing simple tasks that are profitable for the businessmen for whom they are performed. Dying in that environment is a liberation.

On the other hand, if you manage to evade that over-exploitation, you can find your freedom in the enterprising life of thieves organized in bands that are real businesses. The end will unavoidably be death by hanging, or if you are lucky forced labor in some distant colony, but you will have enjoyed your freedom during your short career as a thief.

Dickens though always has another objective. After describing the worst social conditions possible in Victorian England, he manages to salvage his main characters, here two orphans, with some kind of artificial confession, birth certificates, medallions, etc., that provides these orphans with a pedigree that has no reason to blush or shrink away in front of the decent society of Queen Victoria who requires you to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth.

This particular adaptation by the BBC does not frustrate your expectations that were great at the beginning. The villains are real villains. The do-gooders are real selfless souls, the values of society are enhanced and advocated as best. The chief-thief is de-semitized and reduced to what he is a thief leading children into crime. And the children are marvelously well directed. Oliver Twist is a darling that manages some rather cold and distant attitude in situations that would have made many more cry like wimps.

Jacques COULARDEAU

This is a fine production of Oliver Twist, well worth getting even if you already own other versions. Like many of the other BBC series based on classic novels, the story is very faithful to the original book, and being longer, offers more of the plot and dialogue. The scenes of the workhouse and other settings of the period are very realistic, and considering that this is not a large budget production, that is quite an achievement. There is much fine acting by those who played Bill Sykes (Michael Attwell, who was very frightening with his dog), Nancy, Fagin, and Oliver himself (played by Ben Rodska). Mr. Bumble and his wife were quite humorous. Mr. Brownlow, played veteran British actor Frank Middlemass, is the kind gentlemen who rescues Oliver by showing hospitality and taking him in. You get almost the same feeling as if you had read the original story. The continuity of the novel is so well preserved in the scripts. With smooth transitions made from each event to the next made so effectively one feels in watching this series that very little of Dickens' story was left out. Oliver loses his identity when his mother dies in childbirth and regains both his identity and inheritance at the end. The adventures in between these events unfold with great congruity.

Like several others in the Dickens collection, this is a whole miniseries of about six hours on a two-sided disc. It isn't a big screen movie but a simple television miniseries which made some good drama using the limited resources that were available.

I had seen this on video tape many years ago and always remembered it. The acting, was just so authentic.This is the most believable movie of Oliver Twist that I've seen yet so far.The DVD arrived as scheduled from the seller in excellent condition.

About a year ago I read Oliver Twist for the first time. I knew much of the story from various movies and adaptations, but only in reading the entire book did I understand just who all of these people are.

While I still find it odd that we know almost nothing about the past of Fagin, Dodger, Charlie Bates, Nancy or Sikes (to name only a few), we learn a lot about Oliver, Monks and their past. Even that is diminished in most movies. Don't get me wrong - I love Oliver! and the 1948 version with Robert Newton as Sikes.

But this 1985 version is A-one. Ben Rodska(looking slightly like a young Prince Harry) is beautifully reserved and yet registers everything needed. (Another boy plays the youngest Oliver.) Each of the actors show the wonderful character training actors get in England. They portray everything you could want. The 6 hour length is a lot, true, but it didn't seem so much longer as richer. The 12 installments can be watched in any size grouping you want - 1, 4 or even all 12 at once (if you have that much time.) I loved it, and remembered every scene clearly from the book.

I decided to try this version since the 2009 one is so filled with extreme and unintelligible accents it is hopeless to watch. Here I was reasonably pleased. One can follow the dialog without difficulty, the accents are not bizarre and exaggerated and the production is good. The one drawback is that it is so drawn out it becomes a bit tedious. I suppose if you are so "into" Dickens that you can spend hours watching a dramatization this would be of no concern. I, however, found that I would have been happier with a more condensed adaption.