1968—Oliver!--Carol
Reed
Nominated: Funny Girl,
The Lion in Winter, Rachel Rachel, Romeo and Juliet
Should have won:
Rosemary's Baby
Be sure to see: Bullitt,
Night of the Living Dead, Once Upon a Time in the West, Planet of the
Apes, Therese and Isabelle, 2001: A Space Odyssey
“If we get enough work
out of him without putting too much food into him then we'll keep
him”--Mr. Salsury
1939 is generally
considered the greatest year of all time for movies, but 1968 is
surly in the running. And with titles like Rosemary's Baby, Planet
of the Apes, Night of the Living Dead, Bullitt, Once Upon a
Time in the West (possibly the
best western of all time), and 2001: A Space Odyssey
(horribly overrated and boring
for my taste but its reputation gives it respect to include here),
Oliver! taking home the Oscar has to be one of the biggest
“What was the Academy thinking?” moments of all time, though 1996, 2001, and 2005's winners take top honors for me.
Oliver! is a
musical based on Oliver Twist. It tells the story of a boy who goes
from an orphanage to a stint with a pack of child pickpockets. Oliver
is kidnapped by Bill Sikes, played by Oliver Reed who I know more from the
Curse of the Werewolf. Sikes is a pretty menacing villain which is one of the things that keep the movie afloat. Every movie, even bad ones, need a good antagonist. Not to say the movie is bad, it has its moments. But I
believe the movie belongs to two of the boys. Oliver, of course,
played by Mark Lester who is actually a decent singer and pulled off
the “pitiful orphan” quite well. Another kid named Dodger is more
experienced as a pickpocket troublemaker than our title character and drives his scenes pretty well.
Two dance numbers stood
out, “Who will buy these wonderful roses?” and “Consider
yourself”. Both are large ensemble numbers but other than those,
none are really memorable. Plus the movie is very long and if the
movie is great, length doesn't bother me, The Sound of Music,
Schindler's List, etc. I
really didn't care about any of the characters in the movie other
than Oliver. I didn't even care about one character who suffers a
rather frightening death at the hands of Bill. It was cute in parts
and pretty well crafted but to win in such a solid year is pushing
it. The true best picture want even nominated. Perhaps I recommend
giving Oliver! a look but the statue should have gone to the
snubbed Rosemary's Baby, one
of the greatest movies ever made and the best movie of the 1960s.
Great year for movies! Oliver! shouldn't have won over Night of the Living Dead for sure.
ReplyDeletePersonally I would have pulled for The Lion in Winter.
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ReplyDeleteI haven't seen it so i should check it out. I love suggestions. What did you think of Rosemary's Baby? Oh for a bit I didn't know who you were, Randy. That deleted post right there ^ was me asking who you were. So what is Lion in Winter about?
ReplyDeleteThe Lion in Winter is about King Henry II, his wife, and his three sons. Basically Henry hasn't declared who will inherit the throne upon his death, so they're all plotting and scheming to try to get him to pick them. The real genius of it comes from a combination of a well written script with hilarious and witty dialog, combined with great performances by O'Toole and Hepburn and their love-hate relationship of each other. If you don't watch it, at least go over to the IMDB site and look at the quotes section. If that doesn't make you want to watch it then nothing will.
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