![]() This may have been as successful as some of Lean's other films due to the daft controversies around it, but his is still a very effective job as director. In essence it is a simple story but it is the atmosphere and characters that make it more interesting. The plot is dark and sombre as befits the source material, painting a dark world of thieves, poverty and workhouses within which the story of Oliver and his destiny are told. Any roads, regardless of the historical controversy this film is still considered by many to be the definitive version of Dickens' story and often is in top ten or so when polls for 'greatest British films' are carried out. Ironically enough the film was also banned in Israel and Egypt because of Fagin with Israel claiming that Fagin was anti-Semetic and Egypt claiming he was too sympathetic. Of course the cynic in me would suggest that the US was making any excuse to limit British films in its cinema due to competition (they don't need to do that any more!) but I guess history is written by the winners and Hollywood is definitely winning that battle. Watching this film now (or indeed at the time of its release in the UK) it is hard to imagine that it would have sparked a riot in Berlin in its first showing in 1949 or that it was banned for two years in America on the grounds of being anti-Semitic and was only released after significant cuts (10 minutes) had been made. Taken in by Fagin's group of child pickpockets, Oliver starts to settle in, until a brush with the law starts to bring his family history to the attention of those lacking scruples. Oliver is taken to work for an undertaker until a fight over his mother makes him run away to London where the masters will never find him. When he draws the short straw from among the children, Oliver asks for more food at dinner and promptly finds himself up for sale for £5 to any honest trader willing to take him in. ![]() When his mother just about makes it to the workhouse before giving birth then dying, Oliver Twist is born into the only world he has ever known the workhouse and poverty.
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