Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10131 in VHS
• Released on: 2000-03-27
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 2
• Running time: 386 minutes

Synopsis
A TV adaptation by Alan Bleasdale takes a brave approach by developing story-lines mentioned in the last chapter of Dicken's novel.

Customer Reviews

A story with a "Twist"
This is the first time I have written one of these so don't laugh.

This is possibly the greatest version of this Dicken's classic I have ever seen. I've seen the musical, I've seen the 1948 David Lean classic and read the book but this was absolutly momentus. Alen Bleasdale focus' on the back story of how Oliver came to be born and it looks at the issues the appear in the last chapter of the book.

An all star cast with some of the best talent emerging out of Britain today help hold this up for all the world to see. The cast includes Andy Serkis, Keira Knightly, Micheal Kitchen, Julie Walters, Marc Warren, Robert Lindsey, Sam Smith & Sophia Myles.

This is a must for any fan of Dickens great litriture or filmaking. Its only downside is it's length at 386 mins. However the copy I have is portioned down into chunks so you could watch it as a min series.

Retrospective Twist to the Hallowed Dickens.
Alan Bleasdale, God bless him, has courageously and marvelously reprised this wonderful tale. I feel that Mr. Charles Dickens himself might well have re-ordered the telling of Oliver's adventures in like manner, had the opportunity not been pre-empted by his serializing the original. As an adept of melodrama, the Great Man might certainly approve of this adaptation.
The screen production is almost perfect. It has period charm, good music, humour, excitement, terror and pathos all in proportion - and excellent casting from top to bottom. Not one of the salient characters seems out of place, or too shallow.
I find this version of Oliver exhilarating. It is a much treasured addition, to my film library, that I'm sure will not grow tiresome with the passing years.
The voice-track on the VHS version is a little distorted. A DVD version would be VERY WELCOME - and the sooner the better.

Bowled over by Bleasdale's back story
Top marks to Alan Bleasdale for the brilliant back story giving so much more poignancy to little Oliver's story. It made so much more sense as the film progressed. You ache for him when he finally hears who his parents were and how much they loved one another. He was perfect, as was all of the casting. Sam Smith was a wonderful Oliver; Marc Warren managed to be hideous and sympathetic at the same time; Lindsay Duncan was the most wonderful monster, and Sophia Myles broke my heart as Agnes, Oliver's tragic mother. She is stunning. She's going to be a big star. This really is a definitive version of Oliver Twist. I can't imagine anyone daring or needing to re-make this for a century. See it!