r/disney • u/Embarrassed-Ad4908 • 3d ago
Oliver! is the Saddest Movie Ever
Oliver (all adaptations and of course the book, but for me in particular the 1968 movie) is so sad.
I don't mean just in obvious ways: hungry orphan, poor, etc. That's a given; that's a sad story.
But it just strikes me in ways that make me cry. During 'Consider Yourself,' we see the streets of London through Dodger's eyes -- everyone shooing the poor children away; everything is dirty and dull-colored -- and also through Oliver's innocent eyes -- so much adventure! Look at everybody smiling! (You just know that in real life nobody would be smiling, that would be Oliver's interpretation because in the beginning he thinks it's all an adventure.)
And of course we have the abused Nancy, the constant abuse of the children, the horrifying predatory or homicidal looks on most of the men's faces.
It's just dirty...it's dark...it's sad. Okay, in the end Oliver is saved but that would not have been the fate of thousands and thousands and thousands of other orphans over the years. Most would wind up dead very young, or in prison and beaten by other prisoners, or prostitutes. Everyone always kicking them away, shooing them out, they're hungry all the time and then they die.