There are significant parallels between the director Roman Polanski’s childhood and the fictional character Oliver Twist’s upbringing.  Both faced brutality and injustice while being completely dependent on others for their survival amidst a time of great difficulty.  The story of Oliver Twist does not need much explanation here, however, to understand Polanski’s version one should understand his upbringing at the age of ten.  Polanski was born in Paris, but his parents moved back to Poland in 1937.  Six years later, Polanski had reached the age of ten and he had to evade the Nazis after his parent’s apprehension.  His escape brought him from the Krakow Ghetto to the Polish countryside where he most likely survived with the help of strangers that probably exploited the situation.

The beauty of Polanski’s Oliver Twist is that he captures Dickens’ social criticism of the time while also making use of the opportunity to display society’s impact on countless orphan youths.  Just as Polanski prematurely tests his own wings, many others faced life alone without the protection of parents, in this case Oliver Twist (Barney Clark).  In situations such as these, children are extremely susceptible to the actions of others, which often have life long consequences for the children.  Nonetheless, on rare occasions a few sunflower children emerge with strong enough character to resist the corrupting evils.  In this case, Oliver’s innocence helps protect his virtue, which the audience learns more about as the film unfolds.  However, the film presents another interesting notion, how does the orphan upbringing affect the child once they have entered adulthood?

In the opening, it is evident that the obese gentlemen that runs the orphanage exploits the young children to pad his own fat and wallet while the children find themselves dreamless in hunger.  The worst thing with these men is that they have the law and religion on their side, but it is to be expected, as these men seem to be the ones that influence the moral code in their favor.  It is much like a despotic micro society. Later, Fagin (Ben Kingsley) tries to deceive Oliver that his trade, theft, is an honorable trade.  Yet, one could not deny that Fagin’s assistance is far healthier than the legal oppression of the children that the orphanage poses on the children.  With Fagin, the children learn how to stand on their own legs, but do so without consideration of others.  Then there is the vicious Bill Sykes (Jamie Foreman) who uses children as tools for personal gain without regard to their safety or well-being.  These three steps, from the orphanage to Sykes, provides an intriguing notion of how many children are fostered when they seek the streets and what happens to them when love and affection is not nurtured for them.

Polanski also portrays Dickens’ version the judicial system where the judge throws judgment upon people without consideration of humanity, compassion, and fairness.  The film illustrates society’s callous machinery that affects the lives of children and the future of a nation. Polanski goes so far to provide the notion that the innocence of children is what the society should be embracing, as it does not hate or cause bedlam.  Oliver’s innocence turns out to be a source of goodness, which society tends to ridicule due to its naïve perspective of the world.  However, it also raises the idea that what one does not know, one could not do.  This emerges strongly in the scene where Artful Dodger (Harry Eden) and the thuggish kids point out Oliver’s “green” character.

All of the characters in Oliver Twist have all once been innocent children including the rich men at the orphanage, Fagin, and Sykes.  Along these men’s upbringing, they have changed their innocence to rough and uncaring characters in order to survive, or make life better for themselves.  Some has been more fortunate and learned how to share and love such as Mr. Brownlow (Edward Hardwicke) whose kindness does not know limits, as the audience learns in the film.  Unfortunately, the audience never learns what happens to Oliver when he grows old, but most likely, something good happened to him.  However, the audience has the fortune to view Polanski as an adult, and the events through his life.  Some of his choices have not been exemplary, and the ending maybe tosses some light on how Polanski feels himself.  Thus, Polanski’s film presents an intriguing cinematic perspective on Oliver Twist with a strong personal touch where Polanski exorcises his own demons from his past.

DIRECTED BY

COUNTRY

UK / Czech Republic / France
Italy

Filmography links and data courtesy of