Teacher’s Notes Introduction
The musical film takes around 150 minutes. Teachers might like to ask students to watch the film outside class or to focus on those scenes in which songs are performed. The film could also be studied in some depth and used as part of a film programme relating to the SBA component of the public examination.
If students are to watch the film, they need to have a worksheet to ensure the experience is educational as well as entertaining. A large number of questions on the film are offered below as a resource for teachers to draw from in preparing their own worksheet. They draw attention to different aspects: story, character, film technique, music, symbolism, fact, personal reaction, mood and so on. Teachers are encouraged to select and freely adapt the materials to suit their students’
needs, interests and abilities. Note that some questions might be more suitable for discussion after a viewing of the film.
Overture
1. What impression does the picture we see give?
2. What impression does the music give?
3. Do you feel they are in agreement? Are the moods the same?
4. What do you expect from the film as a result of the Overture section?
The Credits
5. Not many films now have the credits at the beginning. What pros and cons can you think of?
The Workhouse
6. How do the boys walk?
7. What point do you think the director wants to make?
8. In what way is contrast used in this scene?
9. What do you think the idiom “drawing the long straw” means?
10. What is the weather? How suitable is it?
11. Tick any of these adjectives which apply to the appearance of Oliver:
a. strong b. ill c. sweet d. happy e. sympathetic f. delicate/fragile g. angry
h. handsome i. good-natured
12. How does he feel as he walks up to Mr Bumble?
13. What does Oliver ask for?
14. What is Mr Bumble’s reaction?
Boy For Sale
15. Do you think the mood of the song and the scene suit each other?
At Sowerberry’s
16. Why is the name “Sowerberry” suitable?
17. Why does Oliver attack Claypole?
18. Is he right to?
19. What is the effect of their putting Oliver in the coffin?
T105 20. The scene is ____________.
a. comic b. tragic c. frightening d. romantic
21. What symbol does the director use as well as the snow?
Arrival in London
22. Oliver arrives among some __________________.
23. How is the size and importance of the big city in Oliver’s eyes stressed?
24. What is your first impression of the Artful Dodger?
25. Do you think there is any special meaning to the beef carcasses?
26. How would you describe the movement of the road workers and clowns? Does it remind you of any other scene? What significance do you think it might have?
27. The route to Fagin’s home tells us that life with him is __________________________.
At Fagin’s
28. What does Fagin look like when we first see him?
29. Which of these adjectives best describes Oliver in this scene?
a. sensible b. nervous c. innocent d. stupid
30. When Fagin goes out which animal does he move like?
31. What do you think the idiom “to burn one’s fingers” means?
32. How do we first see Bill Sikes?
33. Why doesn’t Fagin carry cash for Sikes?
34. What is your first impression of Nancy?
Oliver’s First Pickpocketing Trip
35. What figure from legend and old stories does Fagin remind us of when he leads the boys out?
36. In what way is Oliver’s singing voice different from the others’?
37. What word does the modern word “bus” come from?
38. What effect is created by Oliver on the bridge?
39. What does Dickens think of the justice system?
40. Who says Oliver was not the thief?
Morning and Return
41. Name some of the trades-people we see.
42. What is very strange about the words of the song? How does it fit the theme of the film?
43. How would you describe Nancy’s relationship with Bill?
44. Is her attitude towards it a sensible one?
45. Why does Nancy wear red?
46. What delays Oliver from going to the shop?
47. What does Fagin say he wants?
48. Fagin is ______________________ what to do next.
a. clear about b. afraid of c. unsure about d. uninterested in Nancy Tries to Help
49. What do we admire about Nancy?
50. What is the effect of the rolling plate?
51. Why does Nancy start the Oom Oom Pah Pah dance?
52. What does Bullseye’s behaviour tell us?
53. How supportive is Fagin?
54. Sikes takes Oliver with him as a ___________.
55. How does the camera work make this part of the film dramatic?
56. In what way is Sikes’ death a suitable end for him?
57. What happens to the sound track at this point?
58. What does the Artful Dodger do during these events?
59. In the book the story is more complicated and in the end Fagin is hanged for his crimes. What do you think about the way the film ends? What does the sunrise symbolise? Is Fagin made into a sort of hero?
T106 General
60. Do the song and dance numbers add to or detract from the story?
Extra Activity
Write an acrostic on the name Oliver (note that it contains the letters of love and lover).
Suggested answers:
Many of the questions ask for opinion, not fact, so answers will vary.
1. The old view of London sets the story in the 19th century and possibly suggests the social problems associated with the Industrial Revolution which Dickens was addressing.
2. The music is grand, rather ballroom style with a full orchestra. This suggests a great spectacle and a fairly romantic (not in the love sense) story.
3. A matter of opinion: one might see a conflict between the serious and sad social comment of the story and the desire of the musical to entertain and amuse.
4. No definite answer: possibly a grand historical drama with lots of London life and a happy ending.
5. Showing the credits at the beginning draw viewers’ attention to who the actors/actresses and film crew are and may have the advantage of boosting their fame. The cons, on the other hand, are that too much attention on the making of the film can undercut the sense of reality a film seeks to create (though this may be less so for a musical). The credits may also bore the viewers who want to get on to the story.
6. Very rhythmically.
7. The boys’ life is very ordered and mechanical. The treadmill also suggests the mechanisation of life in an industrial society.
8. Between the size and poor food of the boys and those of the gentlemen.
9. Being selected for an unpleasant job.
10. The cold and snow symbolise the coldness and harshness of the orphans’ lives.
11. Probably c, e (in the sense we feel sympathy for him), f and i; handsome does not seem the correct word for a small boy.
12. Nervous.
13. More food.
14. Shock, horror, rage.
15. The humour in the scene may conflict with the appalling fact of child labour and the idea of selling an orphan.
16. He is a sour man and he buries people.
17. Because Claypole says cruel things about Oliver’s dead mother.
18. No correct answer: fighting is bad but defending one’s mother and showing loyalty to her memory is good.
19. It symbolises his death-in-life in his situation as an unwanted orphan in a cruel society.
20. Probably a.
21. The bars/imprisonment in his life.
22. Cabbages.
23. Grand music, bustle of the scene, the entrance of the steam train.
24. Amusing, friendly, mischievous.
25. A cruel society in which one group preys on another.
26. More mechanical movement as in the workhouse scene. If the criticism of the mechanical ways of an industrial society was not noticed the first time, maybe it will be now.
27. Dangerous and on the margins of society.
28. The devil surrounded by smoke and holding his devil’s fork.
29. c.
30. A rat.
31. To get into trouble.
32. In the shadows and then from the back.
33. He says there are too many dishonest people around and probably he does not trust Sikes.
34. She has spirit, can be fierce and has a loving side to her.
35. The Pied Piper.
36. It is much sweeter and purer.
37. Omnibus.