Oscars: Every Best Picture Winner Ever Ranked From Worst To Best

73. Oliver! (1968)

Though an unassailable classic of the musical genre, the 1968 Oliver! arrived with somewhat poor timing, amid a major cultural shift in America, and as such in retrospect it can't help but seem like a rather quaint relic stood next to the glut of edgier - not to mention better - Best Pictures that followed throughout the 1970s.

Carol Reed (The Third Man) is also a bit of a bizarre choice to direct something so effervescent, but he does a totally solid job making the most of the catchy songs, though audience mileage is sure to vary wildly in that regard.

The real sticking point is the comically absurd 153-minute runtime, which makes this Dickens adaptation feel unnecessarily turgid, rather flying in the face of what should probably be a snappy, light-on-its-feet effort.

It's fun to a point and enthusiastically performed, but also merely decent as a Best Picture pick.