Adam Sandler has said that Carol Reed’s 1968 musical film Oliver! was the movie that most affected him as a child, calling it a film that “rocked” him and “killed” him emotionally. The article argues that this choice is notable because the Dickens adaptation’s themes of poverty, orphanhood and crime differ sharply from Sandler’s usual broad comedies, while its mix of humour and sentiment may help explain elements of his own work.

Based on Lionel Bart’s musical adaptation of Oliver Twist, Oliver! follows an orphan who escapes a workhouse and encounters Fagin’s gang of young thieves. Its songs move between comedy, melancholy and spectacle, a balance the article links to Sandler films including The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates and The Meyerowitz Stories, where music often supports emotional moments beneath comic performances.