Review of Les Miserables

Introduction

John Valjean has served 19 years in a French prison for stealing a loaf of bread. Times are hard in France and he has served hard time because he refuses to buckle before the system.

He gets his licence to leave the prison and takes his special yellow passport with him that will forever mark him out a criminal. Staying overnight with a kindly priest he steals the church silver but instead of handing him over to the gendarmes the priest gives him the candlesticks as well and claims his soul for God,. It takes a while but gradually this message sinks in and Valjean changes his name and becomes a model citizen helping many others by opening a factory and treating his workers fairly. Javert, head of the prison never forgets that Valjean has broken his parole and vows to find him. By chance he ends up working for the Mayor in a local town and he becomes convince this is Valjean.

Meanwhile one of Valjean`s workers is dismissed by an overseer who finds out she is a single mother. In despair she sells her hair and then tries to sell herself. When Valjean rescues her it is almost too late and he vows to help her daughter. But Javert`s net is closing in.

This version of Les Miserables was made in 2000 and stars Gerard Depardieu and John Malkovich in the lead roles of Valjean and Javert.

Video

A vision of rural Franc is carefully maintained by keeping the camera as low as possible to avoid showing a line of television arials.
The print is unimpressive and this seems to be another standard issue disc.

Audio

Hmm. French people speaking English with an accent and Americans speaking American. A confusion of styles. A pity Mr Depardieu did not make a French version instead presumably precluded by whoever was proving the money.

Features

Non monsieur.

Conclusion

When I`d got over my initial disappointment over the fact this wasn`t the musical version I tried to concentrate on this in its own right. Sad to say it never lit my fire as I became distracted by the overly fussy performance of John Malkovich as Javert. To me Javert is the conscientious policeman =of the musical who makes it his life`s task to seek out Valjean because he believes in the law. This one seems just to be sneaky and underhand for the sake of it and he minces for goodness sake! To me Javert was a man`s man and this just spoiled for for me.

This is one of many versions of the Victor Hugo story dating back to the first silent version of 19009 it seems to be a popular tale to try to capture on film.