Les Miserables...
Let me just start out by saying that I love redemption stories. Love, love LOVE them. My novel The Serpent's Tale is a redemption story. My short The Threads of Sorrow is a redemption story. The first fanfiction I wrote (aptly named) Forgiveness and Redemption is a redemption story. I LOVE REDEMPTION STORIES.
Les Miserables is the ultimate redemption story. The original novel was written by Victor Hugo in the 1860s. The story was adapted for the musical theatre and the musical was (finally) made into a movie in 2012. Les Mis is the story of Jean Valjean who is played phenomenally by Hugh Jackman. He is a man condemned to 19 years of hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister and child.
Valjean is called forth by Jarvert, a guard at the prison and granted parole. Javert, played by Russell Crowe, is Valjean's nemesis throughout the
story. He is a man unmoved by feeling or sentiment. He lives his entire life for the law. The law is absolute and cannot be mocked. One is either law-abiding or a criminal. There is no in between.
Once a person is a criminal they are always a criminal, and will never and can never be anything else.
Valjean initially believes he is free, but because he is a convict, his passport proclaims this throughout the land and he is treated as less than a dog the instant so-called freedom is achieved. He is unable to find work or even place to sleep without being driven off due to the condemning piece of paper he's required by law to show throughout the land. He finally finds himself sleeping in a doorway when he is invited in by the Bishop of Digne who in a nice twist of meta irony is played by Colm Wilkinson, the original Jean Valjean from the the musical. The bishop offers him food, fire, and friendship, treating him as a fellow human being and not a piece of dirt, but in the midst of the night Valjean awakens, robs the bishop of his silver and flees. He is caught and returned to the old man's house where he awaits the judgment that will condemn him to hard labor for the rest of his life, but it never falls. The bishop not only corroborates Valjean's story that the silver was gifted him, but also insists that he "left the best behind," and adds a set of silver candlesticks to the pot. He tells him that he has "bought his soul for God." It is this seemingly small act of kindness that changes Jean Valjean's life. He is a man torn between what he has known and what he could be. The past that haunts him and the future unknown. He realizes the path he was taken will only lead him back to prison and so he rips up his passport thereby breaking his parole, but this act ironically is what allows him to become an honest man.
Eight years or so pass and the story moves to Montfermeil where Jean Valjean has taken on the persona of Monsieur Madeleine, the mayor of the town. He owns a factory, which employs hundreds of workers, and because of his philanthropy and selflessness, the entire town has prospered. A young woman named Fantine, played amazingly by Anne Hathaway, works in the factory. Fantine is very beautiful, a fact which is not unnoticed by the lustful eyes of the foreman whom she has no interest in. Unfortunately for her, one of the other women gets a hold of a letter Fantine was writing to an innkeeper outside of town concerning her illegitimate daughter Cosette. A scuffle breaks out as Monsieur Madeleine enters, but before he can intervene he sees Javert who does not recognize who he really is, waiting to speak with whom he believes is merely the mayor of Montfermeil.
The instant Valjean sees Javert his attention can be nowhere else and he directs the foreman to handle the issue with patience and fairness. Meanwhile the foreman goaded by both his need for revenge on and the harping women in the factory calling for her dismissal does just that. Fantine now out of work and desperate for money to support her daughter resorts to selling her beautiful hair, then selling her teeth, and finally selling herself as she descends into prostitution.
I have to pause this recap for a moment to talk about Anne Hathaway singing "I Dreamed a Dream." It was right after she had finished with one of her customers and she's sitting in the dark with her shorn hair rendering this heartbreaking song of hope shattered. I cried openly and without any shame in the middle of the theatre for the utterly raw emotion of this scene.
Fantine, who is becoming sicker and sicker as the days pass, is accosted by a "gentleman" walking through the park. She refuses to give him service, which angers him enough to throw snow on her bare skin. When she retaliates by scratching him on the cheek, Javert arrives on the scene just in time to hear the man claim she attacked him unprovoked, and because he is what he is and she is a whore, Javert takes the man's word for it and prepares to arrest her despite the piteous pleas for mercy that her daughter will die if she goes to jail. Jean Valjean intervenes at the last moment seeing the truth of the situation and recognizing her. Fantine, near delirium, spits in his face and tells him that he was there when she was dismissed and did nothing to stop it. With guilt he realizes that two innocents are suffering because of his inaction. He vows to make it right and carries Fantine away to the hospital while Javert can only angrily watch. Valjean vows to get her daughter from the innkeeper so that they can be together when Fantine is well.
That next day Valjean saves a man trapped beneath a runaway cart by lifting it off of him. Javert observes this remembering the only other person he'd ever seen do such a thing was Jean Valjean who is incredibly strong. Witnessing the mayor perform such a feat makes him wonder, and angry about the incident with Fantine, he denounces him to a higher authority proclaiming that he is Jean Valjean, but then in a later scene apologizes for the action as the "real" escaped convict was found. Javert then insists that the mayor exact punishment on him for his actions, but Valjean refuses saying the inspector was only doing his job as he saw fit.
Jean Valjean is again a man torn. He knows the poor wretch they found is only unfortunate enough to look like him, and even though he, too, is a convict, it is unspeakably wrong that he should be condemned to Valjean's fate. But the life so made as mayor of the town must also be considered. He is the "master of hundred of workers," and the idea of abandoning them to what they had before his arrival is almost equally terrible. Almost. The mayor travels to the courthouse where he declares himself the true Jean Valjean, exonerating the condemned man before leaving as quickly as he came to return to Fantine. He promises her he will be as a father to her daughter right before she succumbs to her illness and Javert arrives to bring him to his fate. Valjean tries to plead with him by saying that he is the only one who can save the poor woman's daughter, but it falls on deaf ears. The two men fight, and Valjean being the stronger manages to overpower Javert and escape.
At the inn, Cosette is being mistreated by Thenardier and his wife who are played by Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen respectively. Though both of them are nothing but rascals, they do provide the much needed comic relief for the drama despite this, nor could better actors have been cast. Madame Thenardier forces Cosette to go fetch water from the well in the wood even though night has fallen, and though the little girl is terrified, she has no choice. While there, she comes upon Jean Valjean and is initially afraid of him until he reassures her he will do her no harm. Carrying her water bucket back to the inn Valjean pays the the supposed "debt" the Thenardiers say were owed for taking care of Cosette and takes the little girl away. He finds himself experiencing the pure love for and from a child for the first time in his life, but the wonder of this is interrupted by the sight of Javert at a checkpoint seeking him out. Valjean hides himself and Cosette on the top of a wall, which surrounds a convent. In there he finds the very man whose life he saved beneath the cart working as a gardener, and the past act pays for the forward gratitude when Valjean pleads for help for both him and the child.
Several more years pass and Javert is still looking for Valjean who lives in Paris with the now lovely, grown up Cosette. The is much dissidence in the city where the ranks of the poor are growing, while the rich grow fatter and fatter. The Thenardiers, too, live in the capital where the man runs a street gang. He attempts to rob Valjean believing himself owed more than what he gave for Cosette. Javert sees the trouble, but fails to recognize Valjean before he escapes. In that incident, also, Cosette sees a young man named Marius, and they both instantly feel an attraction. Marius is part of a group of students who see the growing issue between poverty and decadence and wish to do something about it, but Marius distracted by the girl he has seen asks his friend Eponine to find her for him. Eponine is the once pampered daughter of the Thenardiers, forced now to live on the street with undying and unrequited love for Marius. Because of this she finds Cosette's residence for him where they finally meet and fall in love.
The students led by Enjolras decide they need to do something about the plight of the impoverished. The only public figurehead who cares about such issue is General Lemarque who is dying. When he finally succumbs Enjolras decides that this is the sign they need to rally the people of Paris to revolt against the status quo. They decide to build a barricade, and Marius decides to be on the very front line once he finds out Cosette is leaving. Unnerved by a recent attack by Thenardier's gang along with Marius's interest in Cosette Jean Valjean decides to abscond for England where he will be safe from Javert forever. When he intercepts a note for Cosette from the boy, he decides to go down to the barricade. Meanwhile, Javert has been playing spy and feeding the rebels false information until he is called about by Gavroche, a street urchin who hangs around them. They tie him up in a bar behind the barricade declaring "the people will decide your fate." When Jean Valjean arrives they suspect him, too, but he soon proves his worth and is rewarded by being allowed to execute Javert. But once out of sight he unties the spy and lets him go. Javert goads him to do what he's been wanting his entire life, but Valjean refuses even when Javert insists he will never stop hunting him.
The barricade falls to the national troops and everyone dies except for Marius who though shot is saved by Jean Valjean who takes him through the sewers. At the exit Valjean meets Javert who holds him at gunpoint. Valjean begs him to let him take Marius to a doctor as "he has done no wrong." He realized at the barricade that the boy was yet another innocent and that he had no right to keep Cosette from finding a love he could not. For the first time in his life Javert falters and lets Valjean go, then he climbs to the top of a bridge overlooking the Seine river utterly unable to reconcile the fact that he was spared by a convict. He has no sense of mercy or forgiveness only the law, and the law is absolute. There is no grey with Javert: only black and white. You are good or you are evil. You are law abiding or you are a criminal, and criminals follow their own code. Valjean was meant to kill him just as Javert was meant to hunt people like him, but his conviction is wavering. In the movie Javert is the only character whose appearance really doesn't change, which mirrors his conviction. It is steadfast and obstinate, and he cannot bear the thought that his entire life what he believed was wrong. He throws himself into the Seine knowing it is either "Valjean or Javert," and the choice has already been made.
Marius recovers and he and Cosette marry, but Jean Valjean unable to bear the thought of her finding out the truth tells Marius and then leaves knowing Cosette is safe and provided for by him. The Thenardiers crash the wedding and Marius realizes the man has the ring he pulled from his finger while he was being carried through the sewers. He finds out that it was Valjean who saved his life and he is heartbroken by how thoughtlessly he treated him. Valjean had returned to the convent of Cosette's youth waiting alone to die when they arrive to be with him. He gives Cosette the story of his past and how he promised her mother she would live under his protection, and then dies, being led to heaven by Fantine in the most heartbreaking scene imaginable. Just remembering it brings tears to my eyes. The finale of the movie shows all those who died standing in the light of a new day singing "Do You Hear the People Sing," which was the rallying cry of the revolution.
Even though Les Miserables is probably one of the saddest stories I have ever heard, its overall message is about hope. The belief that things can become better...that the struggle is not in vain despite the destitution and despite the despair. The one act of kindness that rippled across the years, because one man had faith in another deemed unworthy of such a gift. Jean Valjean is the atoner character. He spends his entire life paying for that one crime, even though he committed the act for another. It was prison that truly turned him into a criminal, a social commentary that is difficult to ignore. And after being released, he was treated as worse than filth, which would have only led him back to a life of crime, but the bishop's faith restored his humanity and made it so that he could become an upstanding citizen and improve the lives of others by such a virtue.
Les Mis really doesn't have a human villain. Yes, Javert is Jean Valjean's nemesis, but he is not evil. He is merely a man who is as dogmatically devoted to the law as the bishop was to his faith. Even as Valjean admits, he does his duty and cannot really be faulted for it. He never wavers; he never falters not until the very end, and once that happens, he knows he can no longer exist in the world. Even prior to his suicide when he looks at the bodies of the dead students where Gavroche the street urchin is laid out as well, you see even his heart of stone quavering as he places the pin from his lapel on the child's chest. As convicted and unwavering as he is, even that is too much. It is part of the downward spiral that began when Valjean let him go, continued when he did the same, and ends with his demise.
See this movie. See it now. Hugh Jackman was the perfect choice for Jean Valjean, and Anne Hathaway's performance as Fantine is nothing short of brilliant. I have heard "I Dreamed a Dream" rendered many times, but I have never seen it done with such raw emotion and pain. She sang it as the song was meant to be sung. The desolate anthem of a woman who has lost everything except the love of her daughter that allows her to sacrifice her body and pride to make sure she will live. The only complaint I have is Russell Crowe's singing voice. Javert (like most villain characters) has always been a baritone, whereas Crowe is a tenor. I felt there was a lack of power there. Roger Allam as Javert from the ten year anniversary cast has a very powerful and intimidating voice as is expected from such a character so I was a little disappointed, but not enough to lessen the greatness of this piece. If there aren't at least two awards earned, the message of injustice presented in the film will have achieved meta status and ring even more true.
PS. The movie has one funny/creepy moment. When Jean Valjean meets up with Cosette in the woods, he asks her where she lives and for just a second it just had this total creeper vibe. They fixed it VERY quickly, but I had to suppress a snicker, and I heard a few from the theater at large.
Four stars. Why are you still sitting there? Go see it!
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