Les Miserables Review

Ivan Kapkov

IB Literature & Performance

Mrs. Guarino

Les Miserables Review.

Tonight 10/12/2017 I experienced the classic film Les Miserables, directed by Tom Hooper, starring Russell Crowe as Javert, Anne Hathaway as Fantine, Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, Daniel Huttlestone as Gavroche, Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, and Eddie Redmayne as Marius. The film is based on the story by Victor Hugo which takes place in France during the French revolution. When the film starts the main character, Jean Valjean, is a slave and a thief. He steals something for his family and he becomes a slave for several years. After the fact, he ends up in a Church under the care of a priest. The Priest helps him to find a new way of life and eventually he becomes a successful businessman. Later in life he again meets Javert, who used to be his prison guard. Jean Valjean recognises him, but Javert doesn't because of how much he changed. Valjean's worker, Fantine, is fired and can’t send money to her child Cosette. Before she dies, she asks Valjean to take care of her daughter. He finds Cosette and raises her as his own child. Cosette falls in love with one of the Revolutionaries, Marius. After the Revolutionaries lost the battle, Valjean saves Marius's life and brings him to the hospital. In the end Valjean leaves the two to get married.  At the end of the film Valjean is dead and he goes to heaven with Fantine and the Revolutionaries from the battle.

The major themes in the film are: judgment on someone past, poverty, justice, and love. The film shows that we can’t judge people on their past we need to judge them on who they become. Javert spends the whole story chasing Valjean because of the crimes that he committed in the past, and he is unable to see who he has become. Valjean understands poverty because he used to be poor and live on the streets. He helps and saves poor people rather than killing them and punishing them. The French revolution involves poverty and injustices. Marius is affected by those problems so he becomes one of the Revolutionaries and starts fighting for people’s rights. Love for his daughter saves Valjean and Marius.

What makes this film more dramatic is the music that the composer uses in the acts. Also it is a musical so the characters sing and it makes the audience and the scene more emotional. The costumes show the inequality between the poor and the rich. The poor characters don’t change their clothing while the rich people wear different clothing in different acts. Most of the movie has darker color scheme using dark blue colors and snow, but the wedding scene has a brighter color to show that the characters are in love. Javert, Valjean, Cosette, and Marius were highlighted as the most important characters.

My favorite character in this film is Gavroche, who is a little boy and a revolutionary.  He is my favorite character because of how brave he is and of what he did in the last scene by getting killed but making people fight for their rights. The actor Daniel Huttlestone did a good job for his age and expressed his feeling very well by showing us how much he loves his country.

I liked the theme of this film, but I thought the film was too long, and it was hard to understand what characters were saying when they were expressing their feelings through a song. From watching this play I learned about the poverty and injustice of the time period. This film has a strong and dramatic plot which shows us how hard it was to survive at that time, but at the same time it shows us how love can save lives.