Russell Crowe can't sing
It would have been better to get the Christmas Opening Day but getting the Friday night's ticket for the latest Les Misérables movie production was still quite alright. The next day is a long weekend with New Year holiday for next Tuesday.
The last Les Mis that we saw was Hollywood's 1998 version with Liam Neeson as main protagonist, Jean Valjean and Geoffrey Rush as the main antagonist, the fanatic policemen, Inspector Javert.
Last night's version is a British musical drama film from the stage adaption of Victor Hugo's novel by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg.
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The movie cast Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, and Amanda Seyfried as the main characters of Jean Valjean, Javert, Fantine and young Cosette.
The main characters, Hellena Bonham Carter as the Madamme Thandiers, the child actress with the beautiful voice, Isabelle Allen as little Cosette, characters Murius and Eponine acted the parts well, except Russell Crowe's singing .
Crowe just bombed on his vocals and his singing spoilt the great opening tone-setting scene with cinematography reminiscent of Cleopatra entering Egypt. He is a great actor and had perform very well in several of his previous movies but his stinging in this one stinks.
Since our college days till to-date, we've attended some 6 or 7 Les Mis productions; from the University's Theater Department production, to Hollywood movie production and several French film versions.
Quite a few versions, except Andrew Lloyd Weber's theater productions in Broadway, New York and West End, London. As college student (or Malaysian glorious description as mahasiswa), we could only afford taking photo of the billboards and us posing in front of the theaters, but not to buy the tickets.
Set against the background of France between the era of Napolean Bonaparte or Napolean I and nephew, Napolean III and at the time of the student-led June Rebellion of 1832, Les Mis has inspired something like 20 different movie versions and as many stage adaptation of the novel. [See IMDb here]
We've watched the French movie versions with Jean-Paul Belmondo (1995) and Gerard Depardieu as Jean Viljean and the 2000 English TV mini series version of Gerard Depardies also as Jean Valjean.
The latest 2012 version of Les Mis was developed from the 25th Anniversary Concert in 2010. One can see the video of the event and savour the great songs, below:
The musical movie's story, as taken from Wikipedia, reads as follows:
In 1815, convict Jean Valjean was released on parole by prison guard Javert after serving a! nineteen! -year sentence.
He is offered food and shelter by the Bishop of Digne, but later steals the Bishop's silver during the night. He is caught by the authorities, but the Bishop says that the silver was given as a gift, and secures Valjean's release.
Ashamed by the Bishop's generosity, Valjean breaks his parole and vows to start an honest life under a new identity.
Javert swears he will bring the escaped convict to justice.
Eight years later, Valjean has become a factory owner and mayor of Montr! euil-sur-! Mer.
Fantine, one of his workers, is discovered to be sending money to her illegitimate daughter, Cosette, who lives with the unscrupulous Thénardiers and their daughter Éponine, and is dismissed by the foreman.
Left with no option, Fantine turns to prostitution.
During an argument with an abusive customer, Javert, now a police inspector, arrests Fantine, but Valjean intercedes and takes her to a hospital.
Later, Valjean learns that a man believed to be him has been arrested. Unable to condemn an innocent man, Valjean reveals his identity to the court before departing for the hospital.
There he promises a dying Fantine that he will look after her daughter.
Valjean finds Cosette and pays the Thénardiers to allow him to take her, and promises to be like a father to her.
Later Marius catches a glimpse of Cosette, now a young woman, and instantly falls in love with her.
Meanwhile, despite Cosette's questioning, Valjean refuses to tell her about his past or Fantine.
At a café, Enjolras organises a group of idealistic students as Lamarque's death is announced.
Meanwhile, Éponine, now Marius's friend, leads him to Cosette, where the two profess their love for one another.
Lamenting that her secret love for Marius will never be reciprocated, Éponine fatalistically decides to join the revolution.
Later, an attempted robbery of Valjean's house makes him mistakenly think that Javert has discovered him, and he flees with Cosette.
As they leave, Enjolras rallies the Parisians to revolt, and Marius sends a farewell letter to Cosette.
The next day, the students interrupt Lamarque's funeral procession and begin their assault.
Javert, disguised as one of the rebels, spies among the revolutionaries, but is quickly exposed by Gavroche and captured.
During the ensuing gunfight, Éponine saves Marius at the cost of her own life, professing her love to him before she dies.
Valjean, intercepting the letter from Marius to Cosette, goes to the barricade to protect Marius. After saving Enjolras from snipers, he is allowed to execute Javert.
When the two are alone, Valjean frees Javert and fires his gun to fake the execution. Initially disbelieving, Javert wonders at Valjean's generosity.
With the Parisians not joining the revolution as the students expected, they resolve to fight to the death.
Everyone is killed but Marius, who is saved when Valjean drags his unconscious body into the sewers. Thénardier, scavenging the dead bodies, steals Marius's ring. Valjean recovers and escapes the sewers car! rying Mar! ius, but is confronted at the exit by Javert.
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Javert threatens to shoot Valjean if he doesn't surrender, but Valjean ignores him.
Unable to reconcile the conflict between his civil and moral duties, two things which he always considered the same, Javert commits suicide.
Later, Marius mourns for his friends but Cosette comforts him.
Revealing his past to Marius, Valjean tells him he must leave because his presence endangers Cosette, and makes Marius promise never to tell her.
Marius and Cosette marry; the Thénardiers crash the reception and testify that they saw Valjean carrying a murdered corpse in the sewers. Thénardier unwittingly shows Marius the ring that he stole from him as "proof." Recognising the ring, Marius realizes that it was Valjean who saved his life.
Marius and Cosette rush to Valjean after being told his location by Thénardier.
As Valjean sits dying in a local convent, he perceives the spirit of Fantine appearing to take him to Heaven. Cosette and Marius rush in to bid farewell. !
Valjean hands Cosette his confession of his past life, and the spirits of Fantine and the Bishop guide him to paradise, where he joins the spirits of Enjolras, Éponine, Gavroche, and the other rebels at the barricade.
The weakness with a movie musical adopted wholly from a stage production is the insufficiet development of character and disjointed screenplay. All the advantage the movie media offers could not be capitalised to give a greater justice to one of the greatest novels of the 19th Century.
So much for our opinion. Before it's UK's opening, the movie is already nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, including Best Film (Musical or Comedy), Best Actor (Musical or Comedy) for Hugh Jackman and Best Supporting Actress for Ann Hathaway.
Jean Valjean was seeking redemption from his bitterness against a repressive system that unfairly sent him to prison for stealing bread for his hungry nephew. He faced Javert, who is determined to send him back to prison.
The character of Javert was potrayed in the movie and stage as a fanatic Inspector who take out his responsibility to maintain law and order with such extreme dedication. He upholds the law to it's letter and spirit.
Javert believes he has a responsibility to maintain societal morality by defending the establishment.
There was something missing in the character of Javert and his motivation to be such. In the original novel version, he was described as being born in prison to a convict father and a gypsy mother. He renounces both of them and started working as a guard in the prison.
Les Mis was not a simple plot of good versus evil and good triumph. It was a dilemma and conflict between a bad person that redeemed himself into a good samaritan with a government servant judiciously carrying out his duty to end up facing a personal moral conflict.
Valjean spared Javert's life and allowed him to escap! e. That h! ad a profound effect on Javert who come to realise he has redeem himself and has no vengence towards him.
Later, Javert again came face to face with Valjean. This time Valjean was in the midst of saving the life Marius to carry him a hospital from the barricade through a sewer passage. He could not arrest him and accepted his honourable promise to give himself voluntarily.
As he await allowed Valjean by the River Seine, he couldn't reconcile himself for forsake his duty to arrest someone he has now believed is not a bad person.
Javert took his life by jumping into the River Seine.
The 1998 movie version starring Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush highlighted that conflict and ended with Javert committing suicide in front of the eyes of the surrendering Valjean. That was one classy ending and our most favourite Les Mis.
The! stage ve! rsion ends with the revolting students and poor peasants waving red flags of people power in triumph. It serves the closing of stage production for the part to receive the audience ovation.
That is in conflict with the message in one of the sub-plot in the play version to claim the anti-monarchy June Revolution or Paris Uprising of 1832 to reverse the July Revolution of 1830 was a futile effort.
Already disenchanted with the Reign of Terror after the Revolution, the people did not gave the support that happened earlier during the French Revolution of 1789-99. The rebels were totally demolished. Marius's friends did not die a glorious death.
This tumultuous moment of French history was filled with unstability and radicalism that resulted in widespread poverty, famine and unemployment on the common people.
Perhaps, we can learn something from this piece of history - the conflict, the dilemmas and the prices on humanity - as a certain small segment of the population like Marius and his friends believe in revolutionary regime change.
They willingly receive foreign covert funding and covort with foreign powers to sacrifice our independence and sovereignty for their ideology of dreams. In the long run, it will eventually infringed on our own very freedom and peaceful co-existence.
Is Malaysia in such a situation like post revolutionary France that the royal court was so distanced from the suffering of the public that when told the people had no bread, the reply was, "Give them cakes!"
Ponder that.
During the time the people were "up-in-arms" against former Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, one wise man said, "One can start a revolution, but when started, no one knows how to it ends, thus how will one end it."
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