Great movie, fair adaption
Les Misérables - 1998 film version - formal review
This newest film version of Les Misérables presents this classic story as the grand sweeping epic that it is, yet diverges from the original story, leaving much to be desired. Fans of Victor Hugo's beloved novel, published in 1862, and of the popular musical, produced in 1985, may be disappointed in this movie's truncated version of the story. However, the film manages to keep intact the main themes of Hugo's story of love, mercy, and redemption.
As a movie in its own right, this film deserves the highest praise. As historical drama it is of the highest quality. The movie portrays Jean Valjean as a true hero, a person whom we can admire because of his courage and self-sacrificing commitment to godly principle. The acting is excellent -- Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush star as Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert, and both simply become their characters. Uma Thurman gives an exceptional performance as...
A Terrible Adaptation
This is a good movie. I mean, not badly cast. Lovingly done. The acting is great. Yeah, you should enjoy it. Assuming you know absolutely nothing about Victor Hugo's original story. The truth is, if I didn't know better, I'd say whoever wrote the script never read Hugo's masterpiece and based it completely on the 1935 version. Come to think of it, I don't know better. That's probably exactly what happened.
I never thought I'd say this, but I am so glad Hugo didn't have to live to see this movie.
If you've read the book, you will hate this film. TRUST me. The plot, especially toward the end, is mercilessly butchered and rewritten. At some points it becomes utterly unrecognizable. Many of the revisions completely miss or even destroy the essence of characters, and some do not even make sense, the movie ending with Jean Valjean jubilant over the death of Javet, whose life he has made an enormous sacrifice to save.
Likewise, Javert would never attack Cosette; he was...
One question...
Did the writer of the screenplay even READ Hugo's masterpiece novel? This movie may be nice-looking, have a generally excellent cast (with the exclusion of the whiny Claire Danes as Cosette), but in everything else, it falls sickeningly short of the mark. First off, one of Hugo's chief themes in Les Miserables is redemption; Jean Valjean becomes a saint-like man after being saved by the kindly Bishop of Digne, he goes from an embittered man to a gentle, merciful man, not a wicked convict to a frightened man on the run! This film lost that essence of redemption and thus lost one of the most important parts that made Les Miserables what it is. Also, we were shown that the screenplay writer obviously didn't know who was who in the novel; Marius takes the place of the god-like (they liken him to Apollo in the novel) Enjolras as the student leader, they completely lose the political pun of the Friends of the A B C (ah-BAY-SAY! )... and other small errors that are altogether a...
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