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sophia_sol) wrote2013-02-10 10:39 am
sophia_sol) wrote2013-02-10 10:39 am
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Les Miserables 2012 Movie: MY EXCESSIVELY LONG THOUGHTS
Aw yiss so I went and saw the Les Miserables movie again on Friday night, this time with all my book knowledge, and TOOK COPIOUS NOTES while watching.
It was a strange feeling, watching the movie while note-taking. I found that it greatly lessened my emotional engagement with the story, which was really sad. I DIDN'T CRY AT THE END! I only even got teary-eyed a few times! BUT! Now I can SHARE WITH YOU my opinions about the movie. Um. This is like 6500 words long, which is utterly ridiculous and I AM AWARE. /o\
Let me begin by saying that after the movie I proceeded to spend the next ten minutes informing Mara (who I'd gone to see it with) about how disgraceful the relative lack of Combeferre was. He's one of the few Amis I could recognize relatively reliably, the others being Enjolras, Courfeyrac, Grantaire, and Joly. I'm bad with faces, so having five Amis reliably recognizable to me was DOING REALLY WELL. Anyways, this meant that I was keeping an eye out for him and he kept on being relegated to being super-background! WHAT NO! COMBEFERRE!
But let me do this in order. I will label my thoughts with numbers, since that way it will be easier for me to keep everything organized, since it's not like there's a logical flow of ideas here -- it's just THING! and ANOTHER THING! and ANOTHER THING!
1. So it turned out that one of the few times I got teary-eyed was RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING when the music first starts and I was just FEEELS BECAUSE LES MISERABLES.
2. You know the bit where the recently-free Valjean walks across lovely and desolate scenery? I am pretty sure I've seen people comment on how it reminds them of imagery from LoTR. I can't comment on that as I've only seen bits and pieces of LoTR, but I can tell you that what this scene reminded ME strongly of was the movie The Way, which is about walking the pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago. Which...is kind of fitting, considering that Valjean's pilgrimage here ends with his redemption at the house of a dude who'd make an excellent candidate for sainthood.
3. I LOVE THE BISHOP SO MUCH. Also I love how Mlle Baptistine and Mme Magloire are clearly judging Valjean (and the bishop) SO HARD but saying nothing at all against the decisions of M. Bienvenu. :D
4. The bishop owns WAY TOO MUCH SILVER in the movie. Like. Dude. A HUGE SACKFUL? Nooooope.
5. I like how lovingly the camera shows us that the bishop's dwelling place is decrepit and falling apart -- there's clearly no money being spent on upkeep. And the imagery of the broken statue laid out in the chapel where Valjean is agonizing over being saved is great too. I am still sad, though, that the line was changed from "bought your soul for God" to "saved your soul for God" because the whole issue of the Bishop and money and what he thinks is worth spending money on and what isn't is IMPORTANT.
6. In the book, Valjean packs away the candlesticks for basically his entire life. I like how in the movie that's not the case -- he keeps the candlesticks prominently with him always and they form an excellent visual reminder that HE IS ALWAYS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF WHAT THE BISHOP DID. The bishop bought his soul for God, and by gum, Valjean is determined to STAY BOUGHT.
7. In "At the end of the day" it is super great that Javert is clearly a part of the "righteous [hurrying] past". Yes indeed!
8. Oh look black beads! HELLO, NOD TO BOOK CANON! And then when Valjean hands Javert the rosary, the rosary is made of those same black beads!
9. When Fantine and the other factory lady are fighting and Valjean comes in and breaks it up, I like how he directs the line "this is a factory, not a circus" to the foreman: he's saying "you fucked up" to the foreman, he's saying that the foreman isn't doing what he ought in keeping everything running smoothly. I like how it seems pretty damn obvious in the movie that if it weren't for the sudden Javert, Valjean himself would have mediated the dispute and would have done a much better job. Of course, this whole conflict is SUPER DIFFERENT FROM THE BOOK but it works.
10. The foreman, for the record, is PERFECT in his role. As are his teeth. UM. I spent a lot of this moving paying attention to people's teeth? And ears? and other irrelevant portions of their facial anatomy? Look I AM BAD AT PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT I AM SUPPOSED TO BE PAYING ATTENTION TO. Anyways, I defs noticed the state of everyone's teeth. I won't comment on them all, because not all are worth commenting on, but a few are. The foreman's are well done. Eponine's are not: they are waaaay too perfect. And I kept on getting distracted in I Dreamed A Dream by paying attention to the fact that Fantine's missing teeth are STILL THERE, just made to blend in with the colour of her surrounding mouth so that it looks as much as possible like they're missing. BUT THEY'RE NOT ACTUALLY MISSING. I mean, I don't think Anne Hathaway should have dedicated herself to the role far enough to actually have teeth removed, because no, but I still couldn't help NOTICING those teeth. (while I am commenting on irrelevant portions of facial anatomy, Cosette's eyes are rather large for the size of her head. Occasionally it looked a little creepy.)
11. I like what they did with Lovely Ladies. It was really clear to me that they pretty much hated their lives and then when the sailors arrive they're suddenly all CHEERFUL and YES PLEASE HAVE SEX WITH ME and NOPE NOTHING'S WRONG. It makes it really clear that the whole "lovely ladies" thing is a customer service act they're putting on to make sure they are successful at their job.
12. When Fantine sings "Don't they know they're making love to one already dead?" the candle-light flares in her eyes and it is GREAT.
13. Fantine's flinch when Valjean first reaches out to touch her is perfect. And then when she puts her fists up to defend herself after spitting in Valjean's face I was just AUUUUGH YES and OHHHH FANTINE
14. I really like the lyric change in Who Am I from "If I speak, I am condemned" to "If I speak, they are condemned" after the verse about the factory workers. It makes it more clear that a large part of Valjean's dilemma is that the good of hundreds of people DOES depend on him remaining free!
15. One of the scenes I still did get a bit teary at was when Fantine is dying in the hospital. Which actually hasn't been, historically, a scene I've cried over much? Interesting! I don't know why it got me this time.
16. I've decided that the best way to describe how Russel Crowe sings as Javert is "calmly implacable." Which is different from Philip Quast ("my" Javert) and, I think, different from book!Javert (book!Javert has more Emotions), but a Javert that works nonetheless.
17. I like how in Castle on a Cloud the link between doll and the "lady all in white" is very explicit. Which....is interesting, then, that the doll she's hankering for is dressed all in BLUE. Though her homemade dolly IS all in white (well, off-white due to being rather dirty), so maybe she's not able to be quite aspirational enough to imagine the blue-garbed lady would love her.
18. Something I've been enjoying ever since beginning to read the book is that the musical scrupulously makes sure that Voltaire is mentioned at least once -- Hugo DOES keep on coming back to him again and again and again! It makes me rather wish I knew more of Voltaire, because all I really know is from having studied "Candide" in my third-year literature class at university. Which was interesting and valuable but doesn't succeed at giving me a complete picture of Voltaire and his ideas and how he was historically perceived!
19. Valjean's actually not particularly socially awkward in this movie, which is interesting to compare with the book! Although he does muck it up pretty bad in the scene in the woods when he meets Cosette and she's hiding behind a tree and he's all DON'T BE AFRAID and I'm like YES YOU ARE MAKING YOUR CASE FOR BEING A NON-CREEPER SO STRONGLY...
20. I've been baffled for a long time by the choice to play M. Thenardier with a French accent that comes and goes when nobody else in the movie has a French accent. And then on this watching I realized -- M. Thenardier puts on the French accent SPECIFICALLY and only when he is attempting to con someone. Which....has weird implications I Do Not Like.
21. Valjean does not smile much in this movie, which is right and good. And it means that the first time we see him smile -- which is at Cosette -- it is all the more radiant. Valjean just looks so ASTONISHED that he is happy! It is super adorable.
22. The way Valjean holds his hand over Cosette's head in Suddenly is super awkward. IT IS WHAT I WAS LOOKING AT ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE SONG because I was just SQUIRMING on Valjean's behalf. YOU CAN COMMIT YOURSELF TO ACTUALLY STROKING HER HEAD, DUDE, THIS HALFHEARTED THING IS STUPID.I can't decide whether it's fantastic characterization or something I wish had never ever happened.
23. Speaking of Suddenly, I like it rather better in the context of having read the book. I'm still not raving over it or anything, but it isn't awful.
24. Horsie! Exciting chase sequence! Fauchelevent!
25. Wait, how does Valjean still have the candlesticks after beginning his new life with Cosette, when all he takes with him from the carriage is Cosette and the doll? His coat is voluminous and can hide much, but those are DAMN BULKY CANDLESTICKS and somehow I don't think they were under there. Unless katana-space is a thing in more than just Highlander. :P
26. Stars was good and stuff but apparently the thing I most felt the need to comment on in my notes is the up-the-nostrils shot of Javert at the end of the song. It is a less than perfectly flattering shot.
27. Gavroche!!!! Oh my god I have SO MANY MORE GAVROCHE FEELS than I did prior to reading the book. GAVROCHE IS SO AMAZING! IN EVERY WAY! HI GAVROCHE ILU.
28. Something I really dislike about the movie -- and I am thinking this is from the musical in general -- is that it elevates Marius' status within the Amis to something just short of Enjolras, cf Marius and Enjolras being the two standing above everyone else rallying the crowd in their introductory scene. Marius isn't even an Ami! And he's a BONAPARTIST who only decided to join the revolution at the last minute because it was a convenient way to die! Sigh. Book!Marius and Musical!Marius are two very different people, which is something that I think I'll be coming back to a few times. There are some ways in which I like Musical!Marius better, and there are some ways I like Book!Marius better.
29. M. Gillenormand! <3333 Of course he had to be a super minor character in the movie because there wasn't space for more, so alas this means that all of the AMAZING characterization from the book gets lost. INCOMPETENTLY GRANDFATHERLY GRANDFATHER YOU ARE THE BEST. sighhhhh I'm just glad they included him at all though.
30. The bro thing between Courfeyrac and Gavroche was an interesting choice they made. I understand why -- it makes Gavroche feel more connected in with the entire story because there isn't really room for all the other ways Gavroche is connected in the book. And it works in the context of the movie. But I love how in the book the closest thing Gavroche has to that kind of actual relationship with a grown-up is with MONTPARNASSE. And in fact the Gavroche-Montparnasse relationship is one of EQUALS. It is so great. GAVROCHE is so great.
31. But SPEAKING of Montparnasse, I decided to keep an eye out for him while watching the movie this time, and I found myself FASCINATED. Because there's the small gang of dudes whom Thenardier hangs out with and Montparnasse is one of them, but nearly EVERY SINGLE TIME we get shots of the gang, Montparnasse is almost entirely hidden by other people. He exists! I got a good glimpse of him exactly once! And then after that it was just flashes of his top-hat and so forth in scenes I KNEW HE WAS IN. Eventually I started to feel like it may have been deliberate or something, because we see plenty of the other dudes in the gang -- not MUCH of them, because they're not in very many scenes, but we do SEE them. But Montparnasse? HE IS A HIDDEN ENIGMA. A MYSTERY. And it is sad because I wanted to admire his dandyism at length!
32. I am so not into love at first sight. They see each other for all of, what, five seconds? But they both know that it is TRUE AND EVERLASTING LOVE immediately! This is something that's handled way better in the book. (although OH MARIUS NO re: the handkerchief thing. I was cringing SO HARD for him when he did that in the book. Well, OH MARIUS NO tends to be one's catchphrase wrt Marius' life choices, so.) BUT ANYWAYS, love at first sight, blah blah blah, let's move on.
33. DAMNIT my note here was not clear enough. I THINK what I meant to say is that in the movie, when Marius is talking to Eponine about finding Cosette, he says "don't let your father know". I THINK. Which is interesting, because it is a change from the "don't let her father know" of the usual lyrics! Frankly not letting EITHER father know is the best life choice :P I wonder why they made that change? If indeed they did make it and I'm not just confused?
34. OKAY SO. Here is where I start talking about the tragic lack of Combeferre again! And related to that, the surprisingly large presence of Joly. I mean, I love Joly! A lot! He's super awesome! But he had WAYYYYY more screen presence than Combeferre, which doesn't make a lot of sense. So to begin with: when Enjolras is singing "Red, the blood of angry men," etc, it cuts twice to reaction shots to other Amis. The other Amis it cuts to: Grantaire and Joly. Grantaire makes sense, but why Joly? At least the scene ends with Combeferre and Enjolras conferring with each other, even though we don't get anything of what they say to each other.
35. Cosette, in In My Life, sings "In my life I'm no longer alone, now the love in my life is so near." Which I never paid any attention to before because blah blah blah I was super not into any part of the love triangle thing. But now that I've read the book I am REALLY ANNOYED AT THIS LINE. Because prior to meeting Marius she HASN'T felt alone! She loved Valjean a lot and was happy! Yes, Marius drives a lot of her previous preoccupations out the window, but I still Do Not Believe that she would recharacterize her previous life as being "alone." Grrr.
36. Though speaking of In My Life, I was intrigued by a lyric change here. "there's so little I know that I'm longing to know of the man that you were in a time long ago" instead of "the child that I was". I think the change makes sense! Because Cosette has no idea there IS a secret about the child that she was; she thinks she REALLY IS Valjean's daughter. The secret is about Valjean's background!
37. I also like that they changed "In your eyes I am just like a child who is lost in the woods" to "in your eyes I am still like that child who was lost in the woods". It works SO much better and I have no idea why it wasn't just like that in the first place.
38. OKAY PTB I NOTICED YOUR BUTTERFLIES THIS TIME. I read somewhere that they carefully netted in the whole garden and released butterflies all through it so that the scene where Cosette and Marius meet can be all the more romantic and beautiful and stuff. I didn't notice the butterflies at all when I watched the movies the first two times, but this time I WAS WATCHING FOR THEM and they were indeed there and they were indeed charming!
39. Actually, I will admit, I was pretty charmed by the whole scene. I like the Cosette/Marius thing a lot more than I used to. I am full of MARIUS YOU MAKE TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICES feels but they are all connected with MARIUS BB I HOPE YOU LEARN TO MAKE BETTER LIFE CHOICES SOON feels. idek, I like him a lot! He tries so hard! And Amanda Seyfried's Cosette has actual personality (which is good, because book!Cosette has actual personality too, and I have NEVER NOTICED PERSONALITY IN COSETTE in the musical!)
40. I don't like how Valjean harshly tells Cosette that he'd told her to stay inside. He doesn't tend to be harsh with her! ALSO iirc in the book he ENCOURAGES her to hang out in the garden! Sigh.
41. Okay, at the Attack on Rue Plumet, at the end when they're all fleeing because Eponine screamed, fuzzily in the background you can just see a dude dangling from a wall with his legs swinging. I'm pretty sure he's trying -- ineffectually -- to scale the wall? And I can't help but wonder if he's Montparnasse, since Montparnasse tends to be the relegated-to-the-background gang member, but I don't know! But I definitely started giggling when I noticed the dude hanging from the wall.
42. ...why are the Thenardiers in the general vicinity of the Amis during One Day More? I suppose because they're preparing to thieve from dead revolutionaries, but it's a bit odd. Anyways, my point here is that Mme Thenardier KISSES JOLY ON THE LIPS??? OH MY GOD. I don't even know what my reaction to that is, but there is DEFINITELY A REACTION.
43. Has anyone managed to identify the dudes who are at the head of the horses leading General Lamarque's funeral carriage aside during Do You Hear The People Sing? I didn't notice them early enough to try to figure out their identities.
44. The furniture cartwheeling down from the upper stories of the buildings is an unexpectedly lovely image.
45. The thing is, it is so clear from analyzing a lot of the lyric changes they made that they put a LOT of thought into, like, every single line! WHICH MAKES IT ALL THE MORE CONFUSING why they occasionally made super-baffling lyric changes (like, oh my god, the one I cannot get over is the reversal of the lines "I run a business of repute, I am the mayor of this town". WHY.). But anyways, I am bringing this up because there is yet another minor lyric change I noticed that says interesting things. Javert, when reporting back to the barricade about what he's learned, says "they intend to starve you out" instead of "they intend to starve us out". Javert is verbally distancing himself from the revolutionaries even as he pretends to be one of them, which fits in nicely with HOW TERRIBLE A SPY HE IS in the book! Oh my god, Javert, you do not just cave and admit your identity the moment it seems that someone might maybe suspect you a little tiny bit! That is not how best to be a spy!
46. Something that fascinates me, watching this movie, is how involved with everything Grantaire really is. He's a much more active part of the group than he is in the book, really. I mean, when he's told, "Get off your arse, it's begun!" -- by someone who isn't even Enjolras, iirc -- he steals a chair and goes to join in and help! He doesn't drunkenly sleep through the ENTIRE REVOLUTION! I have trouble seeing this Grantaire as been the same guy as book!Grantaire. He's obviously cynical, obviously cares about Enjolras' opinion of him, and obviously a drunkard, but he seems a far more functional human being. He's a dude I could more easily see having a happy ending with Enjolras (assuming they weren't both dead). He doesn't have as far to climb to be Enjolras' equal. Which makes their death scene a little bit less heart-punching than the book version. Still good! I still find this Grantaire very interesting! But he is still a DIFFERENT PERSON than book!Grantaire.
47. The Marius-threatens-to-blow-up-the-barricade scene works way better for me in the book. The first two times I watched the movie I was just confused about that scene, because what did Marius think he was DOING? It didn't strike me as a particularly effective tactic, especially since Combeferre and Gavroche both are like MARIUS WTF ARE YOU DOING. And then later Gavroche is all "if it weren't for you, I'da bitten dust" to Marius and that made no sense to me because I could not place when/where/how Marius had saved Gavroche's life. Possibly, though, this is all just Sophia Is Bad At Following Fast Action Scenes and it made perfect sense to everyone else on first watch, idk.
48. It struck me in a way it never has before that rain is a major theme in BOTH of Eponine's major songs. wtf. That's just weird. I suppose it's the whole pathetic fallacy thing, where the weather is sad because she is sad. But none of the other characters in the musical get to have the rain express their feelings for them! The movie does it a bit more, though -- for instance, Look Down at the beginning has it raining, but by the time Valjean is being freed it has stopped and the sun has begun to shine.
49. I wish I had paid more attention in the movie to everyone else's reactions to Eponine's death, because in the musical they're all "she was the first of us to fall" and "she will not die in vain, she will not be betrayed" and so forth. I feel like some of that was cut and some of that was changed in the movie, but I don't remember HOW because I did not take adequate notes here. But I do think it's interesting that both the musical and the book place a lot of emphasis on the first person to die, but it's a DIFFERENT PERSON, because the musical removes the character of Mabeuf (*CRIES FOREVER* MABEUF IS THE BEST). But SOMEBODY being the first to die is all important and symbolic and stuff. And I can't remember if the movie goes there or not!
50. I noticed several times in the movie, that it does a rather good job of using silences to good effect. Which is pretty impressive in a musical since that's kind of like ALL MUSIC ALL THE TIME. But they managed it anyways! And maybe the bits of silence that WERE there were all the more effective in juxtaposition with the musicalness of everything else?
51. I am sad that Gavroche is not nearly as bloodthirsty in the movie. In the book he's all GET ME A BIGGER GUN and NO I DON'T WANT TO DELIVER THE LETTER, I WANT TO STAY AT THE BARRICADE AND FIGHT. In the movie, yeah, he has a gun, and yeah, he seems pretty into the revolution thing, but in a way that doesn't seem any different from the Amis. And when Marius requests he deliver the letter, he acquiesces immediately, which just reads weirdly to me. But then I suppose there wasn't room in the movie to get into everything, and it's easier to have him just say that yeah, he'll deliver it.
52. In one of those things that is a change from the book but makes sense since it requires less explanation, Valjean STEALS his uniform instead of having one for legitimate reasons. And then the scene where Enjolras and Combeferre try to convince people who have dependents to leave the barricade so their deaths won't cause more hardship DOES NOT EXIST which is tragedy forever because that is SUCH A GOOD SCENE OMG. I love it. But anyways it means that Valjean continues to wear the uniform for the rest of the fight instead of doffing it immediately upon his arrival.
53. Speaking of Valjean's arrival, I suppose it makes sense in the context of the other changes to have Gavroche be the one to vouch for Valjean instead of Marius. It's too bad it's necessary, though, because I like the whole thing with Marius THINKING that was Valjean and then thinking he must have just imagined it all and then deciding that no it actually HAD happened after all. Poor Marius. His life is so hard: nothing makes sense and he keeps on failing every time he tries to do right things.
54. A change I do not like from the book is that the way Valjean contributes at the barricade is by SHOOTING AT PEOPLE instead of helping in various nonviolent ways as he does in the book. I like how Valjean is SO DEDICATED TO TRYING TO LIVE UP TO WHAT THE BISHOP COMMISSIONED HIM WITH! I like how if Marius were only PAYING ATTENTION he might have noticed that, in contrast with what he believes Valjean did to Javert, Valjean does NOTHING VIOLENT TO ANYBODY ELSE EVER, which is kind of a clue as to what sort of person Valjean is!
55. ONE OF THE VERY FEW PLACES where Combeferre plays a good and important role is when Enjolras tells Valjean that Javert is his to deal with and Combeferre is like ENJOLRAS NO. NO. But of course even that happens in the BACKGROUND, the camera isn't even really paying ATTENTION to Combeferre. COMBEFERRE ILU EVEN IF TOM HOOPER DOESN'T.
56. Huh. So. Lyric change: Valjean tells Javert "If I come out of this alive, you'll find me at #55 Rue Plumet" in the musical. In the movie, he says "If I come out of this alive, you'll find me at Rue de l'Homme Arme #5." In the book, at this point, he is living at Rue de l'Homme Arme #7. But what the movie does actually makes sense! They've decided to go with the book version of events where Valjean and Cosette leave Rue Plumet before the revolution, in preparation to flee to England in the near future. But Rue de l'Homme Arme #7 doesn't fit nicely into the rhythm or the rhyme of the song, so they made it #5 instead, which works very well. Good work, movie!
57. I really like that brief shot of Grantaire trailing his fingers over the broken piano at the beginning of Drink With Me. It is a shot that is rife with possible interesting things to say about Grantaire!
58. Wowwwww so having read the book I suddenly have ZERO PATIENCE for Bring Him Home. I just love SO MUCH that Valjean spends the entirety of the protracted and miserable rescue of Marius being like I HATE HIM I HATE HIM I HATE HIM SO MUCH but he does it anyways because it's the right thing to do for the sake of his daughter's happiness. So making Valjean be all "oh he's like a son to me!!!" pretty thoroughly ruins that. Plus: why is Valjean singing this about MARIUS and Marius only, when there's plenty of young men at the barricade who are also young and deserve peace and joy, I mean Valjean is ALL ABOUT wanting to help other people! I do know that Marius is different from the others as he's there only because he's brokenhearted from lack of Cosette, whereas the others are all genuinely prepared to die for the cause they feel so strongly about, so in that way it does make sense to save Marius and only Marius. But VALJEAN HAS NO WAY OF KNOWING THIS ABOUT MARIUS. The only thing he knows about Marius is that Cosette loves him, and NOTHING ELSE! Anyways. I love my Imperfect Saint Valjean of the book a lot and the removal of his hatred of Marius makes me sad.
59. Something weird: you know how I was talking earlier about how in this version of the story Marius is a full and equal part of the Amis? During the night on the barricade, when they're all sleeping (except for Valjean, who is all full of paternal feels he has to sing about), all the other Amis are sleeping on the barricade -- but Marius is apart from them, sleeping on his own at the side of the Musain. Which would have been an excellent character touch IF THIS MARIUS WAS THE SAME AS BOOK!MARIUS, BUT HE ISN'T, so as it is it feels like the only reason it was done was to make it easier for Valjean to sing to him.
60. Another change from the book that works to compress the story into the simpler shape it has to be for a movie/musical but still makes me sad: the reason they are out of ammunition is because the rain ruined the gunpowder, instead of because of the simple inescapable fact that insurrectionists just DO NOT HAVE THE SAME ACCESS TO AMMUNITION that the army does!
61. And speaking of access to ammunition, the scene with Gavroche going out on a mission to collect ammunition from dead people on the far side of the barricade is way better in the book. Like: he is actually SUPER EFFECTIVE and is collecting a whole basketful while hidden by the smoke from all the gunshots. Whereas in the movie he goes out in FULL VIEW of the army and is EASILY SHOOTABLE and barely manages to collect anything at all before being shot down. It makes Gavroche look a lot more foolhardy and less capable which MAKES ME SAD. Also I like the song he sings in the book way more than Little People. Hmph.
62. It's interesting that the character who first and most strenuously tries to convince Gavroche to not go collecting ammunition is Combeferre. It's unexpected for two reasons: one, it's Courfeyrac who has the strongest Gavroche feels in the movie, not Combeferre; and two, Combeferre never gets to do anything in the movie. So why they chose to give THIS to Combeferre is a bit mystifying.
63. Awww, Hadley Fraser the Army Leader Dude REALLY MEANS it when he's trying to convince the revolutionaries to give up! He really doesn't want to kill them all! Awww!
64. I love all the feathers from the burst mattress getting all over everything.
65. Wow something I really really hate is how the way the movie portrays the battles makes the revolutionaries look SUPER INEFFECTIVE. Both times there's a direct attack on the barricade they get swarmed in practically NO TIME AT ALL. It makes it look like they really had no chance at all and never would have. In the book, at the first attack they're nearly taken over because they're busy with something else (Javert? Mabeuf's death? I forget what) and aren't directly there defending the barricade. And for the rest of the time they are SUPER EFFECTIVE at defending the barricade and manage to hold it for an impressively long time until they run out of ammunition! But NOOOOO in the movie it's just like, all the soldiers have to do is attack and WHOOPS LOOK AT THAT the revolutionaries are beaten. Grr.
66. But if you know what you are looking for it is still clear that they've run out of ammunition and when they retreat to the first floor of the Musain they are throwing bottles at the soldiers just like in the book! That's something I did not notice the first two times watching the movie but really appreciated this time. (I was really glad, reading the book, that I was already aware that European standard practice is to call the floor above the ground floor the "first floor" as opposed to "ground floor" and "first floor" being synonyms like they are in North America. Otherwise I would have been SO CONFUSED by several scenes.)
67. WOW I AM SO DISPLEASED about Javert pinning that medal on Gavroche! It just reads SO WRONG to me! I was vaguely uncomfortable with it the first two times watching the movie, and now I am just like NO. Javert's all shook up and in inner turmoil because of Valjean freeing him, yes, but he hasn't reached any conclusions about it yet and is certainly not at a place where he would be placing a medal of bravery on a thieving revolutionary gamin!
68. I AM SORRY MOVIE, I am just so unimpressed with your sewer sequence when compared to the book! That sequence was possibly one of the best in the book! (there are A LOT of contenders for best sequences in the book, but this is definitely one) And you just DO NOT MEASURE UP. I'm also just kind of unhappy with the entire way the musical changes up the events of the sewer escape. ALSO. The sewer is not knee deep in muck the entire way! Valjean stays to the edges of the tunnels where there's just a bit of water lapping at his toes! THE REASON he is head to toe in muck by the end is because of the one crevasse he has to bypass because of the treacherous cracks that form due to instabilities in the surrounding soil! He is not swimming in muck the whole way! ALSO it would have been very easy to have Valjean carry Marius in the same way he does in the book but NO. Sigh. (all of which is to say: my brief note on the subject I wrote while at the movie was merely noting that Javert notices the open sewer grate which Valjean inexplicably fails to close behind him, instead of happening to be at the other end waiting for Thenardier to emerge. This....was a shorthand for ALL MY SEWER FEELS? Apparently?)
69. Javert's Suicide is awesome and will always be awesome forever, book or musical, the end.
70. I'm glad they chose to cut a lot of Turning, because it removes the nonfactual statements like that the revolutionaries had "never held a gun" when HELLO THEY'VE BEEN A RADICAL REVOLUTIONARY GROUP SINCE '28, THEY TOTALLY WOULD HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN THE '30 REVOLUTION. Also Bahorel is specifically mentioned in the book as having been involved in the '22 revolution! (oh my god this period of history has so many revolutions.....)
71. The way Marius sings "You're Jean Valjean" here at the end of Valjean's confession here is WAY TOO REMINISCENT of the three falling tones of a subway door about to close.
72. Okay, so at the end of Empty Chairs at Empty Tables (which is, ftr, very well done, although the whole way through I was loling because all I could think about was this) Cosette is all, don't think about it Marius because WE WILL BE TOGETHER FOREVER. And then when Cosette is being all heartbroken about Valjean leaving on a "journey" Marius is all DON'T WORRY, WE WILL NEVER BE APART, and I'm just like GUYS. GUYS. Having each other does not negate the fact that losing your friends and your father is really sucky! At least they both do it to each other, instead of it being a one-sided sentiment.....?
73. When I read the book I was REALLY SURPRISED that Valjean's death didn't happen in the convent. The discoveries of plenty of other book-to-musical changes hadn't surprised me too much, but this one did. I kind of love the idea of him going back there to die, especially now that I know from the book that he lived and worked there for MANY YEARS, and it's like.... if he went back to the convent he would not be so alone in his dying days! On the other hand it is SO VALJEAN to die stoically alone because he thinks he deserves it or whatever. OH VALJEAN ILU.
74. Okay so in the book Marius finds out that Valjean is a) not a murderer and b) not a thief of vast ridiculous quantities of money ALONG with finding out that he saved Marius' life, and this combination of learnings is what makes Marius be all OH NOES I SHOULDN'T HAVE PUSHED HIM OUT OF OUR LIVES. But the musical really makes it sound like the reason Marius changes his mind is SOLELY because he finds out that Valjean saved his life. This makes Marius seem REALLY SELFISH. Like: it would break Cosette's heart if she found out her father was a convict, therefor Valjean must go far away and never see her again BUT WAIT her convict father saved my life NEVER MIND LET'S WELCOME HIM BACK INTO OUR FAMILY. What. Marius. Marius. So yeah, this is one of the places where I like musical!Marius WAYYYYYY less than book!Marius. Mostly musical!Marius is a far more functional human being than book!Marius, but this makes me really dislike musical!Marius.
75. I LOVE SO MUCH that the musical takes "Yes Cosette, forbid me now to die! I'll obey -- I will try," nearly directly from the book. It is such a great line! (book, Hapgood translation: "Oh! yes, forbid me to die. Who knows? Perhaps I shall obey.")
76. Time to talk about yet another lyric change! Instead of Valjean telling Cosette "It's the story of those who always loved you", he tells Cosette, "It's the story of one who turned from hating, a man who only learned to love when you were in his keeping" and MY VALJEAN&COSETTE FEELS LET ME SHOW YOU THEM OH MY GOD.
77. BISHOP!!!!!!!! Movie I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER for having the bishop welcome Valjean after death! (book, Hapgood translation: "It is probable, in fact, that the Bishop was present at this death agony.") I just -- oh god, Valjean trying his whole life to live up to the Bishop and then the Bishop WELCOMES HIM AT DEATH and alksjhflskdjfskldfdk yes I am tearing up while typing this I JUST HAVE SO MANY FEELS OKAY
78. So the first two times I saw the movie, the part I cried at SUPER HARD was the Epilogue with Barricade Heaven and everybody joyfully singing. This time I did not cry at all because I was too busy analyzing who was placed next to whom along the barricade. YES THIS IS THE LAST TIME I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT COMBEFERRE GETTING SHORT SHRIFT. So anyways next to Enjolras on one side is Grantaire (YES GOOD) and on the other side is Courfeyrac (ALSO GOOD). And then on the other side of Courfeyrac is Joly and then only BEYOND JOLY is Combeferre. Combeferre is seriously THAT FAR AWAY from Enjolras? NO. NO, MOVIE. INCORRECT.
And oh wow was that seriously my last point? I AM DONE? I AM DONE! OH MY GOD THAT WAS A LOT OF WORDS. If you read through this whole thing PROPS TO YOU.
In conclusion: if you have thoughts or opinions or reactions to anything I have said please talk to me because in case you can't tell from the above 6500 words I LOVE TALKING ABOUT LES MISERABLES.
THE END.
It was a strange feeling, watching the movie while note-taking. I found that it greatly lessened my emotional engagement with the story, which was really sad. I DIDN'T CRY AT THE END! I only even got teary-eyed a few times! BUT! Now I can SHARE WITH YOU my opinions about the movie. Um. This is like 6500 words long, which is utterly ridiculous and I AM AWARE. /o\
Let me begin by saying that after the movie I proceeded to spend the next ten minutes informing Mara (who I'd gone to see it with) about how disgraceful the relative lack of Combeferre was. He's one of the few Amis I could recognize relatively reliably, the others being Enjolras, Courfeyrac, Grantaire, and Joly. I'm bad with faces, so having five Amis reliably recognizable to me was DOING REALLY WELL. Anyways, this meant that I was keeping an eye out for him and he kept on being relegated to being super-background! WHAT NO! COMBEFERRE!
But let me do this in order. I will label my thoughts with numbers, since that way it will be easier for me to keep everything organized, since it's not like there's a logical flow of ideas here -- it's just THING! and ANOTHER THING! and ANOTHER THING!
1. So it turned out that one of the few times I got teary-eyed was RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING when the music first starts and I was just FEEELS BECAUSE LES MISERABLES.
2. You know the bit where the recently-free Valjean walks across lovely and desolate scenery? I am pretty sure I've seen people comment on how it reminds them of imagery from LoTR. I can't comment on that as I've only seen bits and pieces of LoTR, but I can tell you that what this scene reminded ME strongly of was the movie The Way, which is about walking the pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago. Which...is kind of fitting, considering that Valjean's pilgrimage here ends with his redemption at the house of a dude who'd make an excellent candidate for sainthood.
3. I LOVE THE BISHOP SO MUCH. Also I love how Mlle Baptistine and Mme Magloire are clearly judging Valjean (and the bishop) SO HARD but saying nothing at all against the decisions of M. Bienvenu. :D
4. The bishop owns WAY TOO MUCH SILVER in the movie. Like. Dude. A HUGE SACKFUL? Nooooope.
5. I like how lovingly the camera shows us that the bishop's dwelling place is decrepit and falling apart -- there's clearly no money being spent on upkeep. And the imagery of the broken statue laid out in the chapel where Valjean is agonizing over being saved is great too. I am still sad, though, that the line was changed from "bought your soul for God" to "saved your soul for God" because the whole issue of the Bishop and money and what he thinks is worth spending money on and what isn't is IMPORTANT.
6. In the book, Valjean packs away the candlesticks for basically his entire life. I like how in the movie that's not the case -- he keeps the candlesticks prominently with him always and they form an excellent visual reminder that HE IS ALWAYS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF WHAT THE BISHOP DID. The bishop bought his soul for God, and by gum, Valjean is determined to STAY BOUGHT.
7. In "At the end of the day" it is super great that Javert is clearly a part of the "righteous [hurrying] past". Yes indeed!
8. Oh look black beads! HELLO, NOD TO BOOK CANON! And then when Valjean hands Javert the rosary, the rosary is made of those same black beads!
9. When Fantine and the other factory lady are fighting and Valjean comes in and breaks it up, I like how he directs the line "this is a factory, not a circus" to the foreman: he's saying "you fucked up" to the foreman, he's saying that the foreman isn't doing what he ought in keeping everything running smoothly. I like how it seems pretty damn obvious in the movie that if it weren't for the sudden Javert, Valjean himself would have mediated the dispute and would have done a much better job. Of course, this whole conflict is SUPER DIFFERENT FROM THE BOOK but it works.
10. The foreman, for the record, is PERFECT in his role. As are his teeth. UM. I spent a lot of this moving paying attention to people's teeth? And ears? and other irrelevant portions of their facial anatomy? Look I AM BAD AT PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT I AM SUPPOSED TO BE PAYING ATTENTION TO. Anyways, I defs noticed the state of everyone's teeth. I won't comment on them all, because not all are worth commenting on, but a few are. The foreman's are well done. Eponine's are not: they are waaaay too perfect. And I kept on getting distracted in I Dreamed A Dream by paying attention to the fact that Fantine's missing teeth are STILL THERE, just made to blend in with the colour of her surrounding mouth so that it looks as much as possible like they're missing. BUT THEY'RE NOT ACTUALLY MISSING. I mean, I don't think Anne Hathaway should have dedicated herself to the role far enough to actually have teeth removed, because no, but I still couldn't help NOTICING those teeth. (while I am commenting on irrelevant portions of facial anatomy, Cosette's eyes are rather large for the size of her head. Occasionally it looked a little creepy.)
11. I like what they did with Lovely Ladies. It was really clear to me that they pretty much hated their lives and then when the sailors arrive they're suddenly all CHEERFUL and YES PLEASE HAVE SEX WITH ME and NOPE NOTHING'S WRONG. It makes it really clear that the whole "lovely ladies" thing is a customer service act they're putting on to make sure they are successful at their job.
12. When Fantine sings "Don't they know they're making love to one already dead?" the candle-light flares in her eyes and it is GREAT.
13. Fantine's flinch when Valjean first reaches out to touch her is perfect. And then when she puts her fists up to defend herself after spitting in Valjean's face I was just AUUUUGH YES and OHHHH FANTINE
14. I really like the lyric change in Who Am I from "If I speak, I am condemned" to "If I speak, they are condemned" after the verse about the factory workers. It makes it more clear that a large part of Valjean's dilemma is that the good of hundreds of people DOES depend on him remaining free!
15. One of the scenes I still did get a bit teary at was when Fantine is dying in the hospital. Which actually hasn't been, historically, a scene I've cried over much? Interesting! I don't know why it got me this time.
16. I've decided that the best way to describe how Russel Crowe sings as Javert is "calmly implacable." Which is different from Philip Quast ("my" Javert) and, I think, different from book!Javert (book!Javert has more Emotions), but a Javert that works nonetheless.
17. I like how in Castle on a Cloud the link between doll and the "lady all in white" is very explicit. Which....is interesting, then, that the doll she's hankering for is dressed all in BLUE. Though her homemade dolly IS all in white (well, off-white due to being rather dirty), so maybe she's not able to be quite aspirational enough to imagine the blue-garbed lady would love her.
18. Something I've been enjoying ever since beginning to read the book is that the musical scrupulously makes sure that Voltaire is mentioned at least once -- Hugo DOES keep on coming back to him again and again and again! It makes me rather wish I knew more of Voltaire, because all I really know is from having studied "Candide" in my third-year literature class at university. Which was interesting and valuable but doesn't succeed at giving me a complete picture of Voltaire and his ideas and how he was historically perceived!
19. Valjean's actually not particularly socially awkward in this movie, which is interesting to compare with the book! Although he does muck it up pretty bad in the scene in the woods when he meets Cosette and she's hiding behind a tree and he's all DON'T BE AFRAID and I'm like YES YOU ARE MAKING YOUR CASE FOR BEING A NON-CREEPER SO STRONGLY...
20. I've been baffled for a long time by the choice to play M. Thenardier with a French accent that comes and goes when nobody else in the movie has a French accent. And then on this watching I realized -- M. Thenardier puts on the French accent SPECIFICALLY and only when he is attempting to con someone. Which....has weird implications I Do Not Like.
21. Valjean does not smile much in this movie, which is right and good. And it means that the first time we see him smile -- which is at Cosette -- it is all the more radiant. Valjean just looks so ASTONISHED that he is happy! It is super adorable.
22. The way Valjean holds his hand over Cosette's head in Suddenly is super awkward. IT IS WHAT I WAS LOOKING AT ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE SONG because I was just SQUIRMING on Valjean's behalf. YOU CAN COMMIT YOURSELF TO ACTUALLY STROKING HER HEAD, DUDE, THIS HALFHEARTED THING IS STUPID.I can't decide whether it's fantastic characterization or something I wish had never ever happened.
23. Speaking of Suddenly, I like it rather better in the context of having read the book. I'm still not raving over it or anything, but it isn't awful.
24. Horsie! Exciting chase sequence! Fauchelevent!
25. Wait, how does Valjean still have the candlesticks after beginning his new life with Cosette, when all he takes with him from the carriage is Cosette and the doll? His coat is voluminous and can hide much, but those are DAMN BULKY CANDLESTICKS and somehow I don't think they were under there. Unless katana-space is a thing in more than just Highlander. :P
26. Stars was good and stuff but apparently the thing I most felt the need to comment on in my notes is the up-the-nostrils shot of Javert at the end of the song. It is a less than perfectly flattering shot.
27. Gavroche!!!! Oh my god I have SO MANY MORE GAVROCHE FEELS than I did prior to reading the book. GAVROCHE IS SO AMAZING! IN EVERY WAY! HI GAVROCHE ILU.
28. Something I really dislike about the movie -- and I am thinking this is from the musical in general -- is that it elevates Marius' status within the Amis to something just short of Enjolras, cf Marius and Enjolras being the two standing above everyone else rallying the crowd in their introductory scene. Marius isn't even an Ami! And he's a BONAPARTIST who only decided to join the revolution at the last minute because it was a convenient way to die! Sigh. Book!Marius and Musical!Marius are two very different people, which is something that I think I'll be coming back to a few times. There are some ways in which I like Musical!Marius better, and there are some ways I like Book!Marius better.
29. M. Gillenormand! <3333 Of course he had to be a super minor character in the movie because there wasn't space for more, so alas this means that all of the AMAZING characterization from the book gets lost. INCOMPETENTLY GRANDFATHERLY GRANDFATHER YOU ARE THE BEST. sighhhhh I'm just glad they included him at all though.
30. The bro thing between Courfeyrac and Gavroche was an interesting choice they made. I understand why -- it makes Gavroche feel more connected in with the entire story because there isn't really room for all the other ways Gavroche is connected in the book. And it works in the context of the movie. But I love how in the book the closest thing Gavroche has to that kind of actual relationship with a grown-up is with MONTPARNASSE. And in fact the Gavroche-Montparnasse relationship is one of EQUALS. It is so great. GAVROCHE is so great.
31. But SPEAKING of Montparnasse, I decided to keep an eye out for him while watching the movie this time, and I found myself FASCINATED. Because there's the small gang of dudes whom Thenardier hangs out with and Montparnasse is one of them, but nearly EVERY SINGLE TIME we get shots of the gang, Montparnasse is almost entirely hidden by other people. He exists! I got a good glimpse of him exactly once! And then after that it was just flashes of his top-hat and so forth in scenes I KNEW HE WAS IN. Eventually I started to feel like it may have been deliberate or something, because we see plenty of the other dudes in the gang -- not MUCH of them, because they're not in very many scenes, but we do SEE them. But Montparnasse? HE IS A HIDDEN ENIGMA. A MYSTERY. And it is sad because I wanted to admire his dandyism at length!
32. I am so not into love at first sight. They see each other for all of, what, five seconds? But they both know that it is TRUE AND EVERLASTING LOVE immediately! This is something that's handled way better in the book. (although OH MARIUS NO re: the handkerchief thing. I was cringing SO HARD for him when he did that in the book. Well, OH MARIUS NO tends to be one's catchphrase wrt Marius' life choices, so.) BUT ANYWAYS, love at first sight, blah blah blah, let's move on.
33. DAMNIT my note here was not clear enough. I THINK what I meant to say is that in the movie, when Marius is talking to Eponine about finding Cosette, he says "don't let your father know". I THINK. Which is interesting, because it is a change from the "don't let her father know" of the usual lyrics! Frankly not letting EITHER father know is the best life choice :P I wonder why they made that change? If indeed they did make it and I'm not just confused?
34. OKAY SO. Here is where I start talking about the tragic lack of Combeferre again! And related to that, the surprisingly large presence of Joly. I mean, I love Joly! A lot! He's super awesome! But he had WAYYYYY more screen presence than Combeferre, which doesn't make a lot of sense. So to begin with: when Enjolras is singing "Red, the blood of angry men," etc, it cuts twice to reaction shots to other Amis. The other Amis it cuts to: Grantaire and Joly. Grantaire makes sense, but why Joly? At least the scene ends with Combeferre and Enjolras conferring with each other, even though we don't get anything of what they say to each other.
35. Cosette, in In My Life, sings "In my life I'm no longer alone, now the love in my life is so near." Which I never paid any attention to before because blah blah blah I was super not into any part of the love triangle thing. But now that I've read the book I am REALLY ANNOYED AT THIS LINE. Because prior to meeting Marius she HASN'T felt alone! She loved Valjean a lot and was happy! Yes, Marius drives a lot of her previous preoccupations out the window, but I still Do Not Believe that she would recharacterize her previous life as being "alone." Grrr.
36. Though speaking of In My Life, I was intrigued by a lyric change here. "there's so little I know that I'm longing to know of the man that you were in a time long ago" instead of "the child that I was". I think the change makes sense! Because Cosette has no idea there IS a secret about the child that she was; she thinks she REALLY IS Valjean's daughter. The secret is about Valjean's background!
37. I also like that they changed "In your eyes I am just like a child who is lost in the woods" to "in your eyes I am still like that child who was lost in the woods". It works SO much better and I have no idea why it wasn't just like that in the first place.
38. OKAY PTB I NOTICED YOUR BUTTERFLIES THIS TIME. I read somewhere that they carefully netted in the whole garden and released butterflies all through it so that the scene where Cosette and Marius meet can be all the more romantic and beautiful and stuff. I didn't notice the butterflies at all when I watched the movies the first two times, but this time I WAS WATCHING FOR THEM and they were indeed there and they were indeed charming!
39. Actually, I will admit, I was pretty charmed by the whole scene. I like the Cosette/Marius thing a lot more than I used to. I am full of MARIUS YOU MAKE TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICES feels but they are all connected with MARIUS BB I HOPE YOU LEARN TO MAKE BETTER LIFE CHOICES SOON feels. idek, I like him a lot! He tries so hard! And Amanda Seyfried's Cosette has actual personality (which is good, because book!Cosette has actual personality too, and I have NEVER NOTICED PERSONALITY IN COSETTE in the musical!)
40. I don't like how Valjean harshly tells Cosette that he'd told her to stay inside. He doesn't tend to be harsh with her! ALSO iirc in the book he ENCOURAGES her to hang out in the garden! Sigh.
41. Okay, at the Attack on Rue Plumet, at the end when they're all fleeing because Eponine screamed, fuzzily in the background you can just see a dude dangling from a wall with his legs swinging. I'm pretty sure he's trying -- ineffectually -- to scale the wall? And I can't help but wonder if he's Montparnasse, since Montparnasse tends to be the relegated-to-the-background gang member, but I don't know! But I definitely started giggling when I noticed the dude hanging from the wall.
42. ...why are the Thenardiers in the general vicinity of the Amis during One Day More? I suppose because they're preparing to thieve from dead revolutionaries, but it's a bit odd. Anyways, my point here is that Mme Thenardier KISSES JOLY ON THE LIPS??? OH MY GOD. I don't even know what my reaction to that is, but there is DEFINITELY A REACTION.
43. Has anyone managed to identify the dudes who are at the head of the horses leading General Lamarque's funeral carriage aside during Do You Hear The People Sing? I didn't notice them early enough to try to figure out their identities.
44. The furniture cartwheeling down from the upper stories of the buildings is an unexpectedly lovely image.
45. The thing is, it is so clear from analyzing a lot of the lyric changes they made that they put a LOT of thought into, like, every single line! WHICH MAKES IT ALL THE MORE CONFUSING why they occasionally made super-baffling lyric changes (like, oh my god, the one I cannot get over is the reversal of the lines "I run a business of repute, I am the mayor of this town". WHY.). But anyways, I am bringing this up because there is yet another minor lyric change I noticed that says interesting things. Javert, when reporting back to the barricade about what he's learned, says "they intend to starve you out" instead of "they intend to starve us out". Javert is verbally distancing himself from the revolutionaries even as he pretends to be one of them, which fits in nicely with HOW TERRIBLE A SPY HE IS in the book! Oh my god, Javert, you do not just cave and admit your identity the moment it seems that someone might maybe suspect you a little tiny bit! That is not how best to be a spy!
46. Something that fascinates me, watching this movie, is how involved with everything Grantaire really is. He's a much more active part of the group than he is in the book, really. I mean, when he's told, "Get off your arse, it's begun!" -- by someone who isn't even Enjolras, iirc -- he steals a chair and goes to join in and help! He doesn't drunkenly sleep through the ENTIRE REVOLUTION! I have trouble seeing this Grantaire as been the same guy as book!Grantaire. He's obviously cynical, obviously cares about Enjolras' opinion of him, and obviously a drunkard, but he seems a far more functional human being. He's a dude I could more easily see having a happy ending with Enjolras (assuming they weren't both dead). He doesn't have as far to climb to be Enjolras' equal. Which makes their death scene a little bit less heart-punching than the book version. Still good! I still find this Grantaire very interesting! But he is still a DIFFERENT PERSON than book!Grantaire.
47. The Marius-threatens-to-blow-up-the-barricade scene works way better for me in the book. The first two times I watched the movie I was just confused about that scene, because what did Marius think he was DOING? It didn't strike me as a particularly effective tactic, especially since Combeferre and Gavroche both are like MARIUS WTF ARE YOU DOING. And then later Gavroche is all "if it weren't for you, I'da bitten dust" to Marius and that made no sense to me because I could not place when/where/how Marius had saved Gavroche's life. Possibly, though, this is all just Sophia Is Bad At Following Fast Action Scenes and it made perfect sense to everyone else on first watch, idk.
48. It struck me in a way it never has before that rain is a major theme in BOTH of Eponine's major songs. wtf. That's just weird. I suppose it's the whole pathetic fallacy thing, where the weather is sad because she is sad. But none of the other characters in the musical get to have the rain express their feelings for them! The movie does it a bit more, though -- for instance, Look Down at the beginning has it raining, but by the time Valjean is being freed it has stopped and the sun has begun to shine.
49. I wish I had paid more attention in the movie to everyone else's reactions to Eponine's death, because in the musical they're all "she was the first of us to fall" and "she will not die in vain, she will not be betrayed" and so forth. I feel like some of that was cut and some of that was changed in the movie, but I don't remember HOW because I did not take adequate notes here. But I do think it's interesting that both the musical and the book place a lot of emphasis on the first person to die, but it's a DIFFERENT PERSON, because the musical removes the character of Mabeuf (*CRIES FOREVER* MABEUF IS THE BEST). But SOMEBODY being the first to die is all important and symbolic and stuff. And I can't remember if the movie goes there or not!
50. I noticed several times in the movie, that it does a rather good job of using silences to good effect. Which is pretty impressive in a musical since that's kind of like ALL MUSIC ALL THE TIME. But they managed it anyways! And maybe the bits of silence that WERE there were all the more effective in juxtaposition with the musicalness of everything else?
51. I am sad that Gavroche is not nearly as bloodthirsty in the movie. In the book he's all GET ME A BIGGER GUN and NO I DON'T WANT TO DELIVER THE LETTER, I WANT TO STAY AT THE BARRICADE AND FIGHT. In the movie, yeah, he has a gun, and yeah, he seems pretty into the revolution thing, but in a way that doesn't seem any different from the Amis. And when Marius requests he deliver the letter, he acquiesces immediately, which just reads weirdly to me. But then I suppose there wasn't room in the movie to get into everything, and it's easier to have him just say that yeah, he'll deliver it.
52. In one of those things that is a change from the book but makes sense since it requires less explanation, Valjean STEALS his uniform instead of having one for legitimate reasons. And then the scene where Enjolras and Combeferre try to convince people who have dependents to leave the barricade so their deaths won't cause more hardship DOES NOT EXIST which is tragedy forever because that is SUCH A GOOD SCENE OMG. I love it. But anyways it means that Valjean continues to wear the uniform for the rest of the fight instead of doffing it immediately upon his arrival.
53. Speaking of Valjean's arrival, I suppose it makes sense in the context of the other changes to have Gavroche be the one to vouch for Valjean instead of Marius. It's too bad it's necessary, though, because I like the whole thing with Marius THINKING that was Valjean and then thinking he must have just imagined it all and then deciding that no it actually HAD happened after all. Poor Marius. His life is so hard: nothing makes sense and he keeps on failing every time he tries to do right things.
54. A change I do not like from the book is that the way Valjean contributes at the barricade is by SHOOTING AT PEOPLE instead of helping in various nonviolent ways as he does in the book. I like how Valjean is SO DEDICATED TO TRYING TO LIVE UP TO WHAT THE BISHOP COMMISSIONED HIM WITH! I like how if Marius were only PAYING ATTENTION he might have noticed that, in contrast with what he believes Valjean did to Javert, Valjean does NOTHING VIOLENT TO ANYBODY ELSE EVER, which is kind of a clue as to what sort of person Valjean is!
55. ONE OF THE VERY FEW PLACES where Combeferre plays a good and important role is when Enjolras tells Valjean that Javert is his to deal with and Combeferre is like ENJOLRAS NO. NO. But of course even that happens in the BACKGROUND, the camera isn't even really paying ATTENTION to Combeferre. COMBEFERRE ILU EVEN IF TOM HOOPER DOESN'T.
56. Huh. So. Lyric change: Valjean tells Javert "If I come out of this alive, you'll find me at #55 Rue Plumet" in the musical. In the movie, he says "If I come out of this alive, you'll find me at Rue de l'Homme Arme #5." In the book, at this point, he is living at Rue de l'Homme Arme #7. But what the movie does actually makes sense! They've decided to go with the book version of events where Valjean and Cosette leave Rue Plumet before the revolution, in preparation to flee to England in the near future. But Rue de l'Homme Arme #7 doesn't fit nicely into the rhythm or the rhyme of the song, so they made it #5 instead, which works very well. Good work, movie!
57. I really like that brief shot of Grantaire trailing his fingers over the broken piano at the beginning of Drink With Me. It is a shot that is rife with possible interesting things to say about Grantaire!
58. Wowwwww so having read the book I suddenly have ZERO PATIENCE for Bring Him Home. I just love SO MUCH that Valjean spends the entirety of the protracted and miserable rescue of Marius being like I HATE HIM I HATE HIM I HATE HIM SO MUCH but he does it anyways because it's the right thing to do for the sake of his daughter's happiness. So making Valjean be all "oh he's like a son to me!!!" pretty thoroughly ruins that. Plus: why is Valjean singing this about MARIUS and Marius only, when there's plenty of young men at the barricade who are also young and deserve peace and joy, I mean Valjean is ALL ABOUT wanting to help other people! I do know that Marius is different from the others as he's there only because he's brokenhearted from lack of Cosette, whereas the others are all genuinely prepared to die for the cause they feel so strongly about, so in that way it does make sense to save Marius and only Marius. But VALJEAN HAS NO WAY OF KNOWING THIS ABOUT MARIUS. The only thing he knows about Marius is that Cosette loves him, and NOTHING ELSE! Anyways. I love my Imperfect Saint Valjean of the book a lot and the removal of his hatred of Marius makes me sad.
59. Something weird: you know how I was talking earlier about how in this version of the story Marius is a full and equal part of the Amis? During the night on the barricade, when they're all sleeping (except for Valjean, who is all full of paternal feels he has to sing about), all the other Amis are sleeping on the barricade -- but Marius is apart from them, sleeping on his own at the side of the Musain. Which would have been an excellent character touch IF THIS MARIUS WAS THE SAME AS BOOK!MARIUS, BUT HE ISN'T, so as it is it feels like the only reason it was done was to make it easier for Valjean to sing to him.
60. Another change from the book that works to compress the story into the simpler shape it has to be for a movie/musical but still makes me sad: the reason they are out of ammunition is because the rain ruined the gunpowder, instead of because of the simple inescapable fact that insurrectionists just DO NOT HAVE THE SAME ACCESS TO AMMUNITION that the army does!
61. And speaking of access to ammunition, the scene with Gavroche going out on a mission to collect ammunition from dead people on the far side of the barricade is way better in the book. Like: he is actually SUPER EFFECTIVE and is collecting a whole basketful while hidden by the smoke from all the gunshots. Whereas in the movie he goes out in FULL VIEW of the army and is EASILY SHOOTABLE and barely manages to collect anything at all before being shot down. It makes Gavroche look a lot more foolhardy and less capable which MAKES ME SAD. Also I like the song he sings in the book way more than Little People. Hmph.
62. It's interesting that the character who first and most strenuously tries to convince Gavroche to not go collecting ammunition is Combeferre. It's unexpected for two reasons: one, it's Courfeyrac who has the strongest Gavroche feels in the movie, not Combeferre; and two, Combeferre never gets to do anything in the movie. So why they chose to give THIS to Combeferre is a bit mystifying.
63. Awww, Hadley Fraser the Army Leader Dude REALLY MEANS it when he's trying to convince the revolutionaries to give up! He really doesn't want to kill them all! Awww!
64. I love all the feathers from the burst mattress getting all over everything.
65. Wow something I really really hate is how the way the movie portrays the battles makes the revolutionaries look SUPER INEFFECTIVE. Both times there's a direct attack on the barricade they get swarmed in practically NO TIME AT ALL. It makes it look like they really had no chance at all and never would have. In the book, at the first attack they're nearly taken over because they're busy with something else (Javert? Mabeuf's death? I forget what) and aren't directly there defending the barricade. And for the rest of the time they are SUPER EFFECTIVE at defending the barricade and manage to hold it for an impressively long time until they run out of ammunition! But NOOOOO in the movie it's just like, all the soldiers have to do is attack and WHOOPS LOOK AT THAT the revolutionaries are beaten. Grr.
66. But if you know what you are looking for it is still clear that they've run out of ammunition and when they retreat to the first floor of the Musain they are throwing bottles at the soldiers just like in the book! That's something I did not notice the first two times watching the movie but really appreciated this time. (I was really glad, reading the book, that I was already aware that European standard practice is to call the floor above the ground floor the "first floor" as opposed to "ground floor" and "first floor" being synonyms like they are in North America. Otherwise I would have been SO CONFUSED by several scenes.)
67. WOW I AM SO DISPLEASED about Javert pinning that medal on Gavroche! It just reads SO WRONG to me! I was vaguely uncomfortable with it the first two times watching the movie, and now I am just like NO. Javert's all shook up and in inner turmoil because of Valjean freeing him, yes, but he hasn't reached any conclusions about it yet and is certainly not at a place where he would be placing a medal of bravery on a thieving revolutionary gamin!
68. I AM SORRY MOVIE, I am just so unimpressed with your sewer sequence when compared to the book! That sequence was possibly one of the best in the book! (there are A LOT of contenders for best sequences in the book, but this is definitely one) And you just DO NOT MEASURE UP. I'm also just kind of unhappy with the entire way the musical changes up the events of the sewer escape. ALSO. The sewer is not knee deep in muck the entire way! Valjean stays to the edges of the tunnels where there's just a bit of water lapping at his toes! THE REASON he is head to toe in muck by the end is because of the one crevasse he has to bypass because of the treacherous cracks that form due to instabilities in the surrounding soil! He is not swimming in muck the whole way! ALSO it would have been very easy to have Valjean carry Marius in the same way he does in the book but NO. Sigh. (all of which is to say: my brief note on the subject I wrote while at the movie was merely noting that Javert notices the open sewer grate which Valjean inexplicably fails to close behind him, instead of happening to be at the other end waiting for Thenardier to emerge. This....was a shorthand for ALL MY SEWER FEELS? Apparently?)
69. Javert's Suicide is awesome and will always be awesome forever, book or musical, the end.
70. I'm glad they chose to cut a lot of Turning, because it removes the nonfactual statements like that the revolutionaries had "never held a gun" when HELLO THEY'VE BEEN A RADICAL REVOLUTIONARY GROUP SINCE '28, THEY TOTALLY WOULD HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN THE '30 REVOLUTION. Also Bahorel is specifically mentioned in the book as having been involved in the '22 revolution! (oh my god this period of history has so many revolutions.....)
71. The way Marius sings "You're Jean Valjean" here at the end of Valjean's confession here is WAY TOO REMINISCENT of the three falling tones of a subway door about to close.
72. Okay, so at the end of Empty Chairs at Empty Tables (which is, ftr, very well done, although the whole way through I was loling because all I could think about was this) Cosette is all, don't think about it Marius because WE WILL BE TOGETHER FOREVER. And then when Cosette is being all heartbroken about Valjean leaving on a "journey" Marius is all DON'T WORRY, WE WILL NEVER BE APART, and I'm just like GUYS. GUYS. Having each other does not negate the fact that losing your friends and your father is really sucky! At least they both do it to each other, instead of it being a one-sided sentiment.....?
73. When I read the book I was REALLY SURPRISED that Valjean's death didn't happen in the convent. The discoveries of plenty of other book-to-musical changes hadn't surprised me too much, but this one did. I kind of love the idea of him going back there to die, especially now that I know from the book that he lived and worked there for MANY YEARS, and it's like.... if he went back to the convent he would not be so alone in his dying days! On the other hand it is SO VALJEAN to die stoically alone because he thinks he deserves it or whatever. OH VALJEAN ILU.
74. Okay so in the book Marius finds out that Valjean is a) not a murderer and b) not a thief of vast ridiculous quantities of money ALONG with finding out that he saved Marius' life, and this combination of learnings is what makes Marius be all OH NOES I SHOULDN'T HAVE PUSHED HIM OUT OF OUR LIVES. But the musical really makes it sound like the reason Marius changes his mind is SOLELY because he finds out that Valjean saved his life. This makes Marius seem REALLY SELFISH. Like: it would break Cosette's heart if she found out her father was a convict, therefor Valjean must go far away and never see her again BUT WAIT her convict father saved my life NEVER MIND LET'S WELCOME HIM BACK INTO OUR FAMILY. What. Marius. Marius. So yeah, this is one of the places where I like musical!Marius WAYYYYYY less than book!Marius. Mostly musical!Marius is a far more functional human being than book!Marius, but this makes me really dislike musical!Marius.
75. I LOVE SO MUCH that the musical takes "Yes Cosette, forbid me now to die! I'll obey -- I will try," nearly directly from the book. It is such a great line! (book, Hapgood translation: "Oh! yes, forbid me to die. Who knows? Perhaps I shall obey.")
76. Time to talk about yet another lyric change! Instead of Valjean telling Cosette "It's the story of those who always loved you", he tells Cosette, "It's the story of one who turned from hating, a man who only learned to love when you were in his keeping" and MY VALJEAN&COSETTE FEELS LET ME SHOW YOU THEM OH MY GOD.
77. BISHOP!!!!!!!! Movie I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER for having the bishop welcome Valjean after death! (book, Hapgood translation: "It is probable, in fact, that the Bishop was present at this death agony.") I just -- oh god, Valjean trying his whole life to live up to the Bishop and then the Bishop WELCOMES HIM AT DEATH and alksjhflskdjfskldfdk yes I am tearing up while typing this I JUST HAVE SO MANY FEELS OKAY
78. So the first two times I saw the movie, the part I cried at SUPER HARD was the Epilogue with Barricade Heaven and everybody joyfully singing. This time I did not cry at all because I was too busy analyzing who was placed next to whom along the barricade. YES THIS IS THE LAST TIME I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT COMBEFERRE GETTING SHORT SHRIFT. So anyways next to Enjolras on one side is Grantaire (YES GOOD) and on the other side is Courfeyrac (ALSO GOOD). And then on the other side of Courfeyrac is Joly and then only BEYOND JOLY is Combeferre. Combeferre is seriously THAT FAR AWAY from Enjolras? NO. NO, MOVIE. INCORRECT.
And oh wow was that seriously my last point? I AM DONE? I AM DONE! OH MY GOD THAT WAS A LOT OF WORDS. If you read through this whole thing PROPS TO YOU.
In conclusion: if you have thoughts or opinions or reactions to anything I have said please talk to me because in case you can't tell from the above 6500 words I LOVE TALKING ABOUT LES MISERABLES.
THE END.