vanity - has any one seen Django or Les Mis?

Has any one seen Django or Les Mis? I am thinking about going to the movies this weekend. I know Les Mis is a musical but I was thinking that the theatre might be full of single women.

I like the music in Django, but I am not a fan of any of thr Obamatrons in the film.

I liked "Les Miserables" well enough, though I was kind of shocked that it actually was a musical. I knew the story, knew what to expect, but still it was a surprise when everybody was always singing.

The preview was so impressive -- and no singing in it -- that I just forgot what I knew to be true about the movie, and was expecting a lot of shooting and gashing and storming of barricades. I had the same problem with "Evita" -- dismay that they were actually and literally going to sing and dance their way through the whole thing with Madonna and everything.

"Django" isn't a musical, is it? I was bowled over by "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction" back in the Nineties, but "Kill Bill" killed any interest I had in seeing any more Quentin Tarantino movies (especially since "Django" is basically the same formula as his "Basterds" movie). If you're really a movie fan, though, you might get a kick out of seeing which movies QT ripped off to make this one -- or you could just rent James Garner and Lou Gossett Jr. in "Skin Game."

Maybe it's time for a comedy next ...

I liked "Les Miserables" well enough, though I was kind of shocked that it actually was a musical. I knew the story, knew what to expect, but still it was a surprise when everybody was always singing.

Are you serious? Aside from the Victor Hugo novel, the musical version of Les Misérables holds the record as the longest running Broadway musical, topping both Phantom of the Opera and Cats. It won 9 Tony Awards since its debut in 1987.

Les Miserables is a story about the struggle for social justice, and there were plenty of parallels for our time.

So called "Social Justice" is an invention of the Socialist Ideals of the Progressive Movement. In America we embrace Blind Justice for all, of which Victor Hugo's Les Miserables is a vile anathema.

Justice, in a tradition going back to Aristotle, means treating individuals in accordance with their deserts...
Justice is a very different thing from mercy, and mercy may be at odds with justice...
It will be apparent by now that the demands of “social justice” are incompatible with those of individual justice; to the extent that the first demand is met, the second must be sacrificed. If the government takes money out of Peter’s wallet to put it in Paul’s, it may have achieved greater equality, but not greater justice. It is impossible for individuals to receive a just wage on a free market and then be forced to part with a portion of it, for then they receive less than a just wage.
The final irony is that the ideals of the champions of “social justice” are not even achieved when they are put fully into practice. Because people will not—and cannot—produce indefinitely without compensation, the final result of massive transfer payments is equality of zero—universal destitution. That, after all, is how the excesses of the late Roman welfare state gave way to the destitution of the Dark Ages.[11] It has happened many times in history, and it could happen again if the proponents of “social justice”—that is, enforced collectivism—push their demands so far as to cancel out the requirements of individual justice.
From "Justice versus Social Justice" — By John Hospers

Just because you appreciate that God intervened for one individual, the more basic premise of the epic work is that social oppression is meted out to the dumb masses from the top classes on down.

Just because you appreciate that God intervened for one individual, the more basic premise of the epic work is that social oppression is meted out to the dumb masses from the top classes on down.

That's not a premise, that's a reality. It is part of nature that the powerful oppress the weak. It is God's counter that the powerful use their power on the part of the weak. Hugo took way too many words to make the point (IMO), but that is the point. Without God, there is no hope for justice.

We saw it on cable last night. Overly long, needlessly bloody, boring, simple-minded, racist, and a waste of three hours. Makes “A Fistful of Dollars” look like Shakespeare. Every human victim in this movie contains approximately 50 gallons of blood. The hero is psychotic and just plain mean. The supporting characters are one-dimensional morons. 1858 cap and ball revolvers contain 12 or 15 rounds each. The plot is formulaic and boring. The only good performances are by DeCaprio and Waltz. Costumes are over the top. This movie is so bad it makes brutality look wholesome. Yuch. Glad we didn’t pay to see it.

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