Posted on 12/30/2012 6:56:10 PM PST by Bratch
The groundbreaking new film adaptation of the Broadway musical "Les Misérables" features desperate people suffering under soul-shattering unemployment, naive university students decrying the rich and stoking the flames of socialist revolution, unyielding government official interested not in right and wrong but in following his government's rules and one heroic individual who follows his faith in God to guide him from one success to another all the while truly helping others by using his own private wealth rather than through the ineffective and neglectful government.
In short, it is the perfect allegory for Americans living in the Age of Obama.
In 1987 when "Les Miz" opened in New York, many liberal columnists and critics tried desperately to make a connection between the 19th century Victor Hugo story and Ronald Reagan's America. The best they could do was show pictures of homeless in New York and juxtapose them with the desperate characters in the play who I've on the streets of Paris. The comparisons never held water in a macro way considering Americans in the late 1980s enjoyed prosperity across most economic classes. Now that the film is premiering in Barack Obama's America, it's remarkable how the comparisons are much more appropriate.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
originally a recruiting tool for the commies, or something
A beautiful, beautiful story. The love of Christ shines in the darkest of times.
Very good article. Thanks for posting. Haven’t seen this one yet but have seen the stage musical and the 1935 and 1998 nonmusical film versions.
something like that
While I tend to be somewhat averse to people taking classics from long ago and trying to draw current parallels that are often strained, I find this article to be very good.
I’ve seen the stage version.
Victor Hugo did, in Jean ValJean, create a man who in the worst of times retained a focus on God and not on the turmoil around him.
The revolutionaries come off as young, stupid and deadly.
It probably is a film for our times. I’m looking forward to seeing it.
The author must have showed up late to the movie. At the beginning of the movie, Jean Valjean, the guy this author is talking about, got his fresh start in the world by stealing the Bishop's silverware. In the novel, Valjean went on to steal money from a small boy.
While I tend to be somewhat averse to people taking classics from long ago and trying to draw current parallels that are often strained, I find this article to be very good.
I’ve seen the stage version.
Victor Hugo did, in Jean ValJean, create a man who in the worst of times retained a focus on God and not on the turmoil around him.
The revolutionaries come off as young, stupid and deadly.
It probably is a film for our times. I’m looking forward to seeing it.
“The author must have showed up late to the movie.”
And you must have read only the excerpt, skipping the rest of the article. So I guess you are even.
Homelessness in the USA —the LEAST popular story for the US media for the last and next four years....
Also, the author fails to mention that Valjean spent several years shacking up with a prepubescent female. Some hero. These days he would get several hundred years.
Unless I am mistaken, Valjean is a fictional character. On its own (sorry they couldnt fit the entire zillion page novel into the play) the film is a brilliant story of the difference between law and grace. But judging from your relentless criticism one might conclude that you are descended from Inspector Javert.
It is brilliant. Inspiring story of redemption, grace, justice, and mercy. God’s hand on ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances
The authors attempt to politicize the recent movie “Les Miserable,” is a bit out of focus. The movie actually actually eschews a political message for a story of ultimate human destiny.
The message actually is a highly Christian one because it starts with a mans conversion, and than commitment to live righteously in the face of persecution from the oppressive figures who do not see the world through the lens of God’s plan of salvation.
Javart for example has a skewed notion of justice because he cannot see human beings as God’s children.
The movie blends this dichotomy between justice and mercy in some amazing scenes. The kindness of the Cleric who is almost stupidly zealous with giving to Valjean for example. Such charity seems insane on one level, but it also reveals Valjean what God’s love for him is actually like. He literally gets a second chance in life to live well and in his grace and to give in charity to others that same second chance he had received from God.
Ultimately, I’d reject the notion that the barricade can be easily seen as a purely political symbol, because it also represents the conviction of individuals who think that all human beings have an inherent dignity that must be respected. I’d note that conditions that obtained in post Napoleon France are not easily transposed to our current society.
I’d highly recommend watching this movie. It’s one of the most edifying movies I’ve seen come from Hollywood in years.
Not to mention, great music.
Wrong uprising. You’re probably thinking about the Paris Commune uprising during the Franco-Prussian War. And that didn’t actually occur until after France had lost the war. The uprising in Les Miserables is an unrelated event that took place in 1832.
Thanks, that has always been a source of confusion.
The groundbreaking new film adaptation of the Broadway musical "Les Misérables" features desperate people suffering under soul-shattering unemployment, naive university students decrying the rich and stoking the flames of socialist revolution, unyielding government official interested not in right and wrong but in following his government's rules and one heroic individual who follows his faith in God to guide him from one success to another all the while truly helping others by using his own private wealth rather than through the ineffective and neglectful government.Just once I wish some playwrite would do something that had some current relevance. ;')
Toward the end of the novel, Javert chose death by suicide as preferable to having to face any more of Valjean's abominations. The sewage swim was probably the straw that broke the camel's back and represented the death of civilization. What was there left for Javert to live for?
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