Les Miserables Movie

The movie "Les Miserables" is based on the book of the same title by Victor Hugo. This is a tremendously powerful story of mercy, love, and honor. Jean Valjean is a convict who has just spent twenty years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. He has been given a yellow card, which means that he needs to leave the country within a few days. Looking for a place to rest one night, he is invited into the home of a bishop. In the middle of the night he steals some silver and flees, only to be caught and brought back the next morning. Instead of accusing him, as he expected, the bishop also gives him the silver candlesticks. He then tells Jean to use the money to change his life, utterly shocking and forever changing the course of Jean's life. Years later, Jean is the highly esteemed mayor of Vigau, respected by all. A police officer named Javert, who was a guard at the prison where Jean worked, arrives in town. The two quietly recognize each other, and Javert constantly tries to get proof that Jean is the convict. Meanwhile, Jean cares for and falls in love with Fantine, a sick woman with no prospects and a little girl named Cosette. When Javert comes to the house to arrest Jean, she dies of shock and Jean escapes. He goes to where Cosette is living and takes her with him, having promised Fantine to take care of her. The two manage to evade Javert and escape into Paris, where they live in a convent for ten years. When they leave, Cosette falls in love with a young revolutionary named Marius. Partly due to this relationship, Javert discovers Jean and he prepares to flee once again on the eve of the revolution. However, Cosette declares her love for Marius and Jean goes into the battle scene to find him. Along the way he sees Javert, who has been captured by the revolutionaries. Jean asks for the privilege of killing Javert, but instead he lets the inspector go. By the time Jean finds Marius again, the revolutionaries have been destroyed and the boy is injured. Jean carries him through the sewers, but Javert is waiting where they come out. Jean asks and is granted permission to take Marius to Cosette, where he wishes the girl goodbye. He then goes back to where Javert is waiting for him. Javert acts as if he is going to shoot Jean, but in instead he releases Jean and drowns himself. The movie ends with Jean slowly walking away, obviously feeling long-eluded senses of peace and freedom.

This movie contains action, but its main focus is the on the psychological aspects of humans. At the very beginning of the movie, Jean is a man who has been made immoral by the years of harsh treatment he received in prison. However, when the bishop refused to condemn him, gave him more things, and forgave him, Jean was changed. He could not believe what the man had done, and the act altered him from the inside out. Years later, he has become such a model citizen that he was elected mayor, and throughout the movie we constantly see things that show he is truly changed. He cares about others far more than he cares about himself, and only once do we see him lose his temper when he is under extreme stress. He has changed so much from who he once was that he confesses his true identity, condemning himself to death, in order to save another man's life. Javert states in one scene that immoral people are always immoral, yet Jean is living proof that this is not so. Javert also undergoes changes, especially right at the end of the movie. This man has never broken a rule in his life; he always tells the truth and demands that others as well as himself always follow protocol. Even after Jean has proved himself time and time again to be a moral citizen, Javert is determined to arrest him as a convict. However, when Jean shows him mercy at the end of the film, Javert is unable to understand it. He ends up killing himself, unable to cope with what has happened and with the choice he feels he needs to make.

I found this film to be powerful, thought provoking, and full of emotion. What happened between the bishop and Jean reminds us that anything we do can have a life-long effect on others. Because of what the bishop did, Jean saved a man's life, fell in love, and rescued a little girl from forced labor. His life could have ended in misery and fear, but instead his story ended happily. What happened to Jean gives hope that anyone can change someone else's life for the better. Mercy and compassion are extraordinarily powerful things.