Les Movies!

During this whole exciting tour of duty I got wondering if there were any good film adaptations of Les Miserables out there. Out of the literally dozens of versions there have been over the years I managed to get my hands on 4 different films, two French, one British and one American from 1958, 1978, 1998 and 2000 all with a combined runtime of nearly 15 hours.

I have literally been consumed by Les Miserables this past month; I’ve had it coming out of my ears! Here’s what I thought of the four movies, now let me move on to another project! (I’m not including the stage musical by the way, it’s not a movie and it sucks as an adaptation anyway!)

This was the oldest version I could find, it’s from 1958 and runs at 3 hours and 41 minutes (and if you think that’s long, you aint seen nothing yet!). This version was in French which I thought was cool but unfortunately the version I saw was dubbed in English which wasn’t bad it’s just that I prefer subtitles to dubbing in foreign films.  It had everything from the book in it though, and I mean everything! Like it included Marius’s backstory and also included the fact that Gavroche is one of the Thenardiers, two things that are left out of the other versions I saw.

Obviously things were shortened down quite a bit but this was a damn near perfect adaptation in my opinion. Although I don’t know if it was because it’s from the 50’s or it was because of the dubbing but I felt that some of the acting was kinda flat, It didn’t get me very hyped up at what was happening and that kinda sucked. I thought the guy playing Jean Valjean was pretty good though.

I can’t really say much more about this version because it came out way before my time and has no one in it that I know of, (I find it easier to judge films if I’m familiar with the actors) but it’s old, and old films are cool! I probably wouldn’t watch this version again though, it’s kinda long and it does drag at some points.

 This version is a British TV movie from 1978 and runs at 2 hours and 30 minutes. This one starred Anthony Perkins as Javert which I thought was so cool! It’s the guy from ‘Psycho’, awesome! The rest of the movie was only OK though, nothing to get really excited about, I thought the guy playing Valjean did a good job especially with some of the emotional stuff, but most of the other characters were played fairly bland, especially Cosette.

There was a lot left out of this version, for instance it only had one scene with the Thenardiers and no Eponine at all, you can’t leave out Eponine, she’s important! And by leaving out the Thenardiers you take a lot of the tension out of the story, Plus if you take out the Thenardiers you have to shoe horn in another way of getting Marius and Cosette together and then the story just drifts too far from the book, and that didn’t work for me.

It did have a bunch of stuff that the other versions left out though, like this one had scenes of Valjean before he went to jail and it showed his sister and her family, plus this version is the only one I’ve seen that had that STUPID coffin scene in it that pissed me off so much from the book, and I still thought it was bullshit!

Also weirdly this version went for a happy ending, it didn’t end with Valjean dying it ended with the wedding of Marius and Cosette and everyone was happy. Ummmm no, you can’t end it like that, it’s called Les Miserables, you can’t end it with everyone being happy!

This version is Americas attempt at the book; it’s from 1998 and runs at 2 hours and 14 minutes. It stars Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush and Claire Danes as Valjean, Javert and Cosette.

This one was probably the one I liked most out of all four and yet this one was the one that had the least to do with the book, like the ’78 version this one left tons out, minimal Thenardiers again and no Eponine, seriously why does everyone hate Eponine? Also this version seemed to combine most of the student characters into the character of Marius which didn’t really fit with the Marius from the book, although I did like this Marius more than the book version. Still it took away all the passion from the other students by making it focused on just the one guy instead of the entire group of lads and I didn’t like that.

This one also went for a happy ending again like the ’78 film, well actually now I think about it it wasn’t happy or sad, it just sort of ended. Lots of things were left unanswered in this version.

I think I liked this one the most because it actually made Cosette into a proper character instead of just portraying her as a lovesick puppy. This Cosette did something that no other Cosette does, SHE ASKED QUESTIONS! She actually seemed more like a strong confident woman instead of this dumbass that went blindly along with everything that was going on around her, she actually demanded answers from Valjean and I really liked that.

I felt this version was more about the relationship between Valjean, Cosette and Marius than being about Les Miserables as a whole; it didn’t make it a bad film though it just made it a bad adaptation of the book. As a film on it’s own it works OK, It's entertaining enough, it’s something I would probably watch again, but as an adaptation of Les Miserables i think it fails.

This version is another French production, it’s a mini-series from 2000 and stars Gerard Depardieu and John Malkovich as Valjean and Javert and it runs for 6 hours in total, 6 fucking hours!!! I don’t think this was intended to be watched in one go but I did anyway (Yes I really have nothing better to do)

This version was epic! It had everything; it was in French which gave it added awesomeness, it had the majority of characters from the book included and for an adaptation of the book very little was left out. In fact I think it added more stuff than it took away. Why would you even need to add anything to Les Miserables, it’s big enough as it is! Still this version seemed to pull it off.

Every character in this version was done perfectly, the Thenardiers were exactly like the nasty scum they are in the book and even so I still was able to feel a bit of sympathy for them, Eponine was the best I’ve seen her in any adaptation, this one was properly dark and devious, plus she got to interact with Cosette a few times which I thought was lacking in the book. Javert was brilliant too, so cold and unfeeling, even Marius came off as less of a twat as in other versions.

If I had to point out some bad things about this version I’d have to say that firstly I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the relationship between Valjean and Cosette, there were a few scenes where it was bordering on creepy again, secondly there's something about Gerard Depardieu that creeps me out, not just in this film, just him in general, i don't know why. And finally at 6 hours this version is kind of long to be properly enjoyable, but if you’re looking for sheer epicness then this is the version you should definitely see if you get the chance.

 

There doesn’t seem to be a happy medium when it comes to adapting Les Miserables, they’re either gonna be long as fuck or there’s gonna be too much stuff that’s left out. Maybe there is just no good way to adapt a novel that is longer than time itself onto screen, maybe people should just stop trying!

So which version had the best characters? Which adaptation did I think was the best overall? Here are the ones I thought deserved to win.

• Best Adaptation: Even though I liked the ’98 version more than the others, in terms of adapting the book this has to go to the ’00 version. The sheer epicness of it helps make it one of the better versions. It’s modern so the acting is well done and its French which gives it added authenticness and almost nothing is left out in the entire 6 hour run. It’s definitely one of the best adaptations I’ve seen.
• Best Valjean: I think I’m going to give this to the ’58 Valjean, not really because of the character but mostly because he looked like what I imagined Valjean in the book to look like. All of the Valjeans in the films were pretty good but I think I liked the ’58 one most of all.
• Best Javert: I’m gonna give this to the ’78 version purely because he was played by Anthony Perkins, the ’98 and ’00 ones were fairly cool too but I’m gonna just be totally biased and give it to ’78 because of the awesomeness that is Anthony Perkins. (Shut up it’s my blog I can do what I want!)
• Best Cosette: There’s really no contest here, for me it has to be the ’98 Cosette. She was everything I wanted Cosette to be like in the book, she asked questions and had actual depth to her instead of just being a silly little lovesick girl, in the ‘98 film she finds out about Valjeans past and she’s totally OK with it, in fact she chooses to stay with Valjean of her own free will instead of brooding about Marius all the time. Plus at one point she gets to point a gun at Javert, which was awesome. Even though this Cosette was pretty much the exact opposite of the book version I still liked her more than the others because she actually felt like a proper character rather than just a plot device.
• Best Thenardiers: This isn’t too hard to judge since they only really appeared in two of the versions I saw, this one has to go to the ’00 Thenardiers, they were portrayed exactly like the horrible abusive vile scum that they are in the book but at the same time you really got to know them as people instead of just monsters. Also in that version Mrs Thenardier doesn't die which I liked because that felt like such a cheat in the book, plus i actually thought Mrs Thenardier was kinda hot in that film. (Don't judge me I'm only human!)
• Best Eponine: Again this is not too hard too judge since she only appeared in two versions, this one definitely has to go the ’00 version again. This Eponine had an edge to her, she was really dark and yet still sympathetic at the same time, and she got to interact with Cosette which was interesting because i had wondered what that would have been like in the book. I think Eponine is a very underrated character in film adaptations, there's so much you can do with Eponine so it's a shame so many films decide to leave her out. Also this one had probably the best death scene since the Eponine from the musical.
• Best Marius: FUCK MARIUS! Fuck him in the ear! Sorry but none of the Marius’s really left that much of an impression on me to be honest. OK I suppose the ’58 one was what I imagined Marius to look like, and the ’98 version was nice enough, but I don’t think any of them were better than the others. Sorry Marius, but you suck!
  
  In case you're wondering why i haven't judged any of the Fantines, well it's simple, none of the Fantines ever really appear on screen for enough time for me to form an opinion about them, all of them are very much the same, they all show up and then die quickly! I pretty much forgot that Fantine was even a character by the end of each movie. Poor Fantine, she's so unloved.
   
  So that’s finally it, I am now officially DONE with Les Miserables! My life can now move on to another project! (At least until January when the new movie comes out)