Les Miserables

Les Miserables(the movie) sure is touching. Released 8 years ago, I never actually got the chance to check out the flick until now. Don’t know for what reason. Considering that the title bears quite a reputation in it.

It was great! Classics often times are what touch me deeply. I’ve read that the musical was way better than the movie. But hey, I haven’t seen the musical yet. I’d decide for myself once I do.

I’ve never known such forgiveness. I’ve never known such courage. I’ve never known such love. 

Jean Vel-Jean.  He was a man of despicability. One who was well-acquainted with poverty. And has therefore resulted to commiting crimes just so he’d survive in the cruel world he was living in. He ran away from the hellhole he was in. The place where law brought him in. And in the midst of his running away, fate brings him to a bishop. A bishop who taught him forgiveness. A bishop who brought him back to God.

I was particularly moved with that scene, actually. First part of the film and I found emotion knotted on my throat already.

It was nighttime. Vel-Jean needed a place to stay in and food to eat. And so the bishop, even after finding out who he actually was, unhesitatingly offered him both. And even as he was offered such charity, the thief in him still prevailed. He stole the silverware inside the chapel where he spent the night, sneaked out, even knocked the bishop off as he was caught. Ungrateful ahole he is! But all of it was for a reason. In the morning, he gets caught by the French guards and he was brought back to the chapel to be confronted with the bishop. I was expecting the clergyman to get back at him.(After all, Vel-Jean acted ungratefully the night before). But I wasn’t ready for what I heard from the bishop’s mouth…he defended the thief after all he’s done. He didn’t even take the silverware back…instead, he gave Vel-Jean more of the like! The thief was stunned(who wouldn’t be?).

When asked by Vel-Jean why he was doing such act, the bishop answered…”Jean Vel-Jean, my brother…you no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I brought your soul. I’ve ransomed you from fear and hatred. And now I give you back to God.” I don’t usually get so emotional on the any film’s first part but this one certainly got me.

And it was never the same for Vel-Jean. He became a respected mayor in a small town called Vigan. Touched people’s lives. Helped those in need.

But the story doesn’t of course end there. For even in his transformation, a policeman named Javert was constantly hunting him, trying to run him down. He seemed utterly obsessed on bringing Vel-Jean to his knees. He just doesn’t buy the idea of having a thief transform into a kind and forgiving man. He stubbornly believes that “reform is a discredited fantasy” and that “a wolf can wear sheep’s clothing but is still a wolf“. I resent such notion!

Contrary to what Javert believes in, a person always deserves a chance..a chance to make things right…a chance to go back to the Lord. No one ever has the right to convict us with any crime except God. Not even in a courtroom could one gurantee the deepest, most accurate judgment of a person’s being. God is the only one who knows us deeply and He, therefore, is the only one who could judge us corectly.

A single entry wouldn’t be enough to relay everything I’ve grasped from the film. That was just a slice of the whole.
Forgiveness. Patriotism. Courage. Love. Point of the movie taken! Loved it.

p.s.

Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Henri Ducard in Batman Begins, they were all well-played by the actor…but I think it is in Narnia’s Aslan and Miserables’ Vel-Jean where I loved Liam Neeson the most. He’s such a master. I’m intrigued with Nell, too after I read the synopsis.