Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Chris Jc Will read the whole novel soon, but after checking more than 1 movie adaptation of les miserables, I dare say 1978 succeeded to draw the characters in the way meant by the director and created an aura of heroism, integrity and sweetness around the main character (Jean Valjean). On the other hand, this movie demonized Javert as a contrary to the goodness of Valjean, but it wasn't just that, he was pictured as someone who was destroyed from inside and deeply wounded from his past and how he was born and lived as a child; although he haunted Valjean's life all along the movie, he was shocked by how good and chivalrous Valjean was when he could have killed him but decided to set him free instead, he probably felt too small and trivial in front of Valjean's strength. The scene of Valjean carrying Marius fainting on his shoulder after fighting against the troops is just amazing, a man as old as Valjean at this point of the plot carrying a young man on his shoulder all along a ditch to keep him safe, a memorable scene!

Hotwok2013 Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" is widely regarded as one of the greatest books of the 19th century. The reasons why literary critics consider it so is because the sprawling story covers a huge number of themes. Mans inhumanity to man, faith, redemption & just about every facet of human nature both good & evil. This 1978 television adaptation of the book is, for my money, the best. The central character is Jean Valjean who is superbly played by Richard Jordan. He is originally sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. His sentence is increased to life after several escape attempts. After serving 19 years he does succeed in escaping. Anthony Perkins is fantastic playing first a senior prison officer at Toulon where Valjean is incarcerated & later the cold-hearted policeman Inspector Javert. It was Alfred Hitchcock who cast him as Norman Bates in "Psycho" after he noted his ability to look shifty & suspicious as an actor. Those same acting qualities make him perfectly cast as Javert. He is not really evil but rather just ruthless about carrying out what he considers to be his duty. There are many overly-officious people like him around today usually referred to as "jobsworths". Really evil people are represented by the Thenardiers who maltreat a young girl Cosette put in their care by her poor prostitute mother Fantine, played by Angela Pleasance. She could hardly have chosen a worse couple.They eventually sell her off to Valjean after he changes his name to Mr Madeleine following his prison escape. He makes a solemn promise to her dying mother to take care of her daughter Cosette. She is not a prostitute out of choice, as the author makes clear, but because she is so poor & desperate she has nothing else to sell but her body. The Thenardiers realise how much Mr. Madeleine wants to take charge of Cosette & feigning their love & affection for her exact a huge price. The story is full of memorable characters like the kindly bishop Myriel who "buys" his soul after Valjean had escaped from prison & stole some of his silverware. After Valjean is caught he is taken back by soldiers under armed guard to the bishop who claims he gave them to him as a gift. He then gives him his two silver candlesticks telling him he forgot to take those as well. Valjean is deeply moved & from that moment becomes a changed man who resolves to do good in the world. He will treasure the candlesticks for the rest of his life as symbolic of his new-found faith in god. After changing his name to Mr. Madeleine, he becomes a successful respectable businessman in a small town. Javert later accepts a post as chief of police there. After witnessing an accident he sees Mr. Madeleine perform a feat of strength to free a man trapped under a wheel. He remembers that Valjean in Toulon prison had also shown great strength in releasing a man after a huge rock had fallen on him. He has noticed the similarity in looks between Mr Madeleine & Jean Valjean and begins to think that they may be one & the same person. The street-urchin boy Gavroche, a son of the Thenardiers, is another memorable character & a good sort. After an uprising in Paris he is killed by troops whilst bravely running around collecting ammunition from the dead bodies of some of the rioters for the use of those still fighting. Presumably, Victor Hugo is making a point that evil parents do not necessarily produce evil offspring. A great book was made into a great TV movie & I would recommend it to anyone.

Robert J. Maxwell Fine adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel that has been on my "must read" list for thirty years.As Inspector Javert, the cop who pursues escaped convict Jean Valjean through much of mid-1800s France, a stern and pitiless Anthony Perkins steps outside the box and sheds his neurotic "Psycho" persona completely. His expression is uniformly composed and utterly grim, his lips a thin dark line. Boy, is he intractable. Not only with anyone who breaks the law but with himself, if he believes that HE has broken the law.Wardrobe has decked him out with a hat like Napoleon's. And, well, Perkins is tall and gauntly and he has a long neck. And in his tight, full-length black overcoat with its high collar, and with his arms folded across his chest, his silhouette can't help looking an awful lot like Mother Bates' pacing back and forth in front of her upstairs window.The story: Richard Jordan is Jean Valjean. An out-of-work wood cutter with no family, he steals a loaf of bread, is captured, and sent to prison where he suffers under the scrutiny of Perkins as Javert. When he manages to escape, he finds renewal under the guidance of a bishop, and begins a life of doing good for others under a new identity. In five years he is made mayor of a small town. And, surprise, Javert is assigned to the same town as Chief of Police.Balked in his attempts to impose harsh punishment on the town's few law breakers by Valjean's generosity, Javert begins to suspect the mayor of being exactly who he is. But he doesn't exactly catch Valjean, because circumstances force Valjean to reveal his true identity in order to save another man falsely accused.Valjean slips off to Paris with the little orphan girl he's adopted and they find refuge in a convent. As the years pass, Valjean finds honest employment and still has a stash left over from his days as mayor. But it's always a problem, being a fugitive and dragging a little girl around with you, as Humbert Humbert found out. Little girls have a habit of growing up -- and they always fall in love with the wrong guy. Caroline Langrishe is Cosette as a young lady. She's a knockout but not very bright. Instead of falling for a doctor or a lawyer or a wheeler/dealer like Donald Trump, she is in the thrall of a handsome young revolutionary. And, wouldn't you know it, Javert is sent to that district of Paris as an undercover operative to spy on the same revolutionaries. It gets a little twisted after that. And I don't think I want to reveal the resolution, although medical discretion allows me the observation that Javert remains unforgiving to the very bitter end. Well, kind of.I can't really compare it to the novel because I've never read the novel, but I have seen two or three other cinematic versions of the story and they're pretty similar. Frederick March played Valjean in a 1930s version, if I remember, and he was extremely good in the role, and in the role of the Valjean lookalike who is falsely accused. March managed to turn the hapless innocent into a man with brain damage.More recently, Liam Neeson, whose looming, hulking presence and irrepressible nose always make him unforgettable, was quite believable as Valjean. And Geoffrey Rush was an unimpeachable Javert, bringing much more to the role than the simple story would suggest. I mean, Rush was really tormented in a way that no other Javert has ever been. I won't say much about Claire Danes as Cosette because, although I am deeply in love with her, she's never responded to my perhaps too-graphic emails. What does that do for your operational definition of "unrequited"? There are a couple of nicely done tense scenes of action and suspense in the current version. Not so much the shoot out at the barricades but the scene in which Richard Jordan hoists little Cosette up onto a rooftop and barely escapes the determined Javert and his Myrmidons.Overall, this is about as good as the other versions I've seen -- and that's pretty good. Some of the credit, of course, should probably go to Victor Hugo, the Paddy Chayevsky of his day.

bmccoy-3 I saw this version of the story many many years ago and loved it. I still have never seen the musical nor the new film. I watched this version again recently for the first time in many years and while it suffered slightly from the usual low budget aspects of a lot of TV movies, the acting was excellent and Tony Perkins was absolutely amazing as Javert. My 15 year old son had never seen any version of the story and watched it with me and he was mezmerized by the film and loved every minute of it (this from a kid who can't sit still for 5 minutes unless there are explosions and robots and blood and guts everywhere).BTW, the bright-eyed young Marius who resembles an older Elijah Wood was played by Christopher Guard, who was Frodo in Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings".