24601

Fight. Dream. Hope. Love.

This is the tagline for my currently-favorite film, Les Misérables. I've watched it a couple of times over the past week, and just watching its trailer a year ago was enough for it swoop in and grab the throne from Batman Begins, in my Top-10 list. I guess the incredible, extraordinarily talented cast made up of Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried and Helena Bohem-Carter may have played a part in the movie being such an awesome one. I know, the word "awesome" is  a little cheesy, but it's the one that best suits this situation.

What made the movie so special for me is the fact that it was a musical, using the music written by the French composer Claude-Michel Schönberg. Some people, one of them being one of my closest friends who I've dragged with me to see the movie a second time, didn't like the movie being "all-sing and no-speak". I think otherwise. I believe that by adding moving chords and melodies caressing your ears, you magnify the meanings of the words and the richness of the movie, not degrade it.

When you notice the chord progressions from E minor to F major when Javert and Fantine are talking, respectively, you get even a better insight into the characters because then you don't only have the words to understand them, but you also have the music.

What interested me the most and made me scrutinize our current judgement system was Jean Valjean's common phrase: "I stole a loaf of bread". He says this, meaning that he did not deserve the  time he served as a slave, that stealing bread for one's sister's child who is fighting death does not entitle serving 5 years as a slave. I was caught in a dilemma. Were some crimes forgivable, should the reason they were committed be investigated before slamming down the hammer of justice?  Or should just the fact that they are called "crimes" be enough to condemn one to slavery and a "badge of shame"?

Another aspect of the slavery and punishment system of the 19th century that seemed inhuman to me was giving a number to the prisoners and enslaving also their identities, their personalities, their individualities.

Les Misérables is an incredible work of art, combining great talents in acting with unbelievable and unexpected talents in singing, with a plot laid down 200 years ago by the renowned Victor Hugo that will surely bring tears to your eyes, all the same managing to criticize the way the poor have to fight to live while the rich get richer, and showing everyone the Jean Valjeans once murdered by the law that gets tighter and tighter, the Jean Valjeans murdered by a number, 24601.