Les Miserables (2012) Movie Review
“Mine is the way of the Lord.”
The aforementioned quote is one of many lines from Javert, the pure antagonist of the controversial film Les Miserables (2012), written by Victor Hugo and directed by Tom Hooper. Set in post-revolutionary France, it brings to light the injustice in society and how love and compassion can change even the heart hardened by pain and cruelty. Thus, this review will focus on Javert, who could only see the world in black and white, but faced with Valjean’s mercy, he was lost in doubt about him.
The film mainly revolves around a freed prisoner named Jean Valjean and his path to redemption. He took pseudonyms and even became the guardian of a girl named Cosette after her mother’s death. However, his former prison guard, Javert, who had become a police inspector, kept on top of his trail, relentlessly hunting him down to bring him back safely… behind bars.
However, although the film presents Javert as the antagonist of the story, he is not as bad as he seems. When you stop to think about it, why would he be chasing Jean Valjean? It is because Jean Valjean has violated his probation and even though he was jailed for being a good man to his sister and nephew, Javert, he saw this as a violation of the law because in his mind, a man is guilty when the law finds him guilty. . be so No questions asked, because that’s what he believes. Even if this belief and determination of his to enforce what he believes in is correct, it’s a shame this was misdirected. He is so obsessed with enforcing the law that he fails to see beyond the surface of the law. Javert remained oblivious to society suffering from the law of him that he should have been protecting her instead. So when Jean Valjean saved him from being shot to death by the students in the uprising, he taunted the man, believing that he should have died because he had lost, Valjean had won, and the punishment should be meted out accordingly. This is the first seed of doubt. Javert began to doubt his belief because why would a bad man, who deserved to be in jail for breaking the law, save someone else’s life, much less the life of his enemy? Wouldn’t that make that person a good man? Good men don’t belong in jail, so does Jean Valjean deserve to be in prison or not after saving Javert’s life? The second seed of doubt ended it all when Javert let Valjean escape despite having the overwhelming advantage of having a weapon and Valjean was at a disadvantage, having Marius as dead weight to him. He let him escape because if he captured Valjean, then he would be capturing his savior, a good man who did not deserve to be in prison. This is where Valjean showed him that a man is not necessarily evil just because the law says he is. And this is where Javert ended his life because he couldn’t and wouldn’t accept the new knowledge and connect it with his beliefs. He couldn’t accept the idea that one man could change for the better, that the world is not black and white.
The film did not fail to capture the attention of its supervisors with its striking musical work. The characters singing their lines served as music to the ears and eyes, as some might find themselves singing along to the melodies of the songs. It also sheds light on what French society was like back then, how their system seemed to bring more disgrace and injustice to society instead of rectifying and improving it for the people. This motivates you to become a better person, to analyze what is really right and wrong and not be like Javert who was obsessed with the law, to the point that he looked like an animal, never thinking, only acting. The actors and actresses played their roles incredibly well, to the point where one would not be able to see between the lines of reality and acting, brilliantly conveying the emotions they wanted their supervisors to feel. Les Miserables has taken root in my heart and I fear it will not let go of me for long. It’s a must see movie to see Valjean finally find peace and Javert realize his flaw.