Another kind word for ‘Les Mis’
Returning home after a rare night out I opened QOL to read Steve Kates’s review of the movie I had just seen: Les Miserables. To my surprise I discovered that his assessment is more than somewhat at odds with mine.
A few points of retail agreement before I get to my wholesale disagreement with Steve’s unfavourable review. Yes, if taken as a glorification of the type of Parisian revolutionaries we got to know all too well during the 20th Century, I can see how skewed the heroism of the student rebels would strike him. Yes, if taken as social commentary on the exploitation of the proletariate by the bourgeoise, I can see how the distortion of economic history would grate. And yes, if taken as naturalism, I can see how the sequence of events would strain credulity. But inferences such as these are to my mind besides the point of Les Miserables.
I could argue that the Parisian students of 1832 were rebelling in the name of liberty against the tyranny of an absolute monarchy, while…
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