When we first caught it on West End in 2009, I must admit, I didn't understand the plot completely. It is distracting enough with a musical to see people burst out into song throughout everyday scenarios, much less try to follow the plot.
I think these musicals need repeat watching in order to catch the story and shift the mind from 'Oh, wow, she sang that song really well, erm, whoever that girl was meant to be' to 'Oh, so that's what this story's about.'
Watching the movie really helped me understand the flow of the story better, and the multiple complex themes underlying - of class warfare, love in the time of Revolution, of unrequited and sacrificial love.
Although I didn't completely get the story the first time, one thing remained with me from the musical - the theme of Law and Grace.
Jean Valjean was a man who was imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's son. Having served his time, he is released back into the world - first, filled with hope afresh which is then quickly crushed by the world's treatment of ex-convicts. It is in this state of desperation that he is invited in to the house of the Bishop, who feeds and houses the destitute Jean.
But survival instincts kick in and Jean loots the Bishop's house of his silver, before being caught by police and returned - beaten and bruised - to grovel before the Bishop. It is at this moment that the Bishop performs an act that will change Jean Valjean's life forever - he states to the police that the silver was not stolen from him, but actually a gift to Jean, and he proceeds to give him two more expensive silver candlesticks from the dining table, which he says Jean had forgotten to take.
It is this moment of mind-bending grace that Jean begins to realise that he must start afresh
'Take an eye for an eye
Turn your heart into stone
This is all I have lived for
This is all I have known
One word from him and I'd be back,
Beneath the lash, upon the rack,
Instead
He offers me my freedom
I feel my shame inside me like a knife
He told me that I have a soul, how does he know,
What spirit came to move my life?' Valjean's soliloquy
and he lives no longer in his old ways but becomes an honest man who will one day be the factory owner and mayor of the township of Montreuil-sur-Mer. He will later also find further salvation in the child Cossette, who will open his hardened heart further to love.
Contrast this to Javert, the policeman who pursues the criminal Jean Valjean through the years, in trying to uphold the Law as he has always done. He is a prisoner of his own beliefs - that crime must be punished and pursued and never forgiven because criminals are less than humans and beyond salvation.
Suffice to say, Javert himself is shown mind-bending grace in the climax of the show when Jean Valjean has the opportunity to kill him but lets him live instead. Javert, with a heart and mind long hardened by the Law, cannot comprehend this act of mercy, and struggles with this grace -
How can I now allow this man
To hold dominion over me?
This desperate man that I have hunted
He gave me my life.
He gave me my freedom.
I should have perished by his hand
It was his right.
It was my right to die as well,
Instead I live, but live in hell. Javert's soliloquy
According to the movie, those who live by Law will end up only in one way - a bone-crunching thud into the raging rivers of the Seine.
I think this movie resonates with all of us. Sometimes we are like Jean Valjean, having committed a sin in the past and finding very little forgiveness or grace from the world. We are judged for our choices, our way of living, our beliefs, for not living up to expectations.
Sometimes we are like Javert, with a very strong moral sense that every wrong cannot go unpunished and only good people will prosper. We hold grudges against our families, we envy our friends and hang on to old hurts from previous relationships or friendships.
Sometimes we are our very own Javerts, and we continue to be prisoners of our own guilt, living in hell for all the mistakes and indiscretions of our past.
This New Year's, may you find it in your heart to live, not by the Law, but by Grace - to forgive yourself and others.
Watching the movie really helped me understand the flow of the story better, and the multiple complex themes underlying - of class warfare, love in the time of Revolution, of unrequited and sacrificial love.
Although I didn't completely get the story the first time, one thing remained with me from the musical - the theme of Law and Grace.
Jean Valjean was a man who was imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's son. Having served his time, he is released back into the world - first, filled with hope afresh which is then quickly crushed by the world's treatment of ex-convicts. It is in this state of desperation that he is invited in to the house of the Bishop, who feeds and houses the destitute Jean.
But survival instincts kick in and Jean loots the Bishop's house of his silver, before being caught by police and returned - beaten and bruised - to grovel before the Bishop. It is at this moment that the Bishop performs an act that will change Jean Valjean's life forever - he states to the police that the silver was not stolen from him, but actually a gift to Jean, and he proceeds to give him two more expensive silver candlesticks from the dining table, which he says Jean had forgotten to take.
It is this moment of mind-bending grace that Jean begins to realise that he must start afresh
'Take an eye for an eye
Turn your heart into stone
This is all I have lived for
This is all I have known
One word from him and I'd be back,
Beneath the lash, upon the rack,
Instead
He offers me my freedom
I feel my shame inside me like a knife
He told me that I have a soul, how does he know,
What spirit came to move my life?' Valjean's soliloquy
and he lives no longer in his old ways but becomes an honest man who will one day be the factory owner and mayor of the township of Montreuil-sur-Mer. He will later also find further salvation in the child Cossette, who will open his hardened heart further to love.
Contrast this to Javert, the policeman who pursues the criminal Jean Valjean through the years, in trying to uphold the Law as he has always done. He is a prisoner of his own beliefs - that crime must be punished and pursued and never forgiven because criminals are less than humans and beyond salvation.
Suffice to say, Javert himself is shown mind-bending grace in the climax of the show when Jean Valjean has the opportunity to kill him but lets him live instead. Javert, with a heart and mind long hardened by the Law, cannot comprehend this act of mercy, and struggles with this grace -
How can I now allow this man
To hold dominion over me?
This desperate man that I have hunted
He gave me my life.
He gave me my freedom.
I should have perished by his hand
It was his right.
It was my right to die as well,
Instead I live, but live in hell. Javert's soliloquy
According to the movie, those who live by Law will end up only in one way - a bone-crunching thud into the raging rivers of the Seine.
I think this movie resonates with all of us. Sometimes we are like Jean Valjean, having committed a sin in the past and finding very little forgiveness or grace from the world. We are judged for our choices, our way of living, our beliefs, for not living up to expectations.
Sometimes we are like Javert, with a very strong moral sense that every wrong cannot go unpunished and only good people will prosper. We hold grudges against our families, we envy our friends and hang on to old hurts from previous relationships or friendships.
Sometimes we are our very own Javerts, and we continue to be prisoners of our own guilt, living in hell for all the mistakes and indiscretions of our past.
This New Year's, may you find it in your heart to live, not by the Law, but by Grace - to forgive yourself and others.
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