Tag: Javert

An Extra Wrinkle

Completely skipped by the musical: Jean Valjean is recaptured, tried for robbing the chimney-sweep boy after his release, and sent back to prison. He offers no defense (he did take the coin), even though the prosecution claims he committed armed robbery with accomplices, which gets him the death penalty (though the king commutes it to life in prison). What he really did was step on a coin and refuse to move his foot.

Not long after he’s sent back to prison, he saves the life of a crewman on a ship that’s in for repairs, then “falls” to his apparent death in the waters below. No body is found, but who could survive that?

Honestly, the whole sequence doesn’t add much that we don’t already know, though it does give him a little anonymity in that he’s presumed dead until Javert figures out that he isn’t, making it even more of a one-man crusade to recapture him.

It also sets up a nice parallel between Valjean’s escape and Javert’s suicide, which the musical picked up on by using the same song for Valjean breaking parole and Javert breaking down.

On Tumblr (Re-Reading Les Mis)

Those who falter…

Javert is so angry at being overruled regarding Fantine that he reports M.Madeleine as being Jean Valjean even though he still has no proof. So when he’s told that the “real” Valjean has been found, he not only feels that he’s been insubordinate, but that he’s done so for the wrong reason, and must be made an example of. He insists on being dismissed — simply resigning isn’t enough, because that would be honorable — because of the one-slip-and-you’re-out philosophy summed up in “Stars.”

This figures years later, when he allows Valjean to go free and feels he’s again in conflict with superior authority. But how can you resign from God?

This is one of those bits that wasn’t in the stage musical, but was added to the movie. I didn’t like it the first time through the film, mainly because of the execution (sorry, Russel Crowe), but after rereading the book, I agree with adding it. Even if it didn’t come off as well as it could have.

On Tumblr (Re-Reading Les Mis)