I must confess that I have yet to read the Victor Hugo novel. And I further confess I never saw Les Miserables in a theatre. In fact, like more than a few, my first exposure to Les Miserables was frumpy Susan Boyle on a British TV show; a talent show. Susan Boyle's amazing performance of Ï Dreamed a Dream"became an internet sensation, a youtube record breaker. For me, it got me curious and I began watching videos of Les Miserables on the computer and those rare occasions that it would play on PBS.
The movie released this Christmas Day became the excuse to get me to a movie theatre for the first time in many a year. Needless to say I was enthralled for the next several hours as it all played out right there in front of my eyes. All the characters were there; Jean Valjean, Javert, Fantine, Cosette, Marius, Eponine, the electic Thenardiers and the Bishop. I was quite surprised that the Bishop, in this movie adaptation was played by none other than Colm Wilkinson.
Spoiler alert: I'm going to describe the Bishop's role in this masterpiece. The Bishop is Charles Myriel, the Bishop of Digne. Soon after paroled from 19 long years in prison, the bitter and tormented Valjean finds himself being taken in and cared for by the good Bishop. He offered him food, wine and a safe warm place to sleep; all of which Valjean readily accepted. Valjean promptly pays the Bishop back by rising in the middle of the night to steal the silver in the house. Soon, Valjean is caught with the goods and is brought back to the Bishop's residence. Both Valjean and the good Bishop knows what is at stake. Valjean, by breaking parole, will once again be known as prison 24601. Remarkably, the Bishop not only agrees with Valjean's lie that the silver was a gift, the Bishop thrusts even more valuable candlesticks into his hands. The constables have no choice but to leave and Valjean avoids returning to a life in prison. Once the police are safely away the Bishop tells Valjean to use the silver to become an honest man; you no longer belong to evil you belong to good. Then the Bishop tells Valjean that he has saved his soul for God.
This profound life changing event in the life of Jean Valjean leads to a life well lived and as we find out, he truly becomes the hero of Les Miserables. Upon finding out how injustice is about to collide head on with Fantine, he offers to be the father of her daughter Cosette and purchases the little girl from the evil, albeit comical Thenardiers. And he raises her to be a complete lady. As we fast forward to the revolution and we meet Marius, Valjean again becomes an unwitting savior. Cosette and Marius fall quickly, deeply in love and as Marius is injured in the fight with the French Army, it is Valjean that saves him. From his days of recovery, Marius eventually weds Cosette as Valjean flees to save Cosette and her new husband from grief as he constantly runs from his past.
In the touching and moving seen before Valjean is led to God as he is dying by the the visions of Fantine and Eponine, Valjean utters to lines of the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIjU02gVGNw
"To love another person is to see the face of God"
And it started with the Bishop, who in the name of the Church and the name of her founder, Jesus Christ, offered acceptance, forgiveness, redemption and salvation!
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