Comments on: Do You Hear the People Sing?

By: Karl

Karl — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:01:38 +0000

Maybe you're right that most watchers won't receive it at any level other than "oh good, their sufferings are over and they are in a better place now." But that's a direct quote from one of the primary members of the production team – that the finale is about the 1848 revolution. It begins at 2:12 of this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1pGPRDzx8A

The barricade in the final scene is much bigger than the one earlier in the movie, there are more flags . . . it's a flash-forward. The attempted revolution depicted in the film is the Paris uprising of 1832 (which was crushed). Though the movie doesn't make it clear, the final scene is of the successful (though short lived) 1848 revolution. The people who died during the movie are shown as spirits standing in solidarity with the 1848 revolution.

And even if most viewers don't get any of that (and I agree they won't unless they watch or read interviews with the director or producers or really know French history), the finale of the musical and the lyrics I quoted have always struck me as inspirational in a very "get busy in this world, here and now" sense when they ask who will be brave, stand and join in a crusade to work for a better future – even if as we see for many characters in the film (as for many who hoped, cried or fought for justice through history) that better future may or may not be realized either fully or even at all in one's lifetime. I don't see how that rousing finale can be heard only as a pie-in-the-sky promise of heaven after death with no this-world implications or call.

I thought the president did a decent job of striking a balance between extremes, too.

By: Julie Clawson

Julie Clawson — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:43:01 +0000

Perhaps. But given that there was no reference to it in the film and that maybe .1% of the people who saw the film have any clue about history and could therefore possibly wonder about that foreshadowing, it seems a stretch.

By: Karl

Karl — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:27:25 +0000

The finale of the movie "is about the final revolution in Paris in 1848" according to the production team. It's a foreshadowing, a promise of a fulfilled hope. So the singing by the dead characters is seen at many different levels, including importantly the fact that their lives and deaths were not in vain, that they were the vanguard of a "this world" revolution in which the oppressed did rise up to bring an end to many of the social injustices that had caused so much suffering in France. Yes, it also show that they had found rest personally after death "in the garden of the lord" and were no longer suffering "this hell I'm living." And lastly it's a call to all, to "join in our crusade" "be strong and stand with me" and work for the "world you long to see."

Both-and. Not either-or. The Les Mis team got it at least as well as Obama did, IMO.