@Blue Pulse Gaming Not only that, but the music that plays is what Valjean was singing about Marius, AND the medal awards him a full honors burial(if I remember correctly). It hurts so much! SO GOOD!
I really liked that scene too, but it's extremely out of character for Javert. He was shook when Valjean spared his life and couldn't process it, to the point of suicide, there's no way he would look back to the revolution and go "hey, that little shit ratted me out, but he deserves a medal for standing up for fighting". He would probably be even more confused.
I think it is more anger than hate. If you listen carefully and think about his character logically,Javert did not hate anybody and in fact,was trying save them. Even Valjean. Logically a man in Javert's position would deal with murderers,rapists,and pedos all day. Why focus on a bread thief? To save him from himself. The reason Valjeans sentence was so long is because he had tried to escape so many times. When Javert sings "stars" he very heartfully sings "see him safe behind bars". Javert has no reason to believe Valjean violent. He even admits to himself before he falls that Valjean had the right to kill him for vengeance,and Javert had the right to die to wipe the slate clean. Javert's character is a tragedy. Because Valjean spared him,Javert had to commit a sin to end his pain. Even at the blockade,he tells the resistence fighters the truth,tries to scare them in his own way. His pain is genuine when he sees them all dead,because despite all his jock talk about "wet themselves with blood",his actions say he tried to prevent their deaths and he failed. He wanted Valjean to kill him so he would not have to commit the sin of suicide. When he is asking if Valjean can be forgiven by god,he is probably asking if he too can be forgiven.
I loved the classic representation of Javert in Philip Quast, but Crowe's Javert works too in its own way - while Quast goes for a more ruthless and no-nonsense style, Crowe's voice and acting(which could be considered monotone/dull and wooden respectively) reveals a more neutral, stoic Javert who only begins to despair and display his inner conflict in his suicide scene. This could be realistic too, as he is after all an officer of the law and would naturally be devoid of emotion as a result of his black-and-white worldview.
I don't get the hate Crowe gets for his performance. I love the way he sang and thought his version of Javert was the best I've seen. Every time he enters a scene the tension is palpable.
I agree. I made a Les Mis playlist picking some of the songs from the movie and some from the musical, because some the movie did better and some the musical did better, and i picked the movie ones for pretty much every song Javert appears in.
@@benformation8123 He is an awful singer and after seeing the amazing performances in the West End and Zurich it is Crowe that fooled himself he could cope with the role not I !! in addition how dare you call a person a fool when they are not judging a person on character only on a performance! i am an ex professional dancer, actress and singer and i now manage a singer who has sold hundreds of millions of records not to mention downloads and appears on the same bill as the Jacksons so i know a good or bad singer when i hear one and he is awful, he murders the melody, the timing and is off key the whole film...
@@tijay8507 I love Hugh Jackman. I don't know much about singing but I do know about emotion. Jean Val Jean was the best performance that I've ever seen Jackman. I saw this movie in a theatre. I saw it three times in as many days. I had never been at a movie theater and experience a standing ovation. I have only openly wept in a movie theater one other time. "Love Story." I just had to throw that in there. 😎✌❤ My
Javert gets like 10 seconds of character development in this two and a half hour movie and it all comes when he pins his medal on Gavroche. Such a beautiful scene!!
Even though it goes against everything the character stands for. Ironically, Javert is presented as the prime example of the old regime and the most rigid proponent of the rule of law .... outside of a such a fast-paced movie it would be absurd if the character did such a 180. Keep in mind that he committed suicide because he couldn't process Valjean showing mercy and how justice and law started to conflict. Not because he felt a sudden rush of compassion or guilt.
@@Plazmasoldier the actor offered a very interesting take on why javert commited suicide and it was because like if he recognized that Jean Valjean was doing the right thing it meant that he had to take responsibility for the death of every revolutionary at the barricade and the guilt overwhelmed him so he jumped
@@iexist3376Yes, the book develops on that theme. There's more than one element involved but that is definitely part of it. Javert can no longer bring himself to demand that VALJEAN takes the consequences for the situation, so he does it himself. Gives me chills every time.
At 5:00 he contemplates the bodies of those young men tragically killed with a mix of sadness and at the same time admiration for them, you can see in his eyes the senselessness of the event, victory for no one, his sorrow is so evident, but when at 5:06 he puts his medal over Gavroche's body he absolutely kills me, couldn't help shedding a tear.
i hate when the melody to "bring him home" starts playing when javert sees gavroche's body; it plays at exactly the line "he's like the son i might have known if God had granted me a son", which reflects on how javert & gavroche were born of similar circumstances, but reacted to them differently. it also reflects how the main theme of the song is to "bring him home", but gavroche (1). didn't have a home, and (2). didn't leave the barricade alive. so yeah, i hate that part. makes me cry.
Big_Boy_Billy no I’m pretty sure gavroche came to mean street urchin because of Les Mis- I did some Wikipediaing and you’re right about him having named himself but it must have been an arbitrary name he thought sounded nice
I really like how this film humanizes Javert and makes him see the error of his philosophy more clearly. In the musical, it's only Valjean's capability of mercy that causes Javert to forsake his ideals and jump off the bridge, but in the film we have scenes like him putting his medal on Gavroche, which show his philosophy to be incorrect in contexts outside of Jean Valjean.
What people consistently misunderstand about Russell Crowe's portrayal of Javert in this movie is that he was not cast for this role because he is a fantastic singer; he was cast for this role because he is a fantastic *actor*. And he is. He is one of the best actors of this generation. Like him or loathe him, he's bloody good. There are so many tiny, subtle bits of his performance as Javert, his facial expressions, his body language, that you couldn't have in a stage production because you don't get that close up with the performers; you are not sitting near enough to pick up these things in theatre, which is why emotion is more portrayed with the singing primarily. Everything has to be more overt and obvious to ensure it is seen and understood by even the folks in the cheap seats. One of the reasons they stick Javert in an oversized hat is that even those squinting from the gods can go 'oh, there's the baddie!' However, when you make a movie like this, you have the ability to get very up close and personal on the actors faces, and to pick up things that you just can't pick up in live theatre. Of *course* his portrayal in a movie is going to be different to how the character is portrayed on a stage; they are very different types of art, and anyone that had worked in either would know that. Aside from the fact that *his singing is fine* (seriously, hes fine. There are far worse vocal performances in this movie than Russell Crowe's) he is intentionally putting a different spin on the character, a spin that works better in a movie format. The stage Javert is brash, confident, arrogant, determined, and self assured, largely because thats what works well on a stage in front of an audience that are far away from the performer; it is not necessarily required in a movie that you watch at home 4ft from your tv set. If people wanna nitpick, the Javert of the stage show is really not all that accurate a portrayal of the character in the book; again, they took liberties in order to make it work as a stage show. Javert is a mentally weird character; he literally kills himself because his world view is challenged. He realises that if he arrests Valjean, he is acting legally, but not morally. And if he lets him go, he is acting morally, but not legally. Those two clashing concepts throw him, because he sees the world in black and white, and something being within the law but immoral (or conversely, outside the law but still the right thing to do) does not compute in his brain. To the degree he throws himself off a bridge. Russell crowe brought a vulnerability to the character, a relatability , a human-ness to the character that I have found to be lacking in any other version of Javert to date. He made you LIKE him, and feel for him, which is absolutely vital if there is to be any emotional impact from his death. I've been listening to this musical for 25 years, and never felt much of an interest in Javert until Russell Crowe played him. And I know Im not alone in that. This character needed a fucking *good actor* to portray him first and foremost. Someone who knows how to use subtlety and how to portray a troubled soul. There could be no-one better for this role. And if all people can do is go 'OMG I DON'T LIKE HIS SINGING!!!!' then you've entirely missed the point.
And that's precisely the problem. It's a freaking MUSICAL!!! Cast vocalists who can also act the character. There's no power or tension in his voice making the execution of all of his lines boring. you understand now?
@@K4Cubing I love how you present your opinion as if its a fact. What am I supposed to 'understand', exactly? I worked in musical theatre for 13 years, I've seen more 'Javerts' than you can possibly ever imagine; Russell is still my favourite by a country mile, specifically because he brought a vulnerability to the character. This is a damaged, mentally ill man, fragile man who ends up topping himself. His performance WORKS. You don't have to like it, but don't come in here with your narcissistic, patronising bullcrap, as if the rest of us are supposed to learn something from you.
Russell Crowe gives one of the best performances of his career in this movie. I never understood why the reaction to his performance was so negative. The scene where Javert places his medal on Gavroche's dead body is phenomenal. You can feel the emotion through the screen.
The score at that point just hits you in the heart. Incredibly moving. Absolutely love that bit. I thought Crowe did a fine acting job in the movie, and his singing is more than fine. He did a great job.
I think most people are just a lot more focused on the idea of the film being done like a classical opera getting a glow up. From that perspective, I can see why people might dislike it. However, as far as movies go, I think his performance and the movie itself are both absolutely fantastic.
@@PlazmasoldierAs a trained operatic singer, films done like operas are generally AWFUL. Simpler musical theatre can transfer to screen well, but one that practically IS an opera like Les Mis? Think it was a VERY good call to tone it down a bit musically. Simplify it, otherwise it could have easily veered into melodrama. I don't actually like Hugh Jackman's voice that much but that's just personal taste. Overall I think the film was well done from a vocalist's angle.
I think it was on purpose. a misplaced sound this strong to show that he is realy dead, not a half assed revive to be expected. and it made a good shocking moment.
I think it was loud and over exaggerated for shock factor. You have to admit it kind of makes you cringe putting that sound to a body hitting a hard surface, so it was fitting.
I don't really have a problem with the impact sound, but I wish there was a sound effect for Javert hitting the water. You see the spray of the water and can hear the river flowing, but there's no loud splash to accompany the fall, and I think that draws more attention to the impact sound and makes it feel a little bit out of place, in my opinion.
Fact: Inspector Javert says his name 7 times throughout the whole musical. Scenes: Look down: "And I'm JAVERT!" At the End of the Day: "...please know me as JAVERT..." Fantine's Arrest: "...let him answer to JAVERT." The Confrontation: "You know nothing of JAVERT..." The Robbery: "...well let him speak to JAVERT..." Valjean's Revenge: "...You'll still answer to JAVERT." Suicide: "It is either Valjean or JAVERT!"
I'm probably not the first to think this, but I realize Les Miserables is essentially a battle between two different school of fathering. Jean Valjean throughout the story strives to be as benevolent as he can be to those under his care: he is initially imprisoned in an attempt to feed his starving baby nephew, he blows his affluent identity and goes on the lamb to stop both an innocent man and poor Cosette from getting sucked up into the world of slavery and torture that he'd escaped from, and he literally wades through shit to save Marius from the results of trying to stand up to an oppressive government. Valjean is saved multiple times by other people reciprocating his kindness, and dies relatively comfortably in a house surrounded by loved ones. Javert does, in fact, care about those in his constituency and under his supervision. His problem is that he views the world in such a binary, authoritarian, good-and-bad way that he typically ends up in fact punishing good and encouraging the bad. When he finally realizes this, after seeing little Gavroche dead and learning that Valjean turned out to be quite the decent dude, he does to himself the only thing his narrow worldview will let him do to threats.
The main cause of bad parenting is the misery...that's why the story calls this way 😉 ( " la misere n'est mere du personne"...Is an obesively repeated phrase in the original french version from '80, wrote from Alain Boulbil, i think...) Gavroche is the son of the Thernadiers, but he is mostly roaming through Paris, because of their unability to function as a family; Javert is an orphan too, his parents were convicts, even if they were ever released they might not be reunited and live as a family, so they have somehow a similar background 😪 On the other hand, J. Is deeply sad that he wasn't killed "like a soldier" , he was humiliated to be left alive ( in the opera; in the book he has other reasons)
I love that with just the small action of Javert putting his metal on Gavroche’s body, despite being the opposing side, shows and tells the audience that though Javert is the main antagonist of the film, he’s not a bad person or a villain.
Javert is probably a great example of Ying and Yang. His views are black and white. He only sees those who must or have been punished by the law as lesser. He's no villian in any means. He's doing what he believes is right, and honestly, I don't blame him for that. I have realized that one if the reasons I like Javert so much, is because I relate to him. It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done, if you've done something bad, you will be punished.
He simply has a misguided and warped worldview. He lets the largest charlatan, consman, criminal roam free simply because he hasn’t been officially persecuted, but once one man is charged for stealing bread he makes it his life mission to hunt him down. To him, ‘the law’ and the lord were the same, but that thought simply led to a skewed moral compass.
@@chrisaishere2555 not what yin and yang are, those refer to the cyclical nature of all things, death and rebirth, things like that. In Daoist terms Javert could be described as a very unbalanced person, due to his rigid and unchanging approach. And frankly, he is a villain, a complex one, but quite obviously a man whose fixations drive him to do great harm to many people as a tool of authoritarian justice. It’s sorta the whole point. Condemning an infant to death because a woman scratched a man is a very evil thing, but because of his idea of duty, he is blind to the consequences of his actions. That ain’t justice and I hope you don’t believe in that sorta shit 😬
Honestly, I really liked Russell's (and in general everyone's) performance. I've never seen it live, but I understand that the strengh of movies vs. plays is the visual and acting (aside from vocal performance), while the plays' is the music (choreogrphies are also important, though). In this case, seeing little reactions and details in performances, aswell as the screenshots, the backgrounds... makes it up for more elaborated singing.
Absolutely agree. The opening scene where the prisoners are pulling in the ship is brilliant. You don’t get that picture from the play, brilliant as it is.
His voice isn't the best but it isn't the worst, it works well enough and serves its purpose, plus he's literally the only one in the film who's kind of trying to work a French accent into his singing.
i don't care what the people said about Crowe ... i love his job in this movie. to be honest , in 32 years , this is the only film of this style that i loved and makes me cry at the End !
idc what anyone says, compared to the rest of the actors and considering the terrible conditions for the actors of this movie, Russel Crowe killed it as Javert. Also Javert has one of the best and coolest villain defeats of any villain EVER
So one thing I like more about the movie than the show (which is rare for me) is how Javert suspects him but then thinks he was wrong and is apologetic
Luckely Valjean had no such kind of intentions 😄😄😄😄 ( to humiliate somebody) But Javert could come from such places ( orphanage, prisons) where either you **** or get ****ed
This video doesn't show the whole scene, but the one that starts at 2:30. Javert grabs Gavroche, sings straight into his face "I am Javert", one of his men keeps hold of Gavroche until Javert decides to let everyone go at 3:46, Gavroche could be seen in the background throughout. Later Javert goes to infiltrate the barricade. Gavroche, "liar!"
