Without question I'll go see it but I'd prefer a non-musical version with more Victor Hugo and less Andrew Lloyd Webber.

/I don't appreciate serious drama tainted by the artsy foo foo crowd and I rather doubt a musical is what Hugo had in mind when he wrote the book

not_an_indigo: OtherLittleGuy: Oh yeah, those that wanted to read the book, but thought it was it was too long and dragged in parts--

Best. Abridged. Edition. Ever.

Fark you, abridged books are for people who don't know how to read.

There is zero shame in going for an abridged Les Mis. The unabridged version is roughly as long as the Lord of the Rings + the Silmarillion and focuses a lot on the history and culture of really minor characters and Parisian locations. Throw in that in English it's a translation that loses some of the beauty in the language itself, and you're not getting a lot of value from extra words.

Les Mis always was one of my faves, and "Do You Hear the People Sing" whether live, on cd, or on tv, always gives me goosebumps and makes me tear up for some reason. Cannot wait for this, I want it now. Going to be very dusty in that theater.

The little bit of Crowe singing in this trailer is the first negative thing that I've seen about the movie. I hope that's just sung for that one song, but his voice has no resonance whatsoever. Everything else is awesome, but Javert is just so critical to it (all of my favorite pieces from the musical involve Javert in some way)...

He sounds like someone stuck between a baritone and a tenor deciding to force himself into a higher register.

Broktun: I am an illiterate heathen.

What is Les Mis about?

In a world where the people are downtrodden, one man steals a loaf of bread and changes his life forever.
This Christmas, you don't need have less....to still be miserable.
-swoosh noise and wipe-
Les Miserables
Come hear the people sing

Link

Instead of the movie I'm just going to watch this clip for 3 hours.

snowshovel: While this does look awesome....it's kind of strange to see people running around singing in hyper-realistic sets with casts of thousands (digital or otherwise). It always seemed like the better filmed musicals played with the notion of that absurdity by either maintaining some semblance of theatrics (Chicago, West Side Story, Moulin Rouge(yes, I know it's a stage-to-film transfer)) or changing things a lot to make it more film-y (Cabaret). Maybe Evita comes the closest to be "singing in realistic settings"? It's been a while since I've watched that movie.

my take on that (having seen a lot of musical movies) is that it can work as either full realism or full escapism- as long as it stays consistent, its fine. Where it fails is when it tries to do some of each. Full realism i define as ones where the characters break out into song and everyone around them treats it like its a normal part of the real world. you see it a lot in the classic musical movies like oklahoma, south pacific, music man, anything goes, etc, etc. Then you have the movies like chicago where everytime they go into the song and dance number it seems to take place in some sort of alternative universe, disconnected from the "real" world that is occuring around it.

where musical movies seem to fall apart is when they can't decide if things are taking place in the real world or the "musical" side world. examples that come to mind are Rent and Evita. both of those movies seemed to alternate at random between the real world aknowledging the singer, and them escaping to the abstract singing world. It makes it hard for the audience to figure out what is happening and when and also which characters are privy to what knowledge.

so i figure, if les mis stcks to its setting, it should work fine

Tyrosine: Without question I'll go see it but I'd prefer a non-musical version with more Victor Hugo and less Andrew Lloyd Webber.

/I don't appreciate serious drama tainted by the artsy foo foo crowd and I rather doubt a musical is what Hugo had in mind when he wrote the book

Then your in luck. Andrew Lloyd Webber had nothing to do with Les Mis.

Broktun: I am an illiterate heathen.

What is Les Mis about?

It's about a man who steals a loaf of bread. Fugitivarity ensues.

Tyrosine: Without question I'll go see it but I'd prefer a non-musical version with more Victor Hugo and less Andrew Lloyd Webber.

/I don't appreciate serious drama tainted by the artsy foo foo crowd and I rather doubt a musical is what Hugo had in mind when he wrote the book

Don't worry...when I make my film version I'll be sure and insert a 15 minute long documentary on the history of the Paris Sewer system.

Russell Crowe can't be as bad as Pierce Brosnan was in Mamma Mia. He just can't.

I read this book when I was in middle school, out of boredom.
I really liked it.
Then all the gays jumped on it and made a musical out of it.

I used to like musicals before that.

Damn them.

At the risk of giving them Ideas, they might as well make a musical out of the Johnstown Flood.

Geoffery Rush will always be the true Javert.

I guess I will retract my vow to never see a film with Sacha Baron Cohen in it.

Needs more Gavroche.

/looks incredible

Why does Helena Bonham Carter look the same in every movie she is in?