Les Misérables: So, what did you think? — Page 14

The majority of the people seeing this film ( meaning not the fanatics and theater queens on this board) are probably enjoying it even more so because everyone in it doesn't sound so pretty or legit. They don't leave the theater saying.. "oh Hugh Jackman was struggling vocally" and all that horse crap. I think hollywood made a great film. The tour is still out there if you want to go see pretty. And I hope Jackman wins a oscar. They will probably give it to DDl for playing Abe in that snore fest.

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Updated On: 12/29/12 at 11:57 AM

Dame, I agree. I saw the film on Thursday and loved it. Although, I have been telling friends who have never seen the production and are unfamiliar with the music, that they make not like it as much as I did. I just don't get the critism. Yes, Russell Crowe is not as strong vocally as the others, but I still enjoyed his performance, as well as Amanda's. I think Hooper did a great job. It will win the Golden Globe, but I think thats about it. Anne has the best chance.

Randomness. Feel free to skip, skip, skippitty skiiiiip.

What I don't understand is how is it that a 4-minute music video--which is often a lot more ridiculous and STAGEY than a movie musical--complete with choreography that is obviously an excuse to gyrate one's hips and look SEXY and manipulate into selling more of that 'artist's' records, so easily accepted by just about everyone when it's, essentially, a short musical film?

Is it the shortness of it? Meaning, most people can only tolerate musical films in 4 minute chunks at a time? Is it the style? Is the fact that a Rock musical isn't REALLY authentic Rock, but a fusion of elements of Rock music with the storytelling properties of a musical, is that what makes Rock musicals hit that glass ceiling where they never truly "cross over," remaining safely on the theatrical side?

What about those long ass Gaga music videos that contain dialogue and weirdness in a painfully obvious attempt to come across as "different," like a rebel, like a genius, like an ARTIST?

You have people flipping out and declaring a movie musical experience as a truly painful ordeal and they bemoan the musical's desperation in manipulating earnest emotions to flow freely from your heart, mind, wallet? Disgust is usually the sentiment expressed in this case.

Yet, the public at large fall all over each other happily allowing themselves be manipulated willingly by mainstream pop.

So, can we conclude that style, running time, and purpose are working against musical theatre's and musical film's acceptance by mainstream audiences?

I guess, but I don't think it's that simplistic.

AHHHH!! Make the voices stop!!!!

Kidding.

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Updated On: 12/29/12 at 12:23 PM

But I'm pretty sure there'd be a mob waiting to hang Tom Hooper if he cut them.

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Indeed. No person with even the slightest shred of sanity would have attempted to cut either of those two songs.

I do agree that they became superfluous in the film. In fact, the film sort of just relegated/exposed Eponine as nothing more than a plot device.

"One Day More" was one of the major stumbles for me. Perhaps audience members really do need to be reminded of all the plot threads and characters. But Hooper, in my opinion, made a rousing number into a fairly low-key, unneeded one. Any impact was sucked out of it and placed instead into the immediately following "Do You Hear the People Sing?", which I thought was one of the most successful sequences in the whole film.

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My Oh My: I was kind of thinking about Pitch Perfect, which had a lot of singing and also featured a cast that could really sing. The movie did so well that they're talking about a sequel.

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My Oh My, you are not alone, I have often asked myself the same thing.

I don't think we need despair, My Oh My. CHICAGO, HAIRSPRAY and (God help us!) MAMMA MIA! all grossed well over 100 million each.

LES MISERABLES made $18 million on Christmas Day alone.

Even when the convention of characters singing seemed dead in the 1970s, THE ROCKY HORRY PICTURE SHOW was racking up millions (it seemed) of performances.

I do think they made a good decision to sing LES MISERABLES a little more intimately. Nearly 3 hours of operetta bombast might have overwhelmed us all.

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As for "On My Own", a song I very much like, I watched the 25th Anniversary concert the night before seeing the film and found Eponine pretty much extraneous. It doesn't help that in a formal sense, she repeats Fantine's appearance: she appears, sings a great song, then dies singing a sad duet. (OK, Eponine appears briefly in Act I, but basically she is the Act II Fantine.)

I believe I wrote above that, dramaturgically, her stage time would be better spent establishing the adult Cosette. (All this being said, I loved Miss Bark.)

I think I just needed a bit of dialogue or something before On My Own. It came out of nowhere, and it felt like a music video. Maybe it was a bad choice to cut the first verse ("and now I'm all alone again...").

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I created a web video to express all of my feelings about the movie (link below)...

An Incomplete History of Les Miserables

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My Oh My and SporkGoddess: I think the difference between Pitch Perfect and rock musicals is that Pitch Perfect is a story with and about music while rock musicals are exactly what it says on the tin. People don't want to accept characters breaking out into song. My mother is great example of this- she loves old musicals or comedies (Sound of Music, Anything Goes, Legally Blonde, even Shrek). She doesn't so much care about the songs supporting the story, only that they are fun to listen to. She doesn't really appreciate serious shows (though she does appreciate serious works in other mediums), and she said to me after Les Miz, "What I don't like is how they sing while they're dying. If they have enough energy to sing, they should have enough energy to not die."

I think part of the reason is that the general public sees singing in musicals the same way they would see singing in real life: something extra, something more, something out of the blue. Whereas for me (and I would guess other musical lovers), in the world of the show, singing is a natural extension of emotional expression, like impassioned speech or something. It's a given, it's expected. Fantine singing about Cosette as she dies is the same as her speaking it. There's no extra effort involved to sustain or hit notes; it's natural. People don't seem to be able to accept that.

As much as I dislike it now, I have to admit I had high hopes for Glee, which I think is very much a part of this phenomenon. It was supposed to bring musicals back into the mainstream for the kids of my generation. But it's not a musical. It's a show about music, where the reasons for the music are defined clearly. Only on rare occasions do characters burst out into song; it's either justified in the context of the glee club itself or clearly set as someone's fantasy. It doesn't ask you to accept that characters are randomly bursting into song, and I think that's where most people will lose interest/belief in the story.

Mainstream pop, for the most part, isn't attempting to tell a story. It's not asking you to join a cast of characters in a dramatic journey. It's not trying to make you cry or make you think. It's existing to make you entertained. The music video itself, I think, is in part made to keep your interest focused on the song, since in our multi-tasking culture most people do not keep their focus on one thing. Music videos and pop music, in general, are trying to make a statement. They are too short to have a significant emotional resonance with their audience, and I think that's why the audience can buy them.

Whew...that was really long

I guess I was lucky: I had such rock-bottom expectations for Mr. Crowe that I found him "not so bad".

On the other hand, I'm a little surprised at all the love for Aaron Tveit. Obviously, he can sing, but compared to others I've heard in the role, he seemed to lack the command necessary to sing young men into sacrificing their lives. Perhaps it was the "intimate singing" style of the entire film that was to blame and not the singer.