Les Miserables

An excellent made-for-TV version of the Victor Hugo classic. Dauphin's last film role.

This is... miserable. Jordan is unconvincing as a man who's supposed to be as strong as an ox, Perkins doesn't seem cruel and doesn't age a day in 20 years, murky and dull visual style, silly musical score, pedestrian direction, general overobviousness... and of course Hugo's thesis "the law is pitiless, but man is good" is total bullshit; that may have flew in the 19th century, but nowadays we have seen Milgram, the Nazis, Dahmer, et al. I shunned telefilms for years; this is a good example why

Although there are some weird storytelling choices and pacing issues, this definitely has its moments. The first hour is a lot of fun as we get to see a lot more depth to the beginning of the story than most adaptations allow for, and Anthony Perkins is a great Javert, even if the added focus on his character comes at the expense of a lot of interesting sideplots. The production values are very 1970's TV movie, and sadly the pacing problems really do get the better of the movie by the end.