Les Miserables - The Musical Movie

[Mrs. Funk]

Having been around the Moulin Rouge and Place de Pigalle in the dark hours of the night, I can attest that there is no such thing as a non-grotesque prostitute, at least not in that area. I'm sure in high end areas they exist.

I've been to Pigalle, too. I didn't say it was inaccurate, only a very different depiction than the stage production. Overall, the film is significantly grittier than the few stage productions I've seen.

[All-American]

That's my thinking as well. This thing has a huge built-in fanbase that would have turned out even with no-names. I'm sure the star power will probably boost the numbers somewhat, but I think it would have had good numbers regardless.

Atlas Shrugged has a pretty good built-in fanbase, too.

[SteelBlue]

I think this is right.

Atlas Shrugs has a big following, and they were going to make it big budget with well known actors, but then they cut the budget and dropped the big name actors and nobody ended up caring.

I also think just as many or more people would be complaining if they dropped Crowe, Jackman, and Hathaway and got all trained Broadway singers. You'd hear "Film is different than Broadway. The singing was great, but these people obviously weren't that comfortable on film, and the acting was subpar. In a film, you need to emphasize the acting blah blah blah".

Not buying it. You nail the music in this thing and it would have been a runaway hit.

[All-American]

Not buying it. You nail the music in this thing and it would have been a runaway hit.

Hey, um, I don't know if you haven't noticed, but it's not doing all that badly.

[SteelBlue]

Hey, um, I don't know if you haven't noticed, but it's not doing all that badly.

I should have said "still". I didn't say or mean that it wasn't a hit. I'm just not buying that Crowe et al were needed to make that happen. They made good but they could have made great.

[All-American]

I should have said "still". I didn't say or mean that it wasn't a hit. I'm just not buying that Crowe et al were needed to make that happen. They made good but they could have made great.

Could be. There are probably people that would have seen it if had a better Javert, but didn't. There are probably people that would not have seen it if Russell Crowe hadn't been Javert. And there are people that were going to go see it either way. Nobody can say for sure what the Venn diagram looks like, but two things jump out to me: first, the guys who make a living figuring out what makes people go to the movies went with Crowe; and second, each person here who thinks they should have gone with somebody better shelled out ten bucks apiece within the first two weeks after the show's debut to see it.

[MarkGrace]

Atlas Shrugged has a pretty good built-in fanbase, too.

Yeah, cougarboard loves that book.

[SteelBlue]

Could be. There are probably people that would have seen it if had a better Javert, but didn't. There are probably people that would not have seen it if Russell Crowe hadn't been Javert. And there are people that were going to go see it either way. Nobody can say for sure what the Venn diagram looks like, but two things jump out to me: first, the guys who make a living figuring out what makes people go to the movies went with Crowe; and second, each person here who thinks they should have gone with somebody better shelled out ten bucks apiece within the first two weeks after the show's debut to see it.

Yes, I said as much earlier in the thread. That has little or nothing to do with making a classic film that is relevant years in the future as the best films based on musicals became. Notice that almost all here with criticisms, myself included, actually liked the film. I know my family will own the dvd. It's just that, as Leb said, Les Mis is one of the great works of our time, and I don't think that's true of the film. My guess is that in 5 years it's viewed as closer to Evita or Mama Mia than it is The Sound of Music or Fiddler on the Roof. I guess we'll see.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Yes, I said as much earlier in the thread. That has little or nothing to do with making a classic film that is relevant years in the future as the best films based on musicals became. Notice that almost all here with criticisms, myself included, actually liked the film. I know my family will own the dvd. It's just that, as Leb said, Les Mis is one of the great works of our time, and I don't think that's true of the film. My guess is that in 5 years it's viewed as closer to Evita or Mama Mia than it is The Sound of Music or Fiddler on the Roof. I guess we'll see.

Exactly. I don't think anyone has argued that it is not worth seeing. That isn't the point.

[All-American]

Exactly. I don't think anyone has argued that it is not worth seeing. That isn't the point.

Well, it's noble of you two to think that they're in the business of producing great works of art.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Well, it's noble of you two to think that they're in the business of producing great works of art.

Are you daft? We are bitching because they obviously aren't.

[MarkGrace]

I'm still on the side of thinking that better singing wouldn't have made that a great film, and I'm not sure it would have even helped much. To me more of the film's problems stemmed from the underlying musical than anything. Secondarily I think better choices could have been made by the director in adapting. But I think I'm the only one on my side.

[All-American]

Are you daft? We are bitching because they obviously aren't.

No, your point is clear enough. I'm just saying that it says something about you, and it's probably something good, that you'll still go to the effort of being bothered when a moviemaker churns out something less than his best.

[jay santos]

No, your point is clear enough. I'm just saying that it says something about you, and it's probably something good, that you'll still go to the effort of being bothered when a moviemaker churns out something less than his best.

I'm still not convinced on the criteria for what makes Les Mis the movie a great work of art or what could have made it better.

There is a contribution from the actors to making Les Mis the movie a great work of art. It's both in acting and in singing. And some of it is even in the connection a great actor makes with the audience over the actor's career.

I think it's pretty damn good, as is. And I'm not convinced trading star quality and great acting for better trained singers would have improved it.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I'm still not convinced on the criteria for what makes Les Mis the movie a great work of art or what could have made it better.

There is a contribution from the actors to making Les Mis the movie a great work of art. It's both in acting and in singing. And some of it is even in the connection a great actor makes with the audience over the actor's career.

I think it's pretty damn good, as is. And I'm not convinced trading star quality and great acting for better trained singers would have improved it.

And I am not at all convinced that good singer = bad actor.