Les Miserables

This is a great story and for me this is the best screen adaptation of it. Although Geoffrey Rush puts in a decent performance in the newer film release (1998), Anthony Perkins' Javert simply cannot be bettered with his steely, cold personality and determination. Jordon also does well with the Valjean character, emitting a personality of pride and restraint in the face of adversity. The story moves on at a decent pace and provides good characterisation without too much lagging.

Overall this is a fine production and I personally find it vastly superior to the latest film incarnation with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush where I didn't particularly like either of the portrayals of the leading characters, even though they were well-acted. This version may have the obligatory TV Movie feel to it, but it still manages to rise above its Big-screen counterpart.

I have the new version (with Liam Neeson as Valjean) and it was pathetic, and almost blasphemous to Hugo's great book, if compared to this one. This one of John Gay is THE best adaptation. Richard Jordan also did perfectly to give life to Valjean, you can feel the misery and redemption of Hugo's Jean Valjean. Perkins was also perfect for the tough-principled sinister and cold Javert. If you have seen the new version and not this one, you've been cheated.

This is the best version of this classic by far. Richard Jordan gives one of his best performances as Jean Valjean. His scenes in the prison are heartrending. And he certainly knows how to draw you in and make you feel a part of it all, you can feel his suffering, his pain and the scene with the priest as he turns himself around is heartfelt and dramatic, he is definitely by far one of the best character actors that ever was. Anthony Perkins is great as Javert, cold, grim and unforgiving and the two of them together, they are great. Angela Pleasence gives a great performance as Fantine and of course John Gielgud, what can you say about someone that is a living legend, because you know whatever he does you know it will be outstanding. So I would highly recommend this one to anyone that loves the classics and not the version that just came out last year, to think they would try to do this classic again where there was already an outstanding version of this story once before was outrageous.

I saw this version of the story many many years ago and loved it. I still have never seen the musical nor the new film. I watched this version again recently for the first time in many years and while it suffered slightly from the usual low budget aspects of a lot of TV movies, the acting was excellent and Tony Perkins was absolutely amazing as Javert. My 15 year old son had never seen any version of the story and watched it with me and he was mezmerized by the film and loved every minute of it (this from a kid who can't sit still for 5 minutes unless there are explosions and robots and blood and guts everywhere).

BTW, the bright-eyed young Marius who resembles an older Elijah Wood was played by Christopher Guard, who was Frodo in Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings".

I saw this version of Les Miserables when it first aired. I was eleven or twelve at the time and I think my parents made me watch it with them. I expected to be utterly bored and ended up being utterly transfixed, even at that young age, by the powerful story. Even though it's been years since I've seen "Les Miserables" there are scenes from this movie that still stand out in my mind. Highly recommended.