Neil Welch
I'm not an expert - I haven't read the book and don't expect to - but I have seen several of the filmed versions, and this is by far my least favourite. Having said that, I loved Antony Perkins' Javert: his tightly buttoned implacability was perfect. And I liked Caroline Langrishe's rather underwritten Cosette.But there was a lot I didn't like very much. The whole thing seemed terribly bright, colourful and clean and maybe, in those days, your life actually was bright colourful and clean - if you had money, that is. But the whole point of Hugo's writing was social commentary, and I didn't see very much of the disadvantaged underclass in this movie. I also didn't like Valjean meandering off at the end.But most of all, I didn't like Valjean. I'm not a Richard Jordan fan at the best of times - I always got the feeling that he thought he was rather better than I thought he was. Notwithstanding his increasingly grey (but no less unconvincing) wigs and sticky-on beards as he got older, he was far too lightweight an actor to play a character like Valjean.I was delighted and surprised to spot my late friend Michael Sheard in a small role.
Dave from Ottawa
Perhaps more watchable than the better known recent version with Liam Neeson, this made for TV adaptation of Hugo's classic novel makes for interesting viewing. Those familiar with the musical will note that many episodes not used for set pieces in that adaptation are here, with the effect that this plays like a slightly different story. The emphasis here is on forward story momentum rather than moments of high drama, and the cat-and-mouse story of Javert's pursuit of Valjean moves along at a fair clip. The period look is less lush than in the more recent version, but convincing and appropriate on its own, and the performances of Richard Jordan as the harried Valjean who wants only to do good, and of Anthony Perkins as the relentless and uncompromising Javert are spot on. Les Miz is a great story that can be effectively adapted any number of ways and the choices made here were good ones.
drkriley
I just watched a portion of the 1998 video and thought "I don't remember it being with Liam Neeson, since Jean Valjean isn't white-haired after the trial of Champmathieu. And now I found that yes this version is the one I remembered before...which was EXTREMELY fascinating the first time I saw it...which is why I am now reading the book...both movie versions are good, but the 1978 one is better...I need to see it again to compare more accurately with the characters of Cossette and Fantine...the 1998 version is not satisfying about Cosette being a selfish little child in the escape from Javert, nor as a spoiled teen in Paris, ...but I haven't read far enough to make greater comment...KJR
BubbleSuit24601
I'm sorry to say that this did not live up to my hopes. Les Miserables is my favorite story and I love it to the point of obsession so I suppose that might make me a little bit hard to please but Anthony Perkins demeanor disappointing to say the least and his posture was so stiff as to not allow him to bend even when evading the hat rack brandished by Jean Valjean. And speaking of Richard Jordan, he seemed to overact quite a bit. His "innocent/confused stutter" is much too prominent and overused. All in all I was not too happy with the way it turned out.
AD
