Do You Hear The People Sing

I've had a love affair with Les Miserables since I was 9 years old.  I have the play memorized.  At nights my sister and I would listen to the play and follow along reading the lyrics.  I'd ask question after question for things I didn't understand (usually something the Thenardiers said).  I wish I could remember how Heather responded, because I'm sure she had no idea what they were talking about either.  I have the entire play memorized.  I've read the unabridged book.  The book was not sad at all to me.  It was such a religious story of hope and faith.  A good friend of mine told me years ago, that her college professor taught a course on Les Miserables and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I thought about that a lot while I read the book.  I wished I could have taken his class.  That alone was almost enough to tempt me into going to BYU.  

The more I listen to the soundtrack the more symbolism and parallels I've drawn from the lyrics.  Needless to say, I've never liked any of the movies.  The Liam Neeson version portrayed Jean Val Jean as something so far from what he was, and the movie ended long before the best part.  The whole point of the story is the ending.  With regards to the play, I've seen it 4 times.  I saw it twice in London in the same day, and once at Gammage, only a local production and of course the original cast when I was little.  

I was excited for the movie.  

I was disappointed in the movie.  

Changes always must be made with movies and are expected.  Vocals are never perfect and that's to be expected.  But there were too many scenes cut in half and combined with others.  Too many songs with the lyrics changed.  So for those of you who loved the movie, I say to you that you loved it because you didn't know the play.  Anyone who caught all of the changes couldn't possibly have enjoyed it.  The changes were too much.  I feel like a lot of the emotion that I feel for the story was lost.

So for those of you out there who loved the movie, here's what your are missing.  Here's what the movie was missing.  Probably one of the most powerful poems in the whole play, the lyrics that tie the whole thing together, the beautiful words that they took out.  Perhaps it was too religious for them to keep in the movie.  This is what the cast normally sings at the end of the play, and what should have been sung at the end of the movie.


Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night?
It is the music of a people
who are climbing to the light.
For the wretched of the earth
there is a flame that never dies.
Even the darkest night will end
and the sun will rise.
They will live again in freedom
in the garden of the Lord.
They will walk behind the ploughshare;
they will put away the sword.
The chain will be broken
and all men will have their reward.