5. The Work Song
Victor Hugo’s sprawling epic of a novel should never have worked as a musical, especially one with such a downbeat title (and a title in French, no less). And yet sometimes the most unlikely things will find success in the strangest places, as is the case with Les Misérables, arguably the world’s most popular musical show. “The Work Song” opens the show with its ominous overtones, and Hooper has seemingly taken this opportunity to open his movie with visual aplomb.
From what we’ve glimpsed so far from various trailers, teasers and clips, this version begins with Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) and his fellow convicts pulling a gargantuan ship into a dock, a brilliant-realised set-piece which cleverly symbolises the pain that these men have faced for most of their lives, taking on what appears to be an impossible (and never-ending) task. Hearing the prisoners chanting and pulling the ship in rhythm (“Look down/Look down/Don’t look them in the eye”), intercut with single cries of despair from the convicts (“I’ve done no wrong/Sweet Jesus hear my prayer!”) will perfectly set up the tone for this gritty adaptation.
Hooper’s decision to make this sequence so visually astounding will hopefully leave audiences stunned and awed, and ready for a new kind of filmed musical – one that absolutely couldn’t be done in a theatre. This is also the point in which Jean Valjean meets his fanatic rival Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe), and the point at which both men will lay the foundations for the bitter conflict that will consume both their lives forever more.
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