Movie Night!!!

Well folks, we've just arrived back at the ranch. We were fortunate enough to have a good friend who provided us movie passes for Christmas, and tonight was the night to take them for a test drive.

We opted for a recent release, of which I know from it's #1 status on Broadway for an extended run, and which I would have liked to see live, if I could have afforded the $90 or so required for an upper balcony seat. Fortunately this performance is now available to the masses.

I know the build up is interminable, but permit me a few permit me a few words more. This movie truly falls in the category of a sweeping epic. The scope is enormous, the plot riveting, the performances tour de force and the conclusion both emotionally stirring and satisfactory.

Okay I've kept you in suspense long enough. The film of which I speak is none other than Les Miserables. This epic novel was originally translated to the stage in musical form in Paris in 1980, and began it's English language run at the Barbican theater in London in 1985, in which city it has run continuously ever since. The movie version sucks one in from the very beginning, and doesn't let you go for one minute until the end credits roll.

While transporting you into a story that began 19 years prior, one is quickly gotten up to speed on the protagonists, but the twists of time and circumstance keep the viewer wrapped in the action throughout.
The way in which the plot develops, grows in leaps and bounds from it's humble and hard beginnings into a thrilling passion play which inevitably carries an entire nation forward.

There is some comic relief interspersed by a few unsavory characters which pop up recurrently throughout the cinematic adventure. There is love, there is death and the well illustrated and epic struggle which is man's inhumanity to man.

In the end there is victory, hope and not a few tears. For those of you who have trouble with accents, go anyway. For those of you who don't like musicals, go anyway. For those of you who have trouble sitting in a movie theater for a little better than two and a half hours, go anyway!

Your heart will thank you for making the effort. 

You will not soon forget this one. IMDB gives it an 8.2 which I think is a few points low. I would give it 8.8 which easily puts it up near the top of the list. Go....you won;t regret it!!!