Day 90: This Will Be Fun

Day 24, "Your favorite movie and what it's about."

Favorite movie. . .

As much as I love the Lord of the Rings, the movie trilogy is not my favorite movie. Inception? Probably out of the last coupla years. But not overall. The Fountain? Man. . that'd be a good pick. Prestige could've made it. Les Miserable (with Liam Neeson), or even Life is Beautiful. . .

It's between Les Mis and the Fountain.

In Les Mis, a convict, Jean Valjean is on his way from one prison to the other basically, and he is forced to stop for the night in one of the towns on the road. To avoid committing another crime which would send him back to hard labor, he stays with a priest and a nun, and during the night, robs them of their silverware and runs. He gets caught by police, the police bring him back to the priest who's sporting a shiner, and they basically say "This guy is such an idiot. He thinks we'd believe you gave him this silverware! HO HO HO!"
The priest surprises everyone (including Valjean) by saying "OH YES! Yes I did. And i also gave him the silver candlesticks," (ETC) "that was silly of you to leave those Valjean!"
Cop: "Wait. You. . . gave them to him?"
Priest: "Yes I did." Cops definitely leave confused on this one, though they get drunk off the priest's wine presumably.

But the priest pulls Valjean aside and says (real quote) "Jean Valjean my brother, you no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I bought your soul. I've ransomed you from fear and hatred; and now I give you back to God."

Valjean assumes a new identity, becomes a town mayor, and spends the rest of his life trying to do good. However, the new chief of police in his town happens to be one of the guards from the hard labor camp, they recognize each other, and here we go. Javert, the Inspector, decides that he wants to show that he's an ex-con, because he's under the impression that once you're a criminal, you're always a criminal. He succeeds in driving Valjean away from his wealth, but Valjean flees, takes on the guardianship of a young girl whose mom he had befriended, and flees to a nunnery in Paris where he lives for sixteen years until Cosette (the young girl) decides she wants to live outside the nunnery. So he uses his old money from his days as a mayor, and buys a house. She falls in love with a revolutionary, one of the four French revolutions ensue, and of course we can't forget our old friend Javert who lives in Paris, somehow tracks down Valjean, and ends up on the wrong end of a knife held by Valjean. But Javert is let go. Which bugs him. A lot. After the revolution gets quelled, Javert ends up with Valjean at gunpoint. Valjean negotiates that he will return to custody willingly if he is allowed to take Marius (the guy Cosette is seeing. if you're wondering why he's just getting mentioned, he's just a minor character who starts a revolution. Big deal) to safety. Valjean returns, Javert throws himself into the river, and Valjean is free (in the film leastways). And so it ends.

Neeson is a wonderful actor.