History Fridge / LesMiserables

* Most people are very divided on Russel Crowe’s performance of Javert, citing an overall lack of range, volume, and vocal presence, especially in “Stars.” It is usually seen as a declaration of Javert’s crusade to capture Valjean, using the stars and God as his witness. However, in the film version, Crowe’s Javert is singing this song right after Valjean has just escaped him for the second time. Crowe’s Javert sings the song much more softly, but with just as much emphasis, while walking along a narrow ledge. This is not a Javert that is planning a personal crusade, but a Javert reassuring himself in his faith that, just as the stars have their order in the sky, so too does the world have an order, which is the law. His faith in this order is illustrated by his walking on the ledge; it is dangerous, and he could fall, but he firmly believes that God will keep him from falling in accordance with this order, just as He orders the stars in the sky. This is referenced again in “Javert’s Suicide;” once again, he is walking along a ledge and pondering the order of the world. However, this time, his belief in this order is shaken. He remarks that “the stars are black and cold,” and is no longer certain about his faith in God or the nature of the law. When this faith is challenged, he falls from the ledge and dies.

* In the song "Plumit Attack", right after "Heart Full of Love", Thenardier tells Eponine that if she screams to warn Valjean and Cossette that she'll "regret it for a year". Later, after she does it, he shouts "I'll make you scream, you'll scream alright". In at least one of the stage versions, he's physically restraining her as he says this. Just what does he do to her afterwords?

* In the song "Plumit Attack", right after "Heart Full of Love", Thenardier tells Eponine that if she screams to warn Valjean and Cossette that she'll "regret it for a year". Later, after she does it, he shouts "I'll make you scream, you'll scream alright". In at least one of the stage versions, he's physically restraining her as he says this. Just what is he planning to do to her afterwords?

* In the film version of the musical, Valjean starts as a convict with a shaven head, dressed in red tatters. By the time Fantine is arrested and confronts Valjean, her head's been shorn and she's wearing a bright red dress, as an ironic echo of Valjean's own helplessness and powerlessness.

*** "... And if you fall, as Lucifer fell, the flames the sword!" Those are methods of execution. When Javert realizes that he is not right in his beliefs, he executes himself. And the ending of "Stars": also foreshadows his death: "Lord, let me find him, that I may see him safe behind bars. I will never rest, 'till then, this I swear, this I swear by the stars!" Well, when Javert realizes that he [[MortonsFork can either arrest Jean Valjean, make a morally reprehensible choice by sentencing a good man to prison and thus damming himself, or let Jean Valjean go, make a morally reprehensible choice by breaking divine law (as he sees it) and thus damming himself, will be doing evil either way,]] [[BreakTheBeliever and that all the beliefs he has held so close to his heart were wrong,]] he is unable to resolve the conflict and is only able to find peace by killing himself, but, given that suicide is a mortal sin, he's ''still'' made the wrong choice, thus damming himself, and as such is never able to find rest, not even in death. [[TearJerker Awww, poor thing.]]

** While we're at it, his line about [[MysteryMeat mixing God-knows-what into material that he claims as 'beef']] is hardly better.

* While it doesn't really play a role in the musical itself, a ''[[SarcasmMode truly lovely]]'' line sung by Thénardier about using [[KickTheDog body parts from horses and even poor dead housecats]] as filler for sausages will sometimes stick in one's mind, especially for those that are cat lovers, those eating while watching, or both.

* FridgeHorror:
** While it doesn't really play a role in the musical itself, a ''[[SarcasmMode truly lovely]]'' line sung by Thénardier about using [[KickTheDog body parts from horses and even poor dead housecats]] as filler for sausages will sometimes stick in one's mind, especially for those that are cat lovers, those eating while watching, or both.

* Most of the characters singing in ''One Day More'' only have one day more to live.

** Also, in "Javert's Suicide", one of the lyrics towards the end, just before he kills himself, is "And the Stars are Black and Cold", showing that he believes himself to be abandoned by God.

* In the novel the narrator remarks that Madame Thenardier wont hire maids for their inn anymore, since her husband would go after them. This is the exact reason why they keep Cosette. Now imagine what would have happened if Cosette had still been with them when finally hitting puberty (or probably even before.)

* In the 2012 film, Cosette sings "Castle on a Cloud" to a makeshift baby doll she's made from rags. She spends the entire song cradling it, occasionally whispering in its ear, seemingly apropos of nothing. But this makes a lot more sense when you realize the French version of the song is actually entirely different -- it's about how much she wants a doll to play with and dress up, and how the doll would be like a daughter to her. They choreographed the song this way just to make the international dubbing easier -- sort of a filmmakers' version of TheDevTeamThinksofEverything.
** This is a great idea, I'm sad to Joss it -- having seen the film in Paris, this troper can confirm that there wasn't a single cinema playing a dubbed version of the film anywhere in the city. I don't think they even ''made'' a dub.

* In the ending [[spoiler: when Fantine and Eponine take Valjean's soul to Heaven, all who died during the book are there...except Javert. Because he committed suicide, his soul is either in Hell or, at the very least, in Purgatory, deprived from his eternal peace.]]

* When Javert is unmasked as a spy at the barricades in the book, he makes no attempt to lie about his agenda even if he will be otherwise be executed. Why would he go so far in his decision not to lie that it would end up killing him? Hugo strongly implies that Javert is part Romani from his mother's side; Given the century's attitudes, he has likely suffered from discrimination most of his younger life. He hadn't only risen from poverty, but he had to fight for his good reputation and integrity in the eyes of the prejudiced society where many would've deemed him a liar and charlatan. Javert would never sacrifice his integrity even in the face of death, because in his black-and-white world it would mean succumbing to the nature the society would brand him as.

* In "Do You Hear the People Sing"
** Enjolras never finds out [[spoiler:how many guns they have. Both times that he asks Feuilly and Combeferre if they have the guns they need, he gets interrupted before they can answer: first by Grantaire, then by Gavroche.]] - CuteQueenPika

* In the ending [[spoiler: when Fantine and Eponine take Valjean's soul to Heaven, all who died during the book are there...except Javert. Because he committed suicide, his soul is either in Hell or, at the very least, in Purgatory, deprived from his eternal peace.]] There's [[http://www.pontauchange.com/Oddities/lastduet.html a prolonged alternative ending]] to the musical where [[spoiler: Valjean beseech God to absolve Javert and it ends with Valjean guiding Javert's soul to Heaven in turn,]] but it hasn't been used in any adaptions so far.

* Many of the songs in the musical, while eminently memorable, have rather simplistic -- one might even be tempted to say ''banal'' -- melodies. "Master of the House," "Look Down", and "Do You Hear the People Sing" all have short melodies that repeat the same snippets many times. For an internationally renowned musical, they might seem to fall a little flat ... ''UNTIL'' you get to "One More Day", and you suddenly realize that those earlier melodies were simple ''because they all had to work together when sung at the same time!'' 'Twas true CrowningMusicOfAwesome at that moment.

* In the 2012 film, Sacha Baron Cohen's Thenardier accent slips between Cockney, over-the-top French, and a bit of fake plummy in between, making him the only character to have any kind of French accent (for everyone else, [[TheQueensLatin The Queens French]] applies). This differs from the norm in which the character just slips between Cockney and a fake plummy accent. However, this might make sense, as the novel suggests that Thenardier might not actually be French, but instead a Belgian who lived near Waterloo and started passing himself off as French at the same time he started passing himself off as a soldier. Thus, as part of TranslationConvention, Cohen's Thenardier does the usual slip between lower class accent and fake upper class one, but he also has the noticeable French accent to mirror how the character's actual background is with Belgian French or Flemish, but is putting on a French (from France) accent