History Film / LesMiserables1998

* MercyLead: As Valjean knocks out Javert and prepares to flee, he's confronted by another officer, who asks him if Javert is dead. After Valjean tells him "no", the officer declares "That's a pity", then turns around and tells Valjean, "Make it look good", essentially telling Valjean to give him a TapOnTheHead and allow him to escape.

* TokenGoodCop: Captain Beauvis is the only member of the ''Gendarme'' who provides Valjean much help in his philanthropic endeavors and flight from the law rather than unhesitatingly enforcing the draconian laws of the period. He lets Valjean knocks him out in order to escape.

* OscarBait

** Lafitte is still alive and helping Jean and Cosette after the last TimeSkip, but passed away in the book.

* TokenGoodCop: Captain Beauvis is the only member of the ''Gendarme'' who provides Valjean much help in his philanthropic endeavors and flight from the law rather than unhesitatingly enforcing the draconian laws of the period.

** Th good Bishop is still a merciful GoodShepherd, but is played less as the usual serene, meek and mild "living saint" than as a gruffer, more ordinary ReasonableAuthorityFigure who visibly sounds annoyed the morning after Valjean knocks him out cold and steals his silver, but then smoothly channels it into scolding Valjean for not taking ''all'' the silver he had given him freely. The "ransoming back to God" scene is played a bit more with a "tough love" vibe than the gentle holiness of other versions.

* TokenGoodCop: Captain Beauvis is the only member of the ''Gendarme'' who provides Valijean much help in his philanthropic endeavors and flight from the law rather than unhesitatingly enforcing the draconian laws of the period.

* TruerToText: Valjean's stuttering housekeeper, the boys Gavroche raises, and Javert's snuff habit are retained, details often cut.

* ShownTheirWork: Valjean's stuttering housekeeper and Javert's snuff habit are retained, details often cut.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: Jean Valjean]] is still alive at the end of the movie, though this could just be due to the fact that the film ends long before the book did.

''Les Misérables'' is a 1998 film based on [[Literature/LesMiserables the novel by Victor Hugo]]. Directed by Bille August, it stars Creator/LiamNeeson as Jean Valjean, Creator/GeoffreyRush as Inspector Javert, Creator/UmaThurman as Fantine, and Creator/ClaireDanes as Cosette. Music/BasilPoledouris composed the score.

* MercyLead: As Valjean knocks out Javert and prepares to flee, he's confronted by another officer, who asks him if Javert is dead. After Valjean tells him "no", the officer declares "That's a pity", then turns around and tells Valjean, "Make it look good", essentially telling Valjean to give him a Tap on the Head and allow him to escape.

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lesmiserables1998_365.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:310:Jean Valjean must be Film/{{taken}} alive.]]

** The prisoners at the trial also get this,
** The town Valjean becomes mayor of is called Vigau instead of Montreal.

** Valjean would rather turn himself in than let an innocent man suffer for his parole violation. In so doing, he would bring the law down upon his town, as he is the mayor; and abandon any hope he had of saving Vigau from corruption. It is worth noting, that he liquidates the ownership of his factory and distributes the shares to his workers by seniority, in order to give them the same chance he had.

* ToBeLawfulOrGood: Javert. [[spoiler:This question leads to his demise, as he can’t reconcile the two to each other]].

[[caption-width-right:310:Not the film of the musical. [[Film/LesMiserables2012 That's later.]]]]

* AdaptationNameChange: Fauchelevent is renamed Lafitte. The prisoners at the trial also get this, and even the town Valjean becomes mayor of is called Vigau instead of Montreal.

* AdaptationNameChange: Fauchelevent is renamed Lafitte. The prisoners at the trial also get this, and even the town Valjean becomes mayor of is called Vigau instead of Montreuil.

* AdaptationNameChange: Fauchelevent is renamed Lafitte. The prisoners at the trial also get this.
** The town Valjean becomes mayor of is called Vigau instead of Montreuil.

* AbusiveParents: Averted. The scene where Valjean slaps Cosette is clearly the only time he’s done so, to the shock and dismay of the two. Cosette calls him out on it.

* TheLostLenore: Fantine becomes this to Valjean.

* CompositeCharacter: Marius takes on Enjolras' place as the leader of the Friends of the ABC (although there is still a character named Enjolras in the film).

* RaceLift: Enjolras is black.

* CompressedAdaptation: The emphasis is on Jean Valjean and Javert, with other plot threads reduced or cut entirely. Even the romance of Marius and Cosette is reduced (and is not a love triangle with Eponine, who like all the Thénardiers is barely in it).

* CaliforniaDoubling: Much of the film was shot in the Czech Republic, mainly for the period architecture; due to the march of time, parts of Prague now look more like 19th-century Paris than Paris does.

** [[spoiler:The change to Javert's suicide. Valjean is ''right in front of him'', does nothing to stop him, and just walks away, relieved. This, after he'd already saved his life once.]]

* FreudianExcuse: Played with. Javert cooly explains to Valjean that his father was a thief and his mother a prostitute, which he notes is a parentage he is ashamed of, but will not hide. His dedication to the law is clearly a polarized response to his parents, but he clearly has a particular hatred for prostitutes. This is demonstrated when he allows Fantine to be brutalized, and kicks the dog.