Film is universal.
Different ideas and cultures colliding onto someones TV or computer screen. Power, money, love, and finding hope in the lost. For nearly 100 years, film has allowed us to escape from the mundane and emerging into an alternate reality where everyone is beautiful and happy.
Having said that, films can be used for something less surface level. Film can recount historical events, and speak to global issues. In the case of Les Misérables, it tells a story of a very famous historical event — The French Revolution.
Besides the fact that this film is based on the French Revolution, it is very global in different ways. The main characters, Jean Valjean and Javert, is played by the Australian actors Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe, while the others are from America and Britain.
While the characters do not have French accents nor do they speak French in the movie, the directors have tried their best to keep historical and cultural accuracy.
The tear-jerking and heart-warming film allows different countries to see into the tragedy that is the French Revolution. The ending scene allows us as an audience to join in their cry of freedom, and allows us the closure that the people of France did not at the time.
This is the reality of Global Film, the coming together of many different people to experience the universality of film, and the themes that are embedded in the film.
Lilli Hessenberger 