Blessed Are Les Misérables:
Hollywood's new musical masterpiece illustrates
a classical legal philosophy, long lost to our liberal establishment,
that serves as a golden mean between
tyrannical legalism and libertine antinomianism.
Les Misérables has become one of the year's best-decorated films, taking home three Oscars last night, including Best Supporting Actress, and having been dubbed Best Comedy/Musical at the Golden Globes as well.
Adapted from London's 1985 West End musical, itself an adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1862 French novel, Les Misérables tells the story of Jean Valjean, who, after two decades' imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread, is delivered from darkness by the charity of a saintly small-town bishop. Thereafter, he breaks his parole and starts a new life as a businessman and mayor. Upon learning he has wronged a desperate woman in his employment by his sin of omission, Valjean vows to raise this dying mother's illegitimate child. From that day forward, he and the girl, Cosette, travel together, relentlessly pursued by Javert, an unbending officer of the law. Their game of cat and mouse eventually introduces them to the French Revolutionaries of the 1832 June Rebellion, one of whom ends up falling in love with Cosette and taking her for his wife.
Les Misérables is undoubtedly a story of grace and repentance, but it is also a story of law--one that many viewers critically misinterpret. Of course, given that the antagonist Javert's role is to embody the law, one can understand why so many moviegoers imagine Les Mis's takeaway message to be "grace good, law bad."
But the film does not pit these two against each other. On the contrary, Les Mis honors the law and teaches its proper and necessary role for human flourishing. It recalls a classical legal philosophy, long lost to our current liberal establishment, a philosophy we would do well to rediscover.
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