Les Misérables is a TV film based on the novel of the same name

Les Misérables

Les Misérables , translated variously from the French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims), is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century...

 by Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

. The film was written by John Gay

John Gay (screenwriter)

John Gay is an American screenwriter.Born in Whittier, California, Gay began his career writing episodes for television anthology series such as Lux Video Theatre, Kraft Television Theatre, and Goodyear Television Playhouse. He made his film screenwriting debut in 1956 with Run Silent Run Deep...

 and directed by Glenn Jordan.

Differences from the novel

The plot mainly follows the novel of the same name, but there were many liberties taken: (Note that this list includes mainly major differences, in small detail, there are many more)

• The novel begins with Valjean's backstory
• The elder Valjean children are sent out to beg
• Valjean is branded with his prison number on the arm (something never done in France)
• Javert is a high-ranking guard and keeps his eye on Valjean all the time, whereas he is but a low-ranking guard in the book and only introduced much later in the story
• Valjean escapes when saving another convict who had fallen while repairing some battlements - in the book, he saves a sailor and fakes his death much later in the story; after he had already been released and convicted for a second time
• Valjean has nearly floor-length hair and beard after his escape, although French convicts were kept close-cropped.
• Petit-Gervais is left out
• Valjean becomes the mayor of "Monteis-sur-Monteis" (a town inexistant in France), rather than Montreuil-sur-Mer
• Valjean calls himself M Madeline rather than Madeleine
• Sister Simplice is Valjean's housekeeper rather than a nurse
• Valjean's new procedure for making black glass beads is actually one from Toulon
• After Valjean rescues Fantine from prison, he tells her to come and see him if she ever needs him. She does a few days later. In the book, he takes her to the hospital immediately
• Fantine's backstory is not shown, only told
• After his arrest, Valjean escapes from the carriage with which he is transported to the prison
• The Thénardiers don't appear again after Valjean fetched Cosette from them
• Éponine is cut entirely
• Cosette and Marius meet during a public speech from Marius' rebel society
• Valjean tries to talk Marius into abandoning the rebels
• Javert finds Valjean in the sewers and confronts him about what happened at the barricades - in the book, he finds Valjean near the Seine and does not ask him about his motives for letting him (Javert) go
• The film ends with Cosette's and Marius' wedding, none of the following events are shown

Cast

Richard Jordan

Richard Jordan

Richard Jordan was an American stage, screen and film actor. A long-time member of the New York Shakespeare Festival, he performed in many Off Broadway and Broadway plays...

 – Jean Valjean

Jean Valjean

Jean Valjean is the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables...

Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...

 – Javert

Javert

Javert is a fictional character from the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. He is a prison guard, and later policeman, who devotes his life to the law. He is always referred to just simply as "Javert" or "Inspector Javert" by the narrator and other characters throughout the novel; his first name...

Cyril Cusack

Cyril Cusack

Cyril James Cusack was an Irish actor, who appeared in more than 90 films.-Early life:Cusack was born in Durban, Natal, South Africa, the son of Alice Violet , an actress, and James Walter Cusack, a sergeant in the Natal mounted police. His parents separated when he was young and his mother took...

 – Fauchelevent

Claude Dauphin

Claude Dauphin (actor)

Claude Dauphin was a French actor. He appeared in over 130 films between 1930 and 1978.He was born in Corbeil-Essonnes, Essonne. His father was Maurice Étienne Legrand, a poet who wrote as Franc-Nohain, and who was the librettist for Maurice Ravel's opera L'heure espagnole.Dauphin married...

 – Bishop Myriel

Bishop Myriel

Bishop Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel, referred to as Bishop Myriel or Monseigneur Bienvenu , is a fictional character in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. Myriel is the Bishop of Digne...

John Gielgud

John Gielgud

Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...

 – Gillenormand

Ian Holm

Ian Holm

Sir Ian Holm, CBE is an English actor known for his stage work and for many film roles. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear...

 – Thénardier

Thénardiers

The Thénardiers, commonly known as Thénardier and Madame Thénardier , are two of the primary villains in Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables and the stage musical of the same name...

Celia Johnson

Celia Johnson

Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson DBE was an English actress.She began her stage acting career in 1928, and subsequently achieved success in West End and Broadway productions. She also appeared in several films, including the romantic drama Brief Encounter , for which she received a nomination for the...

 – Sister Simplice

Joyce Redman

Joyce Redman

-Biography:She was born in County Mayo, Ireland, to an Anglo-Irish family. She was educated by a private governess in Ireland, along with her three sisters. She was trained in acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art....

 – Magliore

Flora Robson

Flora Robson

Dame Flora McKenzie Robson DBE was an English actress, renowned as a character actress, who played roles ranging from queens to villainesses.-Early life:...

 – The Prioress

Christopher Guard

Christopher Guard

Christopher Guard is an English actor.Educated at Latymer Upper School, Guard was a member of the National Theatre aged 20. He has appeared in Vienna 1900 , Memoirs of a Survivor and Return to Treasure Island...

 – Marius

Marius Pontmercy

Marius Pontmercy is a principal fictional character in Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel Les Misérables. He is young, intense, and in love with Cosette. He fights at the barricades with Enjolras and the Friends of the ABC when %C3%89ponine tricks him into going to the barricade and he resolves to die...

Caroline Langrishe

Caroline Langrishe

Caroline Langrishe is an English actress.In 1976, Langrishe appeared in the BBC production of The Glittering Prizes. In 1977 she played the role of Kitty in a BBC adaptation of Anna Karenina. Her first big part was in the 1978 British adaption of Les Misérables...

 – Cosette

Cosette

Euphrasie "Cosette" Fauchelevant is a fictional character in the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.- Cosette in the novel :...

Angela Pleasence

Angela Pleasence

Angela Pleasence is an English actress. She is the daughter of actor Donald Pleasence and his first wife, Miriam Raymond. The surname for both daughter and father has occasionally been miscredited as "Pleasance"...

 – Fantine

Fantine

Fantine is a character in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables.- Backstory :"Fantine was one of those beings which are brought forth from the heart of the people... She was called Fantine because she had never been known by any other name...""All four were ravishingly beautiful. As to Fantine,...

Timothy Morand – Enjolras

Enjolras

Enjolras is the charismatic leader of the Friends of the ABC in the 1862 novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.- The Friends of the ABC :...

Caroline Blakiston

Caroline Blakiston

Caroline Blakiston is an English actress who has appeared predominantly in television roles, notably in the series Brass. She also appeared as Mon Mothma in the science fiction film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...

 – Madame Thénardier

Thénardiers

The Thénardiers, commonly known as Thénardier and Madame Thénardier , are two of the primary villains in Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables and the stage musical of the same name...

Dexter Fletcher

Dexter Fletcher

Dexter Fletcher is an English actor. He is best known for his role in Guy Ritchie film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels as well as television roles in such shows as the dramedy Hotel Babylon, the critically acclaimed HBO series Band of Brothers and earlier in his career, the children's show...

 – Gavroche

Gavroche

Gavroche is a fictional character from the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.-Gavroche in the novel:Gavroche is the eldest son of M. and Mme Thénardier. He has two sisters, Éponine and Azelma, and two unnamed younger brothers. He is also technically unnamed; the reader is told he chooses the...

Joanna Price – Cosette (child)

Works cited

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077936/