I think the subject movie is transplanted from the namesake Broadway show, a stage opera in the form of motion fiction. All the actors sing or recite the dialogues or soliloquies instead of conventional ones. Unlike vaudevilles, the actors perform in a way between stage and picture, half normal and half exaggerating, but all seem natural to the audience. Most backdrops of the film are the architecture and streets of Paris, which are almost the same as they are now. (I admire Frances efforts in preserving its culture and antiques.) Of course, the playwright or the scriptwriter adapted the opera/movie from one of the greatest novels ever created during the 19th century: Victor Hugos prominent masterpiece.

The settings of storyline take place in the tumultuous era of the French Revolution when there had been a transitional time of different stages evolving from monarchy, through ochlocracy, autocracy, and restoration, to democracy. Under a society of turmoil and disparity, the underprivileged commons struggled to scratch a living, and Jean Valjean was one of them. He was given a prison sentence of 19 years due to just stealing a loaf of bread for his starving niece.  After being released, he was religiously inspired by a Father.  Since then, he changed his cynical attitude toward the world and became a cultivated gentleman and a mayor with a pseudonymous name.   Because he jumped the parole, Javert, a draconian police inspector, gave chase on him incessantly.  At last, Javert killed himself because his mind was deeply baffled by the question of whether to abide by the law or follow his conscience; whereas, Jean Valjean, throughout an eventful life, insisted on his principle and lived on his last days peacefully. 

People say that law is the bottom line of ethics, whereas Victor Hugo tried to argue that conscience is the ultimate law. Not until the world has reached the realm of his calling, no real happiness will ever exist.  He is right, and thats also why I love the romanticism of the 19th century.

p.s.  Last September when traveling to Paris, I visited Hugos residence, now a memorial library, in a compounded park.  I regret that I didnt buy a "Les Miserables" English version at the library.  I remember the first time and only time I have ever read the novel was when I was a second or third grader in a primary school.  Of course, the book was an abridged childrens reader in the translated name "孤星淚".  The first completed, unabridged Chinese edition was finally published in 1984, co-translated by 李丹、方于, a married couple and professors of Franch.  Please google to see the fate of the couple and the process of their translating the novel, which people said had been even more miserable than the story of "Les Miserables" itself.