Movies Like Les Misérables

Frequently asked about Les Misérables

Common questions people search for, with answers written by us at MoviesPack.

• Why does Javert let Jean Valjean go at the barricade instead of arresting him?▾

  Javert had been caught spying on the student revolutionaries and was sentenced to death by them, but Valjean — who was fighting alongside the students — took Javert outside and chose to release him rather than execute him. Valjean fires his pistol into the air to fake the killing and lets Javert walk free, an act of mercy that Javert cannot reconcile with his rigid worldview of justice.

• Why does Javert kill himself at the end?▾

  After Valjean saves Javert's life a second time by carrying the wounded Marius through the sewers and surrendering himself, Javert is faced with an impossible contradiction: his entire identity is built on the law being absolute, yet the law demands he arrest a man who has shown profound goodness and saved his life. Unable to reconcile mercy with his black-and-white sense of justice — and unwilling to either arrest Valjean or abandon the law — Javert throws himself into the Seine.

• What crime did Jean Valjean originally commit to earn his prison sentence?▾

  Valjean was sentenced to five years in the galleys for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving nephew. His sentence was repeatedly extended for escape attempts, ultimately resulting in nineteen years of imprisonment. This disproportionate punishment is central to the film's critique of a legal system that equates poverty with criminality.

• Why does Fantine lose her factory job and descend into prostitution?▾

  The factory foreman discovers that Fantine has been secretly sending money to support her illegitimate daughter Cosette, who is being raised by the Thénardiers. Unwed mothers were considered a moral scandal, so she is dismissed. With no income and ongoing demands for money from the Thénardiers, Fantine is forced to sell her hair, her teeth, and finally her body to survive.

• What is the significance of Valjean breaking his parole and why does he confess his identity in court?▾

  After his release, Valjean breaks parole — a condition of his release that required him to regularly report to authorities — because the parole system made it impossible for ex-convicts to find work or housing, leaving him trapped in a cycle of exclusion. He later confesses his true identity in open court when another man is wrongly identified as him and is about to be sentenced in his place; Valjean cannot allow an innocent man to suffer for his past.