Les Misérables

2002 was the centenary of Victor Hugo's birth, a fact that was inescapable living, as I do, on the island of Guernsey, where Hugo spent many years in exile and penned many of his most famous works. Hugo is an author whose work most people have experienced in almost any other medium aside from the original novel, particularly the most famous, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables, both of which have been made into numerous big screen versions and as musicals, the latter being one of the most successful productions of all time (and not by Andrew Lloyd Webber, amazingly enough). Not being a particularly literary person, I don't honestly know much about Les Miserables - I must be one of the few people who thought the musical version was pretty limp, the album not inspiring me to fork out for a ticket to see the show. However, as a film, it would probably fall under the umbrella of epic, period drama, starring Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush. Despite the popularity of the musical, the film rather disappeared without trace, despite a fine central performance from Neeson, who always seems to be better than people give him credit.

Basil Poledouris is perhaps a slightly odd choice for a period film, this is the kind of epic that Patrick Doyle was born to score. The album is divided into four suites - each track has a set of subtitles which I have omitted for the sake of clarity - with the two central portions constituting the lion's share of the music. Poledouris seems to be one of those composers who can sometimes really strike gold with a main theme, but on others simply fails to come up with the goods and while his theme from Les Miserables isn't bad, it's not the kind of tune to stick in the mind despite its imposing presence as it opens the album. The problem with longer suites is that the music needs to be descriptive enough to keep the momentum and in places this isn't the case and it starts to sag; there are some fine moments in Vigan, but these are surrounded by less interesting material where it all starts to meander.

Paris is the quietest cue with some lovely moments, not hugely memorable, but the atmosphere is pleasing and well sustained. The Barricades opens with Poledouris toning down his sci-fi action style, but this soon gives way to the dramatic Valjean saves Marius, followed by the sombre finale. Les Miserables has received quite a bit of praise overall, but it's not a Poledouris score I turn to often - it is solid, but somewhat uneventful, rather churning its way through than engrossing the listener in the intense musical soundscape the story would seem to require. There were apparently some better sections within the film itself that didn't make it to disc, Poledouris seems to be picking up some of John Williams' less endearing traits! Still, a solid score with some fine moments.

The track times on the packaging bear almost no relation to the actual track lengths for some reason, those listed below are the actual track lengths. One of the more curious production errors I've encountered.