BBC's Les Miserables

[QUOTE]Let's have white actors play black characters to see if it will please the crowd.

There are no black characters. That’s the problem, asshole.

R1 Well get the amazing black writers to write amazing black characters and black stories that are actually about the amazing black experience. Cause making white characters black to shut up fools is actually worse than zero visibility. So get black writers to tell their own stories

OP, calm down dear. No one gives a shit

LOL.

You're right, OP, no black actor has ever played Javert before.

Yes, and while we're at it, let's have ONLY straight people play straight people on stage and in film.

I saw a great black Javert on Broadway. Made Russell Crowe look even worse than he objectively was.

Rewriting history to not reflect reality is bullshit, blacks did not hold positions of responsibility in France at that time, so fuck this lying bullshit

R8, Javert isn’t a real person

Op/R2/R8: Look at all the racists cry. Look at them, a black in a play makes them just die. Though they try and try, they cannot explain and their hate they cannot justify. So cry, racists, cry. We all will laugh and say bye, bye, bye.

Funny how no one cares if the actor’s height, weight, facial features are the same as described in the book—-but mess with race and people get pissed

As if the world needs yet another version of Les Miz

There ARE other minorities out there! How about a Hispanic/Latino or an Asian or a Jew or a gay character playing this role?! Time to give the other minorities a chance!!

BLACK people are soooo distracting! I don’t see characters, I just see BLACKETY BLACK! In fact, I protested Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado about Nothing when he had he temerity to cast the BLACK Denzel Washington as brother to the excellent Keanu Reeves! BLACKS should NOT appear as white characters! Their BLACKNESS has no place in white Art!

OP This reminds me of when Young Jean Lee an Asian American gets to Broadway and what does she write? 'Straight White Men', a ridiculous polemic that died very quickly on Broadway even with a powerhouse cast. Imagine if she had taken the opportunity to write a play for Broadway on her and others experience of being Asian American in the modern world, would have been amazing....but instead she used the opportunity to lecture and berate, totally blowing her one chance, cause SWM will not see her invited back to write for B'way. She fucked up her one chance to tell her actual story on fucking Broadway, dumb cunt

R8 is furious. When she turns on a historical drama, she expects to see black men in shackles while the women get raped in massa’s bed. She won’t stand for these shenanigans.

I’d imagine she’s one of the Meghan Markle haters as well, for totally unrelated reasons of course.

Don't tell OP, but Animaniacs got a DOG to play Jean Valjean. Why can't they just let humans play the role and let dogs write for the dog experience???!?!?!?!?!?11!!//?1!/

[QUOTE]blacks did not hold positions of responsibility in France at that time

I'm sure that was news to Thomas-Alexandre Dumas

....

Alexandre Dumas was a General in the army from late 1700-early 1800 and he was of African descent. Not outrageous to have a black Javert.

R18 Always happy to let Blacks die in a good war,

Always loved how John Oliver covered this, and the OP is demonstrating some of it here I think with the outrage over having a black actor in the production, THE HORROR OF IT!

They should have gone all the way and done an ALL BLACK CAST.

The Black Man Meme has been done to death. Let's move on to another minority member.

[QUOTE]Let's move on to another minority member.

Nothing compares to a strong, righteous black man. It’s not some fad, it’s done for a reason: because audiences of all colors and genders love to see it.

My main problem with this production of Les Misérables is how fucking boring it is.

Wow, committed posters found ONE black in 18th century France, so proving France loved the blacks. Hilarious

I didn't know Kate was Asian.

Justin Bieber is Porgy in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Porgy!" based on George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess

You should consider making a fuss about the incongruous English accents, R27.

[QUOTE]committed posters

The fact that you seem to think Dumas was some unknown figure that posters had to dig deep and find really does say it all about your level of ignorance.

R31 Ok love find another black man in France at the time who was a Mayor, or cop or elected official. I shall happily wait

R32 Just sod off

Guess who?

The king of France!

Easy as piss, r32

[quote]Rewriting history to not reflect reality is bullshit,

You mean, like putting a virtually all-white cast in [italic]Red Ball Express,[/italic] with just a peppering of black actors, when the real Red Ball Express was all black, with a smattering of white officers? Pffft.

R32 seems rather pressed!

[quote]Nothing compares to a strong, righteous black man.

Javert is wrongteous...and ends up killing himself.

We've already had this debate when Albee's estate denied rights to a theater to stage Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf because they wanted to cast a black Nick.

It was covered from every angle.

R18 R32 R36 Thank you boys. Now my point in, instead of making the villian of Les Miserables black to satisfy some modern fuckstains, actually tell the stories of these real black men that had an actual influence on France. Those stories I want to see told, not this habit of blackifying white characters that have exactly zero to do with the black experience

R41 Haha, do you really think anyone is going to buy that bullshit? You made a stupid statement and got proven incredibly wrong. There's no coming back from it.

R42 No love, my point was beautifully made, there are black frenchmen stories to be told, but it is just easier to make a white character black to suit lazy trash

I can’t believe anyone can compare the casting of a broadway musical to film. Norm Lewis is an outstanding Javert and Phantom and it would be a shame to cast him only in the marginal parts written for black actors. Musicals and plays are much more stylized than movies, so flexibility of age, race, and gender on stage is a given.

Peter Pan, HELLO.

They're going to make a new movie about Barack Obama and since color-washing is now popular in movies he will be played by a Hispanic man.

It's a shit production so who cares what color they are.

I understand you don't even hear the people sing.

BLACK people have their own culture - amd white people have our own! What about SEPARATE BUT EQUAL don’t you SJWs understand? It is a CRIME against white culture for David Oyelowo to play white roles. What is wrong with taking pride in BLACKNESS if you are BLACK? Why doesn’t Oyelowo try and get a a reboot to THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY off the ground? Or how about one of those little Tyler Perry roles that celebrate BLACK culture? Or a sequel to PRECIOUS?

What makes it fair for BLACKS to appropriate white culture?

R48 what culture does Javert display that would disqualify a black man from playing him?

I mean, why? This is like the millionth Les Missrables in the past ten years. And I hate this tired trend of tv and movie production (opera and theater do it too) where they toss on a rented distressed “period” costume that’s nowhere near the period and leave everyone in their modern street hair to suggest “modernity” as if they’ve actually designed something. It’s fucking lazy and cheap.

Norm Lewis couldn’t be more overrated on Broadway with his bland, grainy, light unattractive baritone that he tries to shove uncomfortably into bass (Porgy -totally inappropriate, Caiphas JCS - laughable) and tenor (Phantom- beyond inappropriate) roles. I avoid everything he does like the plague. At least Brian Stokes Mitchell has some color in his sound.

They missed a great opportunity here to make all the characters trans. Their lack of inclusion is LITERAL VIOLENCE so I will never watch a BBC production again.

Fact is Javert has no characteristics that suggest he should be a white man. They just cast a white man because whites were the only ones allowed back in the day. But race does not play a role in Javerts character at all.

Except for the fact that a black man would have been a slave in 1789, not a captain of police. A captain of police in Paris would have been NOTHING but white.

There were free black men in France in the 1780s. Just like in the states you could find some free black people in certain areas.

^^ That explains why so many black expatriate jazz musicians fled to Paris from the U.S. in the early 20th century. France was ahead of the curve in civil rights.

R56 many black people moved to Europe in the 1800s and 1900s.

Wasn’t it James Baldwin that said he felt relieved living in Europe cause he could sit down outside of a cafe and not have to look over his shoulders every few seconds to make sure he’s not in harms way? He could just sit and write in peace, something he couldn’t do in the states.

Also interracial marriage is the highest in Europe. More than even here in the states.

[quote]Also interracial marriage is the highest in Europe. More than even here in the states.

"More than *EVEN* here in the states"????

I am from racist-ass Australia, where it is considered Good Clean Fun to call Aboriginal footballers "apes" and where 5 doctors performed in black-face on a "Gong Show" style contest and were shocked at the blacklash. And I was amazed by the lack of social interaction between races in America. Forget about romances, people don't seem to interact in friendships groups that are multiracial, maybe with one or two tokens.

Outside of universities, you really don't see it on a scale you do in Australia, NZ, the UK, France, and bits of Western Europe. In London, you walk down the street and see a spotty white boy with red hair holding hands with a Pakistani girl with braces. In NZ, you see a Chinese man with a Polynesian girl. In Australia you see a Lebanese girl with a black guy. But in America, my parents, brother and I (father white Slav, mother black) were stared at by white people in shock, disgust and in a patronising, "Oh, isn't that niiiice?!" way. We hadn't had that reaction since visiting TASMANIA.

The real problem with a black Javert is that Hugo wrote Les Mes in such a way that part of the book's way of underscoring the injustice of Valjean's desperate situation is that he and Javert are in all other ways almost identical men. So, to make a Javert the does not at least represent Valjean's twin in every way possible to the audience undercuts one of the book's major underpinnings. The reader is meant to understand all the way through that but for one turn of fate, Javert could have been in Valjean's exact position and vice-versa.

So, to make one black, you must make the other black, otherwise the production makes it impossible for the audience to understand one of the key messages of the story, or understand why the author is telling that story.

R58 yup. My former coworker who was an older womans son married a black woman and when they went to South Carolina they got tons of stares from white people and some gave blatantly dirty looks and were staring at their child. She said she looked at her son and daughter in law and said grab what we need (they were food shopping) and let’s leave fast cause I have a feeling some of these white guys wanna start trouble.

A cashier didn’t even wanna ring them up. This was 2011 by the way. Not years ago.

She was disgusted and shocked this racism still exists and admitted she never noticed as a white woman until she had a black person in her family.

I’m not a history buff, but can OP confirm that people in revolutionary France spoke with a cockney accent?

And don't forget Jesus was a white and so was Santa, just ask Alexandre Dumas! My God! trump has made ignorance as American as a Hot Dog...always was I suppose...we just tried to gentrify American culture, by shedding light on the truth NOT FICTION!~

On Netflix there is a British series about the fall of Troy that casts some black guy as Achilles. The BBC's forced SJW agenda was distracting and annoying as heck but the actor actually played the role superbly. Without prior knowledge of culture and history you'd not have given a second thought to the revisions.

I think that sort of blank slate ignorance is what they rely on. George Orwell saw it coming.

R63 That troy show was shit, and so was the casting

OMG

[quote]So, to make one black, you must make the other black, otherwise the production makes it impossible for the audience to understand one of the key messages of the story, or understand why the author is telling that story.

Oh, r59, if JVJ and J are not IDENTICAL - same age, same race, same eye colour, same height, same facial grooming, same hair, well, the whole thing will positively COLLAPSE!

However can the audience understand the concept of doubles if both men are not WHITE? One could say that BLACK people MUDDY everything!

r66 The two men you picture look as if they could easily have been born with the exact same advantages in life. That is the point. A black Javert undercuts that central message of the book. But you've never read Les Mes, and you have no idea what you are talking about. You are merely blinded by your own racial preferences, or, dare I say it another way, your own racism.

R58 That's too bad . While things are getting better, we are still definitely a race and ethnicity obsessed culture in some ways . May I ask what part of the US did you these reactions?

Olivia Colman finally appeared as Madame Thenardier in tonight’s episode.

Indeed, r67. You look at a BLACK man and think : no. Existence is a distraction. You think Separate - And Not Equal! You think: Some Are More Equal Than Others.

R58 yes Americans have a ton of baggage when it comes to that sort of thing. I think our media here, like television and movies, tend to present Americans as far more romantically and platonically integrated than we are. The most socially acceptable mixed combination here is a Caucasian man with an Asian woman. But there seems to be more openness about mixing in the UK and to some extent Germany . I'm not sure about the rest of continental Europe, maybe some European data loungers can chime in.

The new British Royalty has decided upon these matters, plebs. Shut up and pay the Licence Fee!

I wanna see Nicole Kidman starring in The Rosa Parks Story.

Rosa Parks was a real woman whose race plays a part in her story. Javert is the literal opposite of those things.

R34 Now who is that?

I reckon Rob Schneider has the skills to portray the essential David Lammy in 'Celebrity Mastermind'

What do British think they can appropriate French history and culture for cheap result?

R74 Emmiline Pankhurst is being played by a black actress in a new BBC production, so it seems it is ok for black actors to play white historical figures, but according to you never the other way around because....

I think there's two different levels:

- Les Misérables is a fiction, as a fiction Javert can be black or a woman. Victor Hugo is not here to protest anymore. Is it clever to make Javert a black man? It's cheap diversity but whatever.

- People tend to mix fiction and reality, so the only "danger" is people thinking black people could be policemen in France at the time and I don't really see it as a problem.

Otherwise all this debate is boring and happen with every freaking movie.

The BBC is required to be culturally inclusive in its productions. Hence, black leads in Les Miserables. The most ridiculous example was they had a black actress play Henry VI's very white, very French wife in a recent TV adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry VI.

r54, Javert's mother was a prostitute and father one of her John's. He sure could have been something besides white.

R81 Theoretically yes but you think he could have a career as a French policeman?

We complain a lot here about how the quality of our films, plays, music and art are suffering. THIS is why, right here. Once you let pure politics infiltrate art, it ceases to be art. It's a Trojan horse.

Sometimes it's fine to cast POC in historical roles; sometimes it simply doesn't work. Why is ok cast Denzel in Much Ado? Because it's essentially a fantasy so who really cares what color the people are? It's basically a bunch of squabbling lovers running around castles and forests, pranking each other. And he's fucking Denzel. So we KNOW he's not there in some kind of token capacity. He's there because he's good.

Javert doesn't work because historical context is really, really important in "Les Miserables". Honestly, the whereabouts of Jean Valjean would be the LEAST of Javert's worries if he was a black man in 19th century Paris. He'd also likely be a lot more sympathetic to Valjean's plight...so already you can see it changing the tenor of the story. The reality is we can't go back. Only forwards. It is unfortunate that in the Western literary canon (up until now) there haven't been as many plum roles for POC as there should have been. Now when somebody writes a play, they can help things along by a being a bit vaguer in the descriptions of the character so that more 'types' have a chance. I think directors like Barry Jenkins have the right idea. Find compelling black narratives, write NEW ones and make them into plays, films, etc.

But rewriting history simply because it is ugly to you feels like a backwards step.

R83 Tbh since the musical, people treat Les Misérables like some kind of romantic fantasy full of pretty and misunderstood people, not like the political and social novel it was for Victor Hugo.

The musical destroyed the book a long time ago and more deeply than a black Javert or an english speaking Cosette.

R83 Hear fucking hear

[quote]We complain a lot here about how the quality of our films, plays, music and art are suffering. THIS is why, right here.

Indeed. Casting award-winning Shakespearean actor David Oyelowo in a BBC drama is the crux of the problems at the heart of popular artistic culture.

[quote] Honestly, the whereabouts of Jean Valjean would be the LEAST of Javert's worries if he was a black man in 19th century Paris.

Says the guy who hadn’t heard of Dumas!

[quote]He'd also likely be a lot more sympathetic to Valjean's plight...so already you can see it changing the tenor of the story.

Because as this thread has continually proven, you view black identity through the lens of white, American neo-Liberal politics.

If there is one thing I think of when considering black men in a dominant Western vulture, it’s not their sympathetic commitment to the white man’s struggle.

R87 Malcolm was murdered by other black men, so what is your point sweetie?

Alexandre Dumas was white passing and an aristocrat.

You can't compare him with the very black son of a prostitute.

R68

Most noticeable was when we spent a week in Maine. Then in Charleston and Nashville, then to a lesser extent Philly.

r82, that was one of the themes, coming up from nothing. Val Jean was in prison. His family was poor and he had to steal bread and he was able to make something of himself. Yes, Javert could have made a career for himself. Just the same as they would all be singing in the streets about how they feel about life.

It's a Broadway musical. You know Aaron Burr wasn't really black either.

Guess this doesn't work

R91 Victor Hugo's ambition was to be "realistic". He wanted to describe poor Parisian's life.

If for you Les Misérables is just a piss poor sugary musical, it's your problem but get a little respect for the author.

I've seen it 4 times on stage. r93, I don't think the casting matters.

Was there uproar when Lea Solonga played Fantine?

R93 The BBC adaptation is the book adaptation, not the musical adaptation.

The musical doesn't matter here.

[quote]And he's fucking Denzel. So we KNOW he's not there in some kind of token capacity. He's there because he's good.

David Oyelowo isn’t a token in any conceivable way. Unless you think that merely because he is black.

R83, you and your axe to grind is becoming more and more suspect with each successive straw man post you post. You continually shine that you clearly know little about France at the time and are expounding your American racial viewpoint into foreign works.

Why do a certain brand of parochial American believe that black people and white people the world over a never sat in the same room together until Jim Crow laws ended in 1965?

[quote]Javert doesn't work because historical context is really, really important in "Les Miserables". Honestly, the whereabouts of Jean Valjean would be the LEAST of Javert's worries if he was a black man in 19th century Paris. He'd also likely be a lot more sympathetic to Valjean's plight...so already you can see it changing the tenor of the story.

A lot of good points in your post. As for this part, I think what you say about the importance of detail and historical context to Hugo is very valid. As for being black potentially making Javert more sympathetic to Valjean, it would really depend on Javert's perspective. He has a certain anger and alienation which he channels into a literal and heartless application of the law, regarding himself in the light of an avenging angel. I agree that it possibly plays better in a musical than in a historical adaptation where it's probably better to be cautious about messing around with the author's intentions. However, this isn't the only incongruity in the latest BBC adaptation: Fantine has an educated English accent although she's portraying someone who is an orphan and a factory worker, i.e. not someone who is well-to-do.

r97 Why does the rest of the world have to bear stupidity like colour blind casting because of american guilt

[R99] Indeed, the Chinese are certainly not going to let a non Han Chinese play a historical Chinese character on any media platform despite the fact they are colonizing Africa as we type. The white guilt thing is truly hilarious to non whites all the around the world I have to say.

[quote]Why does the rest of the world have to bear stupidity like colour blind casting because of american guilt

R99 must have missed that this is a British production and no one in Britain gives a fuck about colour-blind casting and American mores.

One of the most degrading things one can do to a person is say "Hey, I'm going to hire you not because you are any good, but because of the colour of your skin or because of what is between your legs or because of who you like to have sex with. You as a person are worth less than the colour of your skin, etc." That is a racist, sexist way to hire someone, and it is technically illegal.

The BBC has publicly declared it is now wholly devoted to this sort of racism and sexism. Sane, sensible people do not like racism and sexism. This "diversity" putsch is the beginning of the end of the BBC.

R101 Fuck fuckface, if England doesn't care why have they cast a black woman as Emmeline Pankhurst in a major production? Have you seen ANY British TV in the last ten years>? Colour blind casting is an epidemic here

No one gives a fuck about colourblind casting in Britain, deadshit r103, because it doesn’t bother the majority one way or another if Sophie Okonedo shows up in Oliver Twist. Only UKIP supporters are whining about it.

In OP's photo, the actress playing Fantine looks just like Eliza Dushku.

Les Misérables c'est avant tout Français. C'est grotesque en anglais de toutes les façons!! Avec tout le sous-texte de Thénardier à Waterloo qui disparaît!! Transposez cette histoire dans votre beau pays mais pour un Français c'est carrément ridicule!! Dans le même genre... Laissez nous Madame Bovary aussi, ou alors adaptez le comme Posy Simmons en Gemma Bovery, ça c'est intelligent.

David Oyelowo nyaéta aktor rupa jeung Kami outraged di kumaha anjeunna geus dipaké salaku pawn di travesty British-Perancis ieu.

Anjeunna teu bisa dipaké pikeun mirah, grandstanding pulitik asing.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Islington is home to the repellant Lady Nugee

Black people should know better than to show their face on tv. After ALL THIS TIME, you'd think they'd have learned. But NO, they force their flagrantly black selves onto the rest of us. Quite frankly, someone needs to tweet about this.

R110 There's plenty of jobs for those here—

r109 UGH "Lady Nugee" is one of the VERY worst of the worst. Of COURSE she lives in Islington. Ugh.

You can't say those actors work just because they're black. They're good actors.

Saying someone can have a job only because he is black or she is female is racist and misogynist.

Is Mr Oyelowo a good actor, R113?

What have you enjoyed him in?

r111 BET founder Robert Johnson is actually a huge Trump supporter.

David Oyelowo is a good actor, better than Lilly Collins for sure.

The important thing is whether BET founder Robert Johnson is emptying his own to save them from journeying elsewhere and being hired by the weak-minded women of the British Broadcasting Empire who still feel they need to carry on 'The White Man's Burden' a century after Rudyard Kipling wrote the thing.

R116 And what did you enjoy David Oyelowo in?

He was good in Selma even if I'm not mad about the movie.

And you, why do you dislike him so much? Did he piss on your cheetos?

To test the BBC's commit=mentto color blind casting I'd like to have seen Helena Bonham Carter portray Rosa Parks is the recent Doctor Who episode.

To test the BBC's commitment to color blind casting I'd like to them to film their remake of 'Black Narcissus' with an all-black cast.

Oyelowo is indeed a very good actor. He was not just great in Selma but also in 'Five Days' on UK tv. I also remember him in No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. He's really very talented and enjoyable to watch.

But, you will notice, all of those roles were written FOR a black actor.

If I were a black actor I would be asking why there are not more roles written FOR black actors. I would be insulted at this lazy approach of not bothering to commission great roles for black actors but instead try to parachute a black actor into a white historical role to try to briefly nod at cheap diversity. It doesn't work as it distracts the viewers and breaks the fourth wall.

[quote]If I were a black actor I would be asking why there are not more roles written FOR black actors. I would be insulted at this lazy approach of not bothering to commission great roles for black actors but instead try to parachute a black actor into a white historical role to try to briefly nod at cheap diversity.

I’m sure David Oyelowo is enraged at being offered the opportunity to play a juicy role like this, enraged.

You can roll your eyes R123 but there's very few quality roles written for black actors or minorities.

[quote]there’s very few quality roles written..

Certainly not by the likes of you if your grammar is any indication. Oh dear!

R125 shame my grammar all you want moron but show me how you write in an other language.

[quote]I would be insulted at this lazy approach of not bothering to commission great roles for black actors but instead try to parachute a black actor into a white historical role to try to briefly nod at cheap diversity. It doesn't work as it distracts the viewers and breaks the fourth wall.

It only distracts viewers who are racists 👍🏻

No, r127, it distracts every viewer aware of 19th Century France.

You are not aware of 19th Century France, are you?

You are an uneducated, aren't you?

I bet you're white and live in Islington.

R128, numerous people on this thread have explained that black people existed in France prior to the Civil Rights Act Of 1964 and they weren’t relegated to pickin’ cotton nor being house slaves.

If seeing a black person on TV in this era inspires you to quote Clarkson, you have serious problems, beyond your basic racism.

[quote] You are an uneducated, aren’t you?

Oh, dear!

R129 I suspect R128 is doing a Mrs Clinton and turning an adjective into a noun.

r129, If you were remotely educated you would know that the term "an uneducated" is in fact a 19th Century term used at Oxford University to describe undesirables and intellectual lightweights. You can find such a reference in Vivian Green's letters. You will not have read those letters but I have, because he was my tutor.

[quote]If I were a black actor I would be asking why there are not more roles written FOR black actors.

I like how Sterling K. Brown said how happy he was that his role on This Is Us wasn't a generic role made black, but rather was specifically written as a black character for a black actor.

Holy fucking Jesus, Eponine is also black. Fuck this shit, I'm out.

r133 It is strange that they made Eponine black. In the book she's an extremely nasty piece of work who goes out of her way to do untold damage to Cosette. She sort of gets better towards the end, but overall she's poison.

R131

[quote] An yes

Oh, dear!

r135 is such an massive, throbbing, intellect that all it can focus upon, in the face of actual argument, is a single typo.

[quote]I like how Sterling K. Brown said how happy he was that his role on This Is Us wasn't a generic role made black

Well, that was mighty white of him. Ain’t no negro like a Good Negro Who Knows His Place - which is not France!

Examples of r136's "actual argument" worthy of debate regarding black actors in Les Mis include bleating about his tutor and fantasies that other posters are fat, white and live in Islington. He also thinks "cretin" is a big word.

Nice try, Milo! Now get an honest job and stop living off the black man, ok?

R131 You talking' Vivian Ass Green?

r138 Wasn't it you who was bitching and moaning about how there are no interracial couples in America, and how inferior the US is to your home country of Australia and to Europe because you didn't see any interracial couples when you visited there?

And now, instead of making any rational argument explaining why parachuting black actors into white roles is better than creating new roles for black actors, you resort to avoiding the question, pretending to yourself that I am Milo (I am most definitely not) and then going on to bitch and moan about, of all things, Milo's interracial marriage to a black American man? Oh the irony.

You are deranged as well as being a racist cretin. End of conversation.

This thread is as dramatic as Les Miserables.

This Nigerian/Brit named Oyelowo was chosen to play a Frenchman.

It's obviously a political choice. So I wonder if the director will be demanding that Oyelowo be playing the role with a French or Nigerian accent.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

r120, when Javert is a real person then you can make that comparison.

r143, I don't think that any actress that plays the bi-racial girl on Showboat or that Anthony Hopkins needed to be black to the role he did in Human Stain. Why is it such a big fucking deal. Les Mis isn't a real show, they aren't real characters.

I bet Victor Hugo is rolling in his grave that his grand opus is being used as a political tool by the Nancy Boys, Luvvies and Woke Femmie fat cats of the BBC.

Just don't watch it. Why the outrage? I just don't get it.

I've read the replies in this thread and there's not a single impression on the series as a whole. It's just one complaint about race after another.

So, I was looking forward to this series as I can't stand musicals and I've always wanted to see what this story was about, but couldn't be arsed to pick up the book. I have to say I found it all a bit thin and not that compelling. There was a lot of "and then this happens, and then that happens" without much complexity and a lot of the characters being pathetic and trying their best to evoke pity in me. I guess that's faithful to how Hugo wrote it and I'm sure the original was marvellous when it came out and still is. It's just not the type of story for me. It has some gorgeous shots but the camerawork is nothing to write home about otherwise. Always nice to see Josh O'Connor in things.

I didn't think anyone's race added or subtracted anything from the story. Please don't make me laugh with the "breaks the fourth wall" bullshit - I didn't even notice the racial casting until I found this thread and I live in a little Central European shithole with nearly zero black people around me. What's your fucking excuse for bitching about it, then? I found Oyelowo's character the most compelling, especially his final scene.

Then I decided to finally tackle the musical and promptly stopped right after Hathaway's song. What a terrible, terrible movie that is.

Damnit. It doesn't start until April 14.

I don't care about there being a black Javert. I was going to say "it's all about the music," but that would be disingenuous. I just don't care. I like David Oyelowo.

Sick of all the jig stuff. Ugh.

The worst casting was the girl playing Cosette.

Adult Cosette, that is.

OP must’ve never seen HUD...Patricia Neal’s character was black in the Larry McMurtry novel it was based on.

Watching PBS's "Les Misérables" as Notre Dame burned: A lesson in processing spectacular loss

Hattie McDaniel was offered the role of Queen Victoria but turned it down

So many Brexiteers and Blue Lives Matter flag wavers in this thread.

I only watched the first episode. I really am enjoying it. Black or not, David Oyelowo is terrific.

Nice to see a non white Javert for once. He's a Gypsy in the book.

^ Half Gypsy. But still visibly non white.

You dumb illiterate cunts.

It's implied both his parents were dark skinned Romani actually. Hugo said " He becomes a law officer on the basis of "an irrepressible hatred for that bohemian race to which he belong[s]"

Ie internalized racism is a big part if his character.

Colorblind casting is just erasure of black history. Younger people will start thinking that black people didn't have it so bad after all.

^ fuck off. As mentioned before the character is canonically not white. Also there were Africans of rank in France at the time.

...

....

....

It's just dull, no matter how they want to color their character.

Yes, Europeans also made Jesus Anglo-Saxon. Europeans also made ancient Romans British and Egyptian gods white.

....

...

[quote]Europeans also made Jesus Anglo-Saxon

No, God made him white.

I'm finding I am quite enjoying this. I hadn't expected to but it is will done. The colour blind casting... oh, that's just Auntie Beeb being Auntie Beeb. I notice it, because it feels so purposeful. But the work is good and the woke casting is what it is.

The castng was fine. He's a POC in tbe book. A disturbing number of people seem to think the musical is the source material.

Javert wasn't POC in the novel. The plate, at link, shows a white Frenchman. The musical, BTW, has consistently been deploying colour blind casting for years.

r173 That illustration aside. He was a Roma Gypsy in the book. He hates his own race ." He becomes a law officer on the basis of "an irrepressible hatred for that bohemian race to which he belongs." Said Hugo.

[quote] And what did you enjoy David Oyelowo in?

You're kidding, right? Danny died heroically saving Fiona's life by distracting the terrorist and telling him he was a "death worshiping fascist!"

I'm still sobbing as I type.