In the mid 70's, I came across the book Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I fell in love with this story. I am not an avid reader and am a slow one but I could not put down the book. Its mixture of love found, love lost, struggle freedom, and the tension between true justice and blind obedience to the law, captivated me. In the forward of his book, Victor Hugo wrote:
"So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation which, in the midst of civilization, artificially creates a hell on earth, and complicates with human fatality a destiny that is divine; so long as the three problems of the century --the degradation of man by the exploitation of his labor, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the atrophy of childhood by physical and spiritual night -- are not solved; so long as in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, there should be a need for books such as this."
I am baffled that this beautiful movie did not win more Academy Awards.
No comments:
Post a Comment