Benjamin Roseberry Misc Stars

Stars

Les Miserables is one of my favorite books ever written.  I have seen the play 3 times and played various collections in my high school Symphonic Band.  Therefore, when I heard that Tom Hooper was working with William Nicholson on a new movie version of the play, I was pretty excited.  I saw it 2 times in the theatres and each time I wanted to write a paper on the spiritual under and overtones to the movie.  One of my favorite parts of the movie is the song Stars sung by Russell Crowe (Javert).  The lyrics are all about justice.  Javert is an inspector/officer who is on a lifelong mission to find Jean Valjean, a freed prisoner who broke his parole.  Throughout the movie there is an ongoing struggle between the Christian understanding of grace distributed to Valjean and the French view of Justice.  This song shows the irony of the situation. 

Stars by Russell Crowe
There, out in the darkness
A fugitive running
Fallen from god
Fallen from grace
God be my witness
I never shall yield
Till we come face to face
Till we come face to face

He knows his way in the dark
Mine is the way of the Lord
And those who follow the path of the righteous
Shall have their reward
And if they fall
As Lucifer fell
The flame
The sword!

Stars
In your multitudes
Scarce to be counted
Filling the darkness
With order and light
You are the sentinels
Silent and sure
Keeping watch in the night
Keeping watch in the night

You know your place in the sky
You hold your course and your aim
And each in your season
Returns and returns
And is always the same
And if you fall as Lucifer fell
You fall in flame!

And so it has been and so it is written
On the doorway to paradise
That those who falter and those who fall
Must pay the price!

Lord let me find him
That I may see him
Safe behind bars
I will never rest
Till then
This I swear
This I swear by the stars!

Javert is singing about how Valjean must be brought to justice and punished for his crimes.  He says that he will never rest.  It becomes his pact with God that he will give his life to righteousness.  However, in the word of God it says that no one is righteous, not one.  But he does not see this.  He cannot forgive for even the smallest of crimes: stealing a loaf of bread and breaking parole.  However, Valjean has been forgiven and shown grace by God and the priest.  But since the world does not accept God’s grace for what it is and rather abuses it, he must be vigilant to avoid capture.