Les Miserables

In the novel upon which this film is based, Jean Valjean was sentenced to 5 years for theft, a sentence extended by increments of 3 years for 4 escape attempts, plus 2 years for resisting on one of his captures, for a total of 19 years. Here, he is sentenced to 5 years for theft, then is given an additional 5 years for his first escape attempt and 10 years for his second, bringing his total sentence up to 20 years. A third escape attempt is successful, so he only serves 19 of his 20 years. A successful escape somewhat misses one of the points of the original story, that even former convicts who lawfully served their sentences and paid their debt to society were still not given the opportunity to become productive members of it.

The prison where Valjean is sentenced is identified as Toulon. It is depicted as a fortress used as a mill. The actual Toulon prison was a dockyard.

Featured in The 31st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1979)