book and movie reviews, Volume 7 number 1, January 2005 Harry book and movie reviews by D. Helfferich Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Scholastic Books Harry Potter is a phenomenon that is like nothing in children’s literature since the Dr. Doolittle books, or perhaps the Wizard of Oz, both of which have been translated into numerous languages, reprinted countless times, and have movies, plays, and other derivative works using their themes, from science fiction by Heinlein to modern film comedies. J.K. Rowling has tapped exactly the right combination of humor, drama, intellectual challenge, and imagination that makes for a thumping good read—and re-read—and will undoubtedly keep her prose alive long after she is gone. I have all five Harry Potter books, but have avoided the Quidditch book and other spinoffs. I have no Harry Potter figurines or paraphernalia, but I (or rather, my husband) have succumbed to the three movies currently available on video. The fourth movie is due out November 2005, and I await it eagerly. The Movies We went to see the movies in the theatre, and will undoubtedly purchase any future movies, too, as soon as they are available. The movies closely follow the books. The movies do add a few twists that aren’t in the books, and some lines and scenes that were so good I thought they must have come from the books until I reread them, and discovered that the scriptwriters had been inspired and had done the author one better. Several scenes do clever things with perspective, both from the point of view of a child looking at a grownup’s world and from a grownup looking at a giant’s. The casting was excellent, with perhaps the exception of the lead (although he is improving with every film, and in the third has begun to show himself a fine actor). The special effects were convincing and fun, and I was amazed to discover how many of the animal scenes were filmed using trained, live creatures: bats, crows, owls, a rat, a cat, a bulldog, and so on. The hippogriff, which appears in the third movie, is a marvel of both mechanical and computer-generated effects. In the first movie the young actor who plays Harry, Daniel Radcliffe, is rather wooden at times, unable to display surprise or astonishment very well. He improves by the second movie, as does Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley. Harry’s hair is very tidy in the movies, unlike the unruly cowlick-ridden mane that the book’s character must deal with, but the characters of Ron and his family and of Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) are quite believably those of the book. Watson does an especially fine job in the first movie, and continues to develop her character and skills in the following ones. By the third movie, Watson and Grint are marvelous, and Radcliffe has gotten good. I look forward to long and successful careers from all three. Alan Rickman brings his superb ability to play the bad-tempered yet funny character to these films, and his role as Professor Severus Snape, potions master and Harry’s least favorite teacher, is a delight. Rickman brings all the qualities of the book’s character to the screen while emphasizing the touch of silliness that the self-important are subject to displaying without realizing it. His portrayal of Snape is an excellent balance of spoof and ominous, sinister power. Dame Maggie Smith plays Minerva McGonagall, transfiguration professor and head of Gryffindor House, to which Harry belongs. Her character, quite different from the sometimes slapstick quality of Snape, is also true to the books, yet Smith improves upon the written character, bringing a warmth and wry wit that is not as evident in the stern woman of the novels. Robbie Coltrane plays Rubeus Hagrid, who starts out as gamekeeper and ends up as Care of Magical Creatures professor. A man of many pockets and a gigantic head of hair, we get to see Hagrid in his horrible hairy coat and yellow-polka-dotted tie, and they are just as horrible—and yet funny—as I had imagined them to be. Coltrane plays Hagrid as the somewhat bumbling half-giant described in the book, mostly as a comic character, yet he brings a depth and range of emotion and thoughtfulness to Hagrid that gives him a reality that made me a bit ashamed I had judged his character so superficially at first. Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, is played by Richard Harris in the first two movies and by Michael Gambon in the third. Harris was very good, but rather less lively than the books depicted the character; and Gambon, alas, just doesn’t have the presence and aura of wisdom that Harris projected. This is a problem, because Dumbledore’s character—and charisma—is very important to the story. Still, he has energy and may, given a bit of better costuming in future movies, get to show us the magus rather than the magician. David Thewlis plays the somewhat shabby and always tired teacher-cum-werewolf, Remus J. Lupin, who is the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher of the third book. The werewolf was pretty obnoxiously unwolflike, but it did make a good monster. Thewlis is an excellent actor, displaying a broad range of emotion in this film with skill and utter believability. Jason Isaacs, who plays Lucius Malfoy, is downright scary in these films. He carries a level of repressed rage and scorn about him that infuses every scene he is in, and makes the level of menace from Malfoy much more deeply disturbing than the pomposity and nastiness of Rickman’s Snape. I was amazed to see this contrast to Isaacs’ portrayals of Mr. Darling and Captain Hook in Peter Pan. The Books As an editor and compulsive proofreader, it is refreshing to find such clean text with only a very few typographical errors in the five books. This is a stellar accomplishment by the author, editors, and publisher, believe me! There is nothing worse than being jolted out of a good story by a silly little transposition of letters or a possessive that was supposed to be a plural, and the care and attention that was devoted to the text is very much appreciated. Thank you! Unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing about the binding. Although the Scholastic books have a nice design and excellent, fun typography and illustrations in keeping with the story, the coating on the dustjacket and the binding on our hardback copies are already beginning to show wear and tear. That’s too bad, because they will get read a lot. The Story For those of you who have managed to avoid this fantasy series, don’t suppose that because the heroes start off at eleven years old, the reader must be of the same age. These books deal with timeless themes as old as Gilgamesh, of a hero’s self-discovery and maturation, and the many-layered forms and expressions both of evil and of good, of cowardice and courage. It’s not a black-and-white view of the world. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Harry, who has been raised by his Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, has grown up with his cousin Dudley’s hand-me-downs in everything. Harry lives in the closet under the stairs, and his family would rather he didn’t exist, as he represents those people, those who step outside the norm. The Dursleys, who are obnoxious, dull people, go to a lot of effort not to believe in magic, nor in imagination, looking on such things with suspicion and distrust. Harry was left on the Dursleys’ doorstep in the dead of night, after his parents were killed by an evil wizard, Lord Voldemort. Harry doesn’t find this out until he receives a letter on his eleventh birthday (after some hilarious difficulties) informing him that his studies may commence at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Rowling’s deft lampooning of staid English conservatism gives her books a depth that keeps them both lighthearted and politically adept, and gives the grownups reading them as much fun as the kids. Harry goes to school and discovers the usual problems with it: stuck-up bullies, loads of boring homework, nasty teachers, and smarty-pants girls. He also discovers the good things: exciting things to learn about, blossoming talents, new friends, teachers who become mentors, and self-confidence. And of course, the kind of things that you’d only find at a school of wizardry: monsters, magic, great cafeteria food, chocolate frogs that really jump, and paintings that demand passwords from you. Harry’s larger-than-life adventures in his first year at wizarding school illuminate the most basic lessons and challenges that every boy and girl must confront in life. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets The second year at Hogwarts almost doesn’t happen, because Harry is framed for using magic illegally, and then he misses the train. Then, after arriving with a crash, he and his best friend Ron Weasley continue to get themselves in big trouble, alienating a good friend and angering not a few of their fellow classmates. This is still a very lighthearted book, despite some sinister events: a series of mysterious petrifications threatens to force the closure of the school, and Hagrid the gamekeeper’s eccentric fondness for terrifying creatures leads to our protagonists’ narrow escape from death in the jaws of hairy, many-legged monsters. Lucius Malfoy, the aristocratic father of Harry’s snotty school nemesis Draco, proves to be a formidable enemy not only to Hagrid, but to Harry himself. Rowling tackles both class snobbery and racism, illustrating the meanness and smallness of mind to which these petty attitudes reduce their holder. The moral and ethical questions with which the author challenges her readers make these books profound, and lifts them beyond mere entertainment. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban With this novel, a darkness begins to pervade the Harry Potter books, in part because, although still fanciful and funny, a certain parallel with the pallid evil of real-life corruption begins to enter the picture. Harry is beginning to enter adolescence, and with his maturation comes the ability to see through the posturing of those in authority. The different qualities and shades of wrongdoing—and the difficulty of righting those wrongs—begin to impinge on Harry’s consciousness. The book starts off with Harry losing his temper entirely and this time breaking the decree for the restriction of underage magic. Despite this, the Ministry of Magic, which was ready to expel him from Hogwarts for someone else’s use of magic in his house last year, laughs off his lawbreaking and is strangely protective of him. Later, Harry learns that a dangerous criminal is intent on murdering him, and still later, that his best friend has been harboring an even more dangerous criminal. Harry meets his godfather, and discovers that even the Minister of Magic can fail to do the right thing when blinded by self-interest. Hagrid runs up against Lucius Malfoy again, and this time it is one of his beloved monsters that pays the price. Rowling imparts a valuable lesson to her readers here, namely that fear is a powerful and dangerous motivator, and can corrupt the heart that succumbs to it. Harry Potter and the Cauldron of Fire Girls, it seems, might be, um, different. And Quidditch, the great sport of the wizarding world, played on broomsticks and also Harry’s favorite game, is, like soccer and football and other professional sports, a magnet for trouble as well as an inspiration for the bold. Harry is thrust into a contest he doesn’t want and might not survive, and everyone thinks he’s a fathead. Life is definitely not fair. The post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is given yet again to a new professor—and still not to Professor Snape, who’s been coveting the job for years. The new professor has been through the mill and is suspicious of everyone and everything, given to attacking dustbins for looking at him cross-eyed, yet he befriends Harry and provides some important advice. Professor Moody turns out to be more than he appears (or perhaps it’s less), as does the obnoxious reporter, Rita Skeeter, who keeps cornering Harry and misquoting him. Rowling skewers the press and the sports world, and keeps the reader laughing and turning the pages in anticipation. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix A secret society, the Order of the Phoenix, is meeting at his godfather’s house, but Harry, Hermione, and the Weasley children are kept annoyingly out of it while their elders discuss how to combat the return of Lord Voldemort. Harry and his friends are fifteen now, and Harry displays adolescent pig-headedness, indulging in some bad-tempered snits that alienate his friends and prevent him from seeing real danger to those he loves and to himself, with catastrophic results. At Hogwarts, disaster strikes and Dumbledore must flee or be arrested by the Ministry of Magic. In his place, the thoroughly unpleasant and toad-like inspector for the Ministry, Dolores Umbridge, becomes headmistress, provoking the secret formation of Dumbledore’s Army, led by Harry, and outright rebellion by the Weasley twins, Fred and George. Rowling is unsparing in her withering critique of government cronyism and human pettiness in this book, blasting the rigidity of academia and the judiciary. She emphasizes the importance of responsibility for one’s own decisions and emotional reactions. The developing maturity of her characters is an exploration of morality, goodness, and finding the correct path for oneself in life. Throughout all five of her books, Rowling displays a sensitivity toward her characters and their predicaments. None of them are caricatures, although it may at first appear that way. The reader cannot dismiss even the Dursleys, tempting though it may be—and the parallel for real life, that we are all human beings (even those of us who may be nonhuman), is a vital lesson in a world that tries to reduce the complex to the simple, people to commodities, a glory of variety and color to a narrow choice of black or white. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince This is the sixth book, and is scheduled for release July 16, 2005. The marketing hoopla is already starting. I found it amusing that Scholastic’s official webpage for this title uses the word “importantly” incorrectly, implying pomposity on Rowling’s part, when the author herself seems to be very clear throughout her books on the difference between importance and self-importance (although some of her characters, such as Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, don’t quite understand this). Some interesting controversies have arisen around the Harry Potter books and movies, and there have been attempts to ban them. The primary objection seems to be religious: a confounding of the magic in the books with Satanism. This is silliness, and this kind of objection demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of the basic story, which is of good versus evil and a boy’s coming of age. The theme is complex rather than two-dimensional: evil arises from causes as primeval as the fear of death to those as banal as the fear of embarrassment. Of course, the old standby, love of power and control over others, is a primary mover for the bad guys. What seems obviously bad or good may not be so simple to determine. People performing magic and wearing robes and pointy hats are still people, with all the range of good and bad and ordinary. And that is part of the point of these books, and why they are great literature rather than forgettable entertainment: what kind of person you are depends on you, not whether you were born into a certain family or can wave a wand—your own choices determine who you become, and who you remain.
| ||
 | | |
