by Allan Fish
p David Barron, David Heyman, J.K.Rowling d David Yates w Steve Kloves novel J.K.Rowling ph Eduardo Serra ed Mark Day m Alexandre Desplat art Stuart Craig
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort), Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore), Ciaran Hinds (Aberforth Dumbledore), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonnegall), Julie Walters (Mrs Weasley), David Thewlis (Remus Lupin), Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange), David Bradley (Argus Filch), Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew), Emma Thompson (Sybil Trelawney), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), Gary Oldman (Sirius Black), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), Clemence Poésy (Fleur Delacroux), John Hurt (Mr Ollivander), Helen McCrory (Narcissa Malfoy), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), Jim Broadbent (Horace Slughorn), Kelly MacDonald (Helena Ravenclaw), Warwick Davis (Filius Flitwick/Griphook), Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley), Leslie Phillips (the sorting hat), Geraldine Somerville (Lily Potter), Miriam Margolyes (Pomona Sprout), Gemma Jones (Madame Pomfrey),
and…
Richard Harris (Albus Dumbledore), Ian Hart (Professor Quirrel), John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick), Fiona Shaw (Aunt Petunia Dursley), Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon Dursley), Toby Jones (voice of Dobby), Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley), Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart), Zoe Wanamaker (Madame Hooch), Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtyl), Christian Coulson (Tom Riddle), Robert Hardy (Cornelius Fudge), Roger Lloyd Pack (Barty Crouch Snr), David Tennant (Barty Crouch Jnr), Pam Ferris (Aunt Marge), Julie Christie (Madame Rosmerta), Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory), Eric Sykes (Frank Bryce), Brendan Gleeson (Mad Eye Moody), Frances de la Tour (Madame Olympe Maxime), Miranda Richardson (Rita Skeeter), Jessica Hynes (Mafalda Hopkirk), Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge), Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour), Rhys Ifans (Xenophilius Lovegood),
Prior to seeing the final instalment in the critic proof fantasy franchise, I tokenistically listed them in the Final Apologies section of this tome. The entry read as follows:
“Chris Columbus’ first two Potter films were aimed solely at making money, at which they succeed admirably. Alan Rickman stole the first, Kenneth Branagh the second, in both of which the most cinematic interest was in the design of Stuart Craig. The third directed by Alfonso Cuaron was undoubtedly tighter (David Thewlis stood out), but had a less interesting if thankfully darker plot (obviously much butchered from the doorstopper sized book) and split fans down the middle. The fourth in 2005 was better still, retaining the darkness of the third instalment but with a more satisfying plot. Sadly, Year Five was a major disappointment, enlivened solely by Imelda Staunton’s nasty supporting turn, and the delay on the release of Year Six correctly told us that it wouldn’t exactly be an improvement. It wasn’t bad, but it was devoid of any real imagination or originality, so we were left to hope that the final two parter would round things off satisfactorily. Part one may not have had much plot, essentially manoeuvring the players into position for the final battle, but there was a more emotional, darker resonance which hopefully bodes well for the last part, with Emma Watson’s Hermione and Ralph Fiennes’ Voldemort especially given chance to shine.” It was a hope only that the final instalment would rally the series into one rather appropriately desperate final stand and be the best of the bunch. Not good enough for inclusion in the text, mind you, but a valiant send-off. Yet here I am, the above paragraph has been deleted from the Final Apologies and Harry makes it into the main text. What on earth could have happened?
We’ve all had to eat our words. I mean, I remember seeing Braindead and thinking that Peter Jackson could no more make a great film than I could make a six course dinner…in the dark. And who could have not winced at seeing Curtis Hanson’s name attached to LA Confidential? But here the problem wasn’t with the director…or was it? David Yates had shown with his work on the small screen (State of Play for the BBC, Sex Traffic for Channel 4) that he was a director of stature, but he had the misfortune to take over the franchise after Alfonso Cuaron and Mike Newell had delivered the best Potter films yet made. Yet perhaps we’re getting ahead of ourselves, and to use the David Copperfield examplar, we’ll begin Harry’s life with the beginning of his life and record that he was born. And that’s where the trouble began…
With David Copperfield. Yes, David Copperfield, and perhaps there’s something in that. Once children had read, or had read to them, Charles Dickens’ novels, either in instalments or in the final tome form. Once children loved to read, but then they didn’t. They had Playstations, or at least Nintendo and Sega, they had sport, and they didn’t have time for reading. How lame. J.K.Rowling got kids reading again. Made it cool to read, at a time when the youth of the age were increasingly seeing proper English as a forrign language to textspeak, and all the grammar in the world was tossed aside in favour of LOL, OMG and all the rest of the hideous acronyms that are killng our language and our generation’s literacy. We shall never see the like of Rowling’s phenomenon again. And if Rowling is no Dickens, she savours the English language – not for nothing are her character names so multi-syllabic, names to roll around the tongue as children once rolled fruit pastilles. Just like Dickens’ come to that. And it was in the last week of December 1999, with the Millennium Bug on everyone’s minds that the BBC broadcast their latest classic adaptation…of David Copperfield. Maggie Smith was Aunt Betsey and rivalled Edna May Oliver (no mean feat), while an unknown kid played David; Daniel Radcliffe.
With the phenomenon of the Potter books, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood got involved. Naturally Spielberg wanted to Americanise it – “dude, where’s my wand?“, one winces as if someone had set off a claxon in your ear lobe. He quickly retreated, realising that he’d have been sent more hate mail than present requests sent to Lapland and probabaly have some wish he was fed to his own CGI T-Rex. Chris Columbus was chosen, and while the first two films were rather formulaic affairs, they did at least capture the flavour of the books and one has to remember what many were forgetting when comparing it unfavourably to Jackson’s trilogy. Both series of novels were written for children, but Harry, Ron and Hermione were children themselves. The hobbits were little, but they were adults with adult desires and attitudes. So Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets were made by a man as if made for an audience of that age. Sticking to the spirit of the book was enough.
It took Alfonso Cuaron to bring some more gravitas to proceedings in Prisoner of Azkaban, but the plot wasn’t up to his darker vision. Nonetheless, Emma Watson stepped forward, no longer the over-eager kid in the school play, but a real girl. Goblet of Fire was better still, then the anticlimax of Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince and the mixed signals of what seemed to many a redundant first half to Deathly Hallows. Few could have expected anything special. Most fans if polled would have taken a film better than the previous three. I’d probably have settled for the same, bought the Blu Ray, eventually have upgraded all the others when cheap enough and then never only watched them again every few years or so to try and remember what all the fuss was about.
What happened, to quote my earlier bemoan at myself, was beyond anyone’s expectations. Everyone contributed to the piece, aiming not merely to be the best of the series, but reach an emotional zenith worthy of a ten year wait. When the Hogwarts Express first left Platform 9 at King’s Cross, the first Lord of the Rings film hadn’t been released. Now The Hobbit hovers large on the horizon and there are lessons learned from Middle Earth. Yates’ direction trounces his lackadaisical work on the previous three episodes, Desplat’s score hits the emotional highs more than even John Williams managed and the cast all give their all. I could have omitted some of those listed above to make more room, and yet however briefly glimpsed some of the stars were, they were each indispensable in the cosmic alignment of the final battle, and you’ll also notice in the cast list the famous names who have contributed in earlier films, as well as a joint credit for one character, for how could one forget the contributions of Richard Harris before he was finally summoned to the big bar room in the sky. So while we praise the work of all, and Rickman, Gambon and the delicious Fiennes in particular, save the applause for the three at the heart of this tale. Never have three children grown up so much under the public eye. That they have turned out so switched on and relatively down to earth despite this is a credit to them, and one can feel a special bond between the trio, not just the characters, but this time it’s Radcliffe who steps up to the plate, earning his peers and the audience’s respect as a worthy adversary to not just Voldemort but to Fiennes. One can offer no finer compliment. And if the films may not have enriched the cinema as art, they literally put the magic back when it was an increasingly rare commodity. I wish Daniel, Emma and Rupert all the best in their future endeavours, and can only say that I am extremely jealous of them. Not of the press attention, of course. Not of playing the roles, I’m no actor. Not even of their multi million fortunes that should ensure both them and their real life children will never have to work – okay, maybe slightly, we could all do with a fraction of it. But jealous because of what they now have the opportunity of doing; working purely for the pleasure of doing something you love. Rupert is a natural who looks like he’d be happy even if working in repertory, while Dan seems interested in testing himself and doing projects to challenge not to keep in the limelight. Then there’s Emma with her new cropped, pixie hair borrowed in style from Nicole Kidman in Birth, who in turn seemed the double of Genevieve Page’s brothel madam in Belle de Jour. Emma as Belle de Jour? Maybe not, but she is certainly belle du jour.
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Well, I have been vindicated. Your expected (very strong) reaction has confirmed what I have said previously. It’s indeed the best film of the series as you assert, but it does reach that ’emotional zenith worthy of the ten year wait.
The film is proof parcel that square can be beautiful too, and you have done it glorious justice with this wholly extraordinary review.
I know you are pleased when you get a chance to visit the local theatre too.
I’ll just repeat my comment from last week.
“I’m going to talk from the mindset of a fan of the books, of the work of J. K. Rowling and the incredible and worthy prose she has written for all those years, that built me as the happy man I am living, eating and breathing today. And I have many points to adress:
1. I hear many nay-sayers that diss the novels because they are popular fare, written “well for what their target is” (I’m just paraphrasing the tons of comments I’ve heard through my entire life as a Potter fan), and as a writer and a voracious reader, with a somewhat critical view on the written word, I can say that Rowling has managed to create something that it’s not easy… create a universe that stands on its own and that can live beyond the books she has written (in the minds of us and many of the fans of the books), and that is no easy task. Very few writers have managed it, and she managed to create a sense of an enormous world to discover in the span of just book and a half (the first two are crucial to get this)… well, that doesn’t make her the best writer in the world, since Juan Rulfo did the same in just about 40 pages of his “Pedro Páramo”, or Márquez in his 100 Years of Solitude at the end of the novel, but still many have tried and failed. Phillip Pullman, for example, got too shadowed in his upfront attack to the institution of church and God himself, so he forgot he had to make us feel at home, so when his third book of “His Dark Materials” comes, we feel bored and with no real reason to go on reading (besides the second half of that book is just hasted and horribly written). So, just in that mindset, we have a stupendous book that, for me, has no rivalry against the big classics of modern or old literature, I take them as they come to me, and this series may be in the upper tier.
2. The films are just another thing entirely different, and we have seen year after year failures. I agree with Bob here that the casting was good (Barely Ok on the lead role but… heh… what can you say?) The only good movies are those who either take risks with a personal vision director or those who stick closer to the book. Hence we have…
Philosopher’s Stone: ****
Chamber of Secrets: ***1/2
Prisoner of Azkaban: ****
Globet of Fire: ***1/2
Order of the Phoenix: **1/2
Half Blood Prince: ***1/2
Deathly Hallows Part 1: ***
Deathly Hallows Part 2: ***1/2
And I think that this last film will go lower with a rewatch, as this film couldn’t be far from being the “great finale” everyone is saying it is, and I say it as a apologetic fan of the books and universe. The movie finds itself slow, with unnecesary repetition of things we already know, eternal stares and dialogues that actually don’t supply for words, because they are later said anyway. The movie is not bad because “it’s for kids”, because the books are good for me as a kid and for me as an adult. The movie is not a masterpiece, and it barely triumphs because of the scene in Gringotts, and that’s about it, the rest can be forgotten and feels slow.
3. As you can tell, I hate Yates style of filmmaking, he makes bad decissions, and ruins the best books of the franchise, the later half, forever, and now I can’t wait to start reading them again. I can’t stand how he fucked up the fifth movie, being my favorite book of the franchise, so full of little things that could be exploited into a more interesting and worth seeing film. That movie is garbage.”
Well, I’ll agree on one thing, that Phoenix is the worst of the films, but I can’t see the first film as the best of the bunch, Jaime. I know it’s hard as a die hard fan of the books, because a helluva lot will get lost in transit. But if that’s the only criteria of a great movie, people would tear Lean’s Dickens films to bits as they tore whole sections and characters, not to mention motivations, out of the books. But they capture the flavour.
I agree Yates didn’t do a great job at all on 5-7, but the finale is far better. But don’t dismiss him as a director, not without seeing TV’s State of Play and Sex Traffic.
I will preface this by saying the following: I have never read a single HP book. While I enjoyed DH Part 2 there are just things in these films that don’t add up to me. For one, in this film I never really bought into Neville Longbottom going from a non entity to Rambo (the guy takes out half of Dumbledore’s minions, kills the snake, etc.!). In fact he has far more to do than Ron in this one, haha. Ron and Hermione both were more or less useless in this film, mainly running around terrified.
Another amusing aspect is the fate of Bellatrix. After being such a masterful heel in previous films, wasn’t it a bit lame that she ultimately dies at the hands of Ron’s MOM?? This likely reads better in the book, but much like the death of Dobby at the end of Part 1 I just thought “WTF?”
But overall, the thing that cracks me up about the entire HP series is that no one in England seems to care about any of this! I can see the lack of Parliament intervention when this stuff was kept more or less in the world of magic, but by the time Voldemort comes back we see Death Eaters wrecking London, people killed left and right, scorched countryside….yet no one cares. No scenes of a panicked public, no scenes of the PM meeting with advisers on how to deal with a dark lord rising from the grave, no nothing. As goofy as stuff like Transformers is, I at least got the feeling the US government and military cared about the fact that an alien race of robots were trying to take over the earth. In DH Part 2 alone we see our heroes unleash a freaking dragon from an underground lair and it flies around a fairly substantial city…and no one notices or cares.
LOL…I knew who wrote this when I saw this in moderation without really noticing the link.
Brian, old buddy, you need to remember these are made for people who love the books and who won’t mind Bellatrix going that way because that’s the way she goes. As for those in England not caring, well what do you expect? Anyone can do what they like in England, old boy.