Team Experience: Harry Potter Goodbyes
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 10:03AM 
Hey all. I asked the team here at The Film Experience to say their goodbyes to Hogwarts and the Potter franchise now that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two has been viewed by everyone and their werewolf uncle. Y'all know how I feel about it but a huge scale of opinions and emotions swirling about out there. Each wand is unique and chooses its wizard or some such; we're all beautiful unique snowflakes!
1. WHO WAS YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER?
JA: I always gravitate towards the nerdy girls so my first thought was Hermione, but then she was swallowed whole by a tidal wave of Luna Lovegood affection. The casting people worked magic pretty much across the board but Evanna Lynch was an amazing find.
Andreas: Bellatrix, at least as portrayed by HBC. Cackling, sadistic, sexy -- I'd take her delightfully evil turn any day over her Oscar-nominated cheerleading in The King's Speech.
Kurt: Minerva McGonagall, and she gets two of the best lines in the new movie! Maggie Smith, ready to bring the thunder. Great.
Michael: Neville, Neville, Neville. The same weight of tragedy and depth of character as Harry without the cushy celebrity status or the unfortunate bouts of "woe is me" whining. All I care about in the last movie is his big moment with the Sword of Gryffindor. It should be the cinematic "Hell, yes!" equivalent of Viggo Mortenson jumping off that ship with the army of the dead at his back.
Jose: Snape of course!
2. WHICH PROFESSOR OF MAGIC WOULD YOU LOVE TO BE SCHOOLED BY?
oh baby, talk dirty Rickman to me!
Jose: Snape of course! The Dark Arts sound like fun!
Michael: Snape, no contest. I don't care if he does nothing but heap abuse on me. I could still listen to Alan Rickman all day.
JA: Love Maggie Smith but Professor McGonagall would've made me cry with all those withering glances. Professor Flitwick would've been fun! I could've quotedWillow to him. "Some day, Burglekutt! Some day!!!"
Kurt: My first impulse is to say Dumbledore (he seems so cuddly), but he's technically not a teacher, so I'll go with McGonagall. To quote Larry Crowne (and I swear it's the one and ONLY time I'll quote Larry Crowne), she's tough but fair.
Andreas: I've always liked Remus Lupin. He's so mild-mannered and knowledgeable about all kinds of magic. He marries one of the other coolest people in the series, Tonks. And he's a conflicted werewolf, which is pretty badass. Definitely my prof of choice if I went to Hogwarts; I'm just disappointed that he got so little screen time before his sad off-screen death!
3. IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT THE SERIES, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Andreas: I know it's crazy, but why not make it all animated? I feel like Studio Ghibli could do wonders with a complex magical fantasy like this. At the very least, they would've made the characters in the epilogue look convincingly older.
Kurt: That it could better balance its romances with its driving action. The juxtaposition of raging teen hormones and grave danger has usually been very effective, but the couplings have always felt like inauthentic footnotes. I really liked the final film, but I'd have been more invested had I given a hoot about Ron & Hermione, Harry & Ginny, and Luna & Neville "Never Met a Comic Relief Moment He Couldn't Fumble" Longbottom.
Jose: Have actual auteurs doing the directing work, other than Cuarón's film, none had any sense of real artistry and intention. They embodied the dullness that is adapting something just for the sake of it.
JA: Eight more movies!
Michael: Harry Potter and the Missed Opportunity
4. IN WHAT SORT OF OBJECTS WOULD WE BE LIKELY TO FIND YOUR HORCRUXES?
via
JA: My soul and all its pieces belongs to Victor Krum's underwear drawer.
Kurt: GREAT question. Mine would be: My "Lord of the Rings" Extended Edition boxed set, my grandfather's military pendant, my latest peanut butter jar (I, very unfortunately, LOVE peanut butter), a framed photo of Brandon from when we first started dating, my journal from 2003-2007, my first writing award, and my father's father's pocket watch.
Jose: My Blu-ray and DVD library, my Kindle, white CK briefs and bad dates.
Michael: Ticket stubs. I doubt I would present much of a challenge to Harry and friends. They would have me finished off by page 50 and spend the other 750 pages playing quidditch and making out in the room of requirement.
5. WILL YOU BE HAPPY TO SEE RALPH FIENNES'S NOSE AGAIN?
JA: Are we sure he hasn't carved it off for method thespian purposes? Has anyone seen it lately? Maybe in real life he's actually wearing a prosthetic nose now and the Voldemort nose look is him without make-up. Nobody will ever know unless somebody jumps him on a red carpet and yanks at his ears! I think I speak for us all when I say that you have the permission of the Film Experience establishment to do this now, everyone.
Kurt: Yes. I like my Fiennes brothers au naturale ...and take from that what you will.
Michael: Kudos to Ralph Fiennes to playing the most iconic villain of modern pop culture. I refer of course to "Harry" from In Bruges. I found his Voldemort to be kind of a one note sinister ghoul to be honest.
Whenever I see Brendan Gleeson show up as Mad Eye Moody I am overcome with the desire to see him confront Voldemort at the Hog’s Head In Bruges-style over some butter beers.
Moody: Voldemort, let’s face it. And I’m not being funny. I mean no disrespect, but you’re a cunt. You’re a cunt now. You’ve always been a cunt. And you’ll always be a cunt. Maybe make some more cunt horcruxes.
Voldemort: Leave my horcruxes fucking out of it! What have they ever done? You retract that bit about my cunt fucking horcruxes!
Moody: I retract that bit about your cunt fucking horcruxes.
Voldemort: insult my fucking horcruxes? That’s going overboard, mate!
Want more?
Reviews of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two from Jose and Nathaniel, a teary goodbye from JA who loved the series the most of any TFE contributor, a series lament from Michael in which he posits that the films shouldn't have started production until very recently. (Interesting!)
Your turn!
Talking about its box office is boring which seems to be the convo du jour. (The franchise continues to fill JK Rowling's endless vault at Gringotts. The end.) You know you want to answer those five questions in the comments! Or just a couple of them. Your choice.
Reader Comments (61)
Oh yeah don't make me start at how they butchered Ron and made Hermione a goddess! It started as early as in movie 2 actually with Ron being a coward that makes funny faces and not the equal to Harry he is, the brave and witty best friend. They obviously didn't want Ron to be as brave and great as Harry (what he is), because they were probably afraid he might stole the show from the Hero (which he did in the Chess Game, and they were annoyed by the fact it could happen again, because for them, it shouldn't work like that in a movie: they are confused by the fact that Ron actually is a male Hero too. They need hero/heroine/funny sidekick). They of course made Hermione taking him his best lines like "you'll have to kill us too!", all his explanations of the wizarding world (like the word "mudblood"), and even Dumbledore (!) lines. Rupert Grint should have sued them seeing how they constantly bashed and reduced a wonderful character. The movies makers have a totally creepy fascination for Hermione and basically made her a Mary-Sue (it also shows in her complete makeover: Hermione is hot now! She is a badass that punches Malfoy just like that, she is Harry's BEST friend, his confidant, his soulmate, etc. Oh, God). Like you said, the movies never understood something as fundamental as the trio's dynamic. They spent the first five movies at promoting Harry/Hermione because they use the basic hollywood formula Hero/Heroine. But they never understood that Hermione is no more an hero than Ron, they are completely equals, except that Harry actually prefers Ron. They didn't understand how Hermione bored Harry to death when they are just alone, how he is annoyed by her nagging. It's perfectly showed in the second task in GoF for example : Ron IS his most precious person.
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There's something else about the Ron/Harry relationship: Harry is a normal boy caught up in a unfortunate circunstance. Being the chosen one has more to do with Voldemort's interpretation of the prophecy- He basically chose harry because harry was a half-blood as weel, therefore his equal, while Neville was a pure blood. He saw more of himself in harry who was a half blood just like himself. But Harry is not an exceptionally talented wizard. He is as academically lazy as Ron is. He is very good in some subjects but just average in others. He was not the best student nor a precociuos genius- he was an ordinary boy. Ron was the best chess player Hogwarts had seen in years and would beat Harry in every single game they played. Ron was as brave as Harry, but was wittier, funnier, more sarcastic, more irreverent, had a sharper tong, an acid-smart sense of humor and a good head on his shoulder which allowed him to think outside the box, see unexpected angles on ordinary situations and find creative solutions for problems.
In GOF Harry explicit says that being with Hermione was not the same as being with Ron. Yes, Ron is the one he has to rescue on the triwizard tournament, because Ron was the most important person in his life. When Ron leaves in DH, he and Hermione barely speak. He is broody, dreary, weary, angry and obsessing over Ginny's dot on the Marauder's Map while she is a ghost, crying 24/7, sobbing and barely moving like a sleepwalker. All he does to cheer her up is throw Ron's blanket at her and he throws one of the biggest tamper tantrus ever after she accidentally breaks his wand. In the movies they made up that dance scene that was out of place and out of characther, for Harry never did try to cheer her up, he simply ignored her while Ron was away.
Oh it was so pathetic how they gave some of Dumbledore's best lines to Hermione. Dumbledore was the greatest, wisest and most powerful wizard of all times who happened to be an experienced and seasoned 180 year old man.
Hermione, as intelligent, hard working and skilled she could be, was an eleven year old muggle born girl.
In the books, Ron does a lot of the explaining for both Hermione and Harry, since his family is pure blood and goes generations and generations back, his parents were members of the original order of the phoenix, were hogwarts graduates themselves and so on.It made no sense for Hermione to know everything there was to know about this world in which she had just entered while Ron, member of a big and well connected pure blood family who had been part of that world forever, to stand there in silence and be lectured by her.
I agree that they were also afraid that Ron could upstage Harry, that's why they downplayed him and Neville to an extend, never explaining Neville's involvement in the prophecy as well. In the first movie, Rupert did upstage Daniel at times, and they couldnt afford the risk to have another male who could compete with Harry for the audience's heart- and maybe even win it. Ron has always been immensely popular with book readers, and if had them translated it right, would have been a huge favorite among movie goers as well. Its interesting that Rowling chose a pure blood wizard to express ordinary human emotions- Ron is inasely insecure, has no faith in himself, is often overshadowed by his briliant older brothers, later on by his famous best friend and by his scholar best friend/love interest; feels inferior to others, sees himself as less than others, has low self steem and believes himself to be worthless and uncapable of great things.
One thing that is constant in Ron is that he always learns from his mistakes. Even when he is overtaken by insecurity, jealousy or anger, he later apologizes, and makes up for it. His constant grow is a beautiful thing, specially in the last book.
But the movie makers or probably afraid of the possibility of another male overshadowing the lead and therefore decided to put Ron down and underestimate his role in the story to make sure harry would be the only one.
I believe that's part of the reason why Rowling stepped up as a producer on the last two- DH part 1 and part 2- she wanted to make sure she would get it HER way, and to assure they wouldnt do changes she wouldnt allow, and she probably wanted to make sure her characters would be protrayed in the best possible light.
I remember in a interview where she said- I created this world. Those are my characters. No one understands them and knows them better than I do.
It's a pity in a way that, by turning hermione into the ultimate Mary Sue and the very embodiment of the idea of perfection, by making her a flawless goddess from day one, we never got to see her own journey and her own path towards becoming an adult. She, just like all the other characters, also evolves, matures and changes, but the movies never show it because she was perfect and amazing and wonderful and mature and flawless and the most evolved creature since Jesus himself that she had no reason to mature, change and evolve, because she was already perfect.
And her path is so deeply tied around Ron's, they are so inter-connected and it is so beautiful to see the way how they make each other grow and feed each other and teach eac other while learning from each other, it is impossible to separate Hermione's growth from Ron's and vice versa, since they were each other counter-balance and each other's guide through a path to adulthood, and its a pity we never saw that on screen.
had it been adapted right, Ron and Hermione could be one epic movie couple. They could have been iconic. What a waste!!!
Yeah, this too. Harry is the Hero because Voldemort "chose" him. it's interesting Neville becomes a great Hero in the last book, but on his own (and even a "better" Hero than Harry, IMO, he did it all by himself), he finally is a threat for the death eaters while Voldemort had completely forgotten about him before this book. About Harry/Ron, If I had to make a comparison with other books/films, I would say Harry is Frodo or Luke Skywalker, the Hero sometimes a little bland, while Ron is Han Solo (like you said, the wittier character that gets the girl), and Neville is Eowyn for obvious reasons.
Something else that was changed in the movie as well: Voldemort laughs at Neville and asks his name, while in the book he knows he is Neville Longbottom- his parents were tortured to insanity by Voldemort- and even tells him that with his purity of blood he could be useful to the Death Eaters.
@Nathaniel, are you still following this or have you just left it here for us to have fun amongst ourselves?
Amanda -- i try to read every comment but occassionally on threads like this i get so lost that i check out. I have no idea what y'all are talking about (though i admire the passion) since i rarely think about Harry Potter once the credits stop rolling. ;)
You seem way too enamored with Sirius to accept anything that doesn't paint him in a positive light, so I'll drop it.
"at the end of PoA he doesn’t try to defend himself when Snape said his secret (even Dumbledore tries to reasoned him a bit), he just fled, which makes him appear a bit weak. In GoF he’s totally absent (even Harry regretted at a time he doesn’t write him at least once) while he knew Harry could have needed help seeing his weird involvement in the Triwizard Tournament. And he again tried to escape his responsibilities in the last book when he wants to leave his pregnant wife. He set himself in a unhappy mariage he didn’t want in the first place but agreed to it under peer pressure (looks like that for me since I’ve never seen him happy with Tonks)."
Off the mark a bit, mate. Rowling said that Lupin's lycanthropy is a metaphor for HIV prejudice; we're supposed to understand that there is deep-seated, mostly unchallenged prejudice in the wizarding world against those considered "normal", paralleling our world. His lycanthropy has been the bane of his life, something that's brought him nothing but loneliness, unemployment, ostracism, and alienation everywhere he goes, and perhaps the only legit criticism of him is NOT that he's selfish or cowardly, but that he undermines himself constantly by presuming that others are "better off without him" - that Hogwarts students are better off without a dangerous werewolf teaching them, that Tonks is better off without him as a husband, (pressured into the marriage? lol what? you should know rowling better. she's not THAT sinister to her characters) that his unborn son is better off without the stigma of having a werewolf father, so on and so forth. The rest of the time he serves selflessly and gives up his life in the end for it. He's no less braver than anyone else in the Order.
No really, Sirius's flaws are always perfectly emphasized: arrogance, overly confidence, recklessness, self-righteousness, and sometimes insensitivity, while Lupin's ones are often glossed over, even by JK (like I said, his own recklessness in PoA, what could have killed all the boys in Harry's dorm, had Sirius been really evil), or are always justified by his werewolf state; while people are often a lot more severe with Sirius (that's why I defend him) about his moody temper, yet justified by more than a decade around dementors and a life prison sentence while being innocent.
[quote]that he undermines himself constantly by presuming that others are "better off without him"[/quote]
I know all that, but my point is that it was getting a little old by the last book. And one would think he could have won a little more confidence between 11 and the age of his death. At Hogwarts his three friends spent years at learning to become Animagus, just for him. Dumbledore, McGonagall, most of the Order love him too, hold him in great respect and consider him "normal". Dumbledore offered him a prestigious job and insisted he continues to do it. Prejudices can also be reduced by the way you behave: Lily didn't take the mudblood insult passively. Hagrid was depressed when his big secret was revealed in book 4 (and giants are as much hated than werewolves), but Dumbledore and Harry reasoned him and he finally overcame it and continued to teach : what he feared was basically the same than Lupin: furious parents that think he is a danger and order that Dumbledore fires him, worried students, etc. I also think Rowling should maybe have done a better job with Remus/Tonks: it comes out of nowhere at the end of book 6 (like everyone, I thought Tonks was depressed because of the war, not because a guy didn't want to go out with her, it cheapened her "depression" for me), and she never showed Lupin being happy to be with Tonks: he is happy to have a son, Tonks is happy, but Harry always notices how he looks miserable, which makes me feel uneasy about the relationship, he always seem "forced". I like Lupin a lot like I said he's one of my favorites, but I felt bad about him since the end of book 6, something felt wrong, he had never been that "mad" about his werewolf state before.
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