What to omit- PoA

[GulPlum]

"Felicia Rickmann" <feliciarickmann at d...> wrote:
> A long post that I am sure GulPlum will respond to * G *

Eh? What made you so sure of that? As it happens, I had no real need 
nor intention to reply, but an invitation ("throwing down the 
gauntlet"?) like that is too good to pass up! ;-)

I didn't see much need to reply because I have little to add to 
what's been said thus far. 

PoA is far and away my favourite book of the series as well - the 
plotting and writing is the tightest and richest of the other four 
books to date. Even so, I've not spent any time wondering about what 
could be excised but will now take up your gracious invitation to do 
so... with the result that I can see absolutely nothing extraneous to 
the core plot that can be cut out. 

Unlike the other books, where there are a lot of pure "character" 
moments, in this one, every scene has a dramatic purpose in driving 
the story forward. 

Much as fans (myself included) would dislike the idea, the only 
things I can see to abbreviate or cut out is the whole Knight Bus 
sequence (but then how does Harry get to Diagon Alley?) - the stuff 
Stan 'n' Ern tell him could just as easily be got from The Daily 
Prophet or the Weasleys' conversation, which IMO is more compelling 
than what he learns on the Knight Bus. 

Three Quidditch matches are too much for one movie, but as others 
have pointed out, each one has a purpose. We *must* have the 
Gryffindor-Slytherin match as it's Oliver Wood's last scene in the 
books and a moment of pure triumph. It must be with Slytherin and 
Malfoy has to be on the pitch. 

We must have Harry not catch the Snitch at least once in the movies, 
and Cedric catching him out is important to set up the character for 
GoF. Cedric can't just turn up out of nowhere for the fourth story, 
because it would draw too much attention to him for movie viewers 
unfamiliar with the books.

The Ravenclaw match could possibly go - Cho can be introduced in 
other ways, and Malfoy's Dementor trick could be passed to Crabbe & 
Goyle alone for the last match, while Malfoy's on the pitch. 

However, cutting just one match out of three isn't enough to cut down 
the story to a comfortable movie length and as I said above, I really 
can't see what else can be cut. 

PS: I've never liked and am delighted he was cut from the first film 
and, according to Columbus, has also been cut from the second. :-)

BTW I notice that I appear to be the only male left in this 
conversation (*VBG*) and I've sometimes wondered wheher so many of 
the ladies quote PoA as their favourite as it introduces the two 
characters which seem to have you all drooling (well, the "normal" 
ones, at any rate - I can see how Lupin and Black can be attractive 
to the ladies, but *SNAPE*?!? - again I can see Alan Rickman's 
attraction, but SNAPE?!?!?). :-)

-- 
GulPlum AKA Richard, UK, not jealous of Kloves' task in writing a POA 
screenplay...