Snape in CoS (was CoS Movie - SPOILERS (review))

[wynnde1 at aol.com]

This one is for Amanda, who wrote:

>*Not.*
>*One.*
>*(stronger expletive, because I just KNOW this is a conspiracy, 
>deleted)*
>*WORD.*
>*About.*
>*Snape.*

>(eyes narrow, looking through computer at Heidi and John and any 
>other Snape-less-review-writers) rrrrrrr

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I can completely empathise with your desire to hear the Snapefacts about this 
film, so I'll fill you in. I did include some of these points in an earlier 
post, but hopefully no one will mind if I expand on them here. 

I can sum it up very quickly by saying NOT ENOUGH RICKMAN! <G> (Of course, is 
there such a thing as enough Rickman????). But, honestly, I expected this, as 
he doesn't really appear as much in this book.

The scene in which we first see Snape in the book is changed. I prayed that 
they wouldn't mess with it, but they did - It's Filch who "greets" Harry and 
Ron upon their arrival in the flying car. He then takes them to Snape, so we 
do get to hear Snape fuming at them about being the newspaper, etc. But it 
has nothing near the impact of Ron's "Maybe he got sacked - everyone hates 
him" followed by "Maybe he's waiting to hear why you two didn't arrive on the 
train" (very liberally quoted - I don't have the book handy, but I'm sure 
everyone here knows the scene by heart! <G>). This sort of thing is one of my 
main gripes - there were a number of places where I noticed that the dialogue 
had been changed, and not for the better. For me, when I remember the 
word-for-word dialogue of a scene, it means that it had special impact for me 
- in other words, it really WORKED. So why mess with that? You would think 
that someone who has read the books could have said, "Don't mess with that 
opening Snape scene. It's perfect the way it is."

The other thing I noticed about this scene, is that Rickman looked rather ill 
to me - sort of puffy or something. I hope he's not really ill. He looked 
fine (read Dead Sexy <g>) in the rest of the movie, though.

He also features in the Duelling Club scene, of course. I thought this scene 
was well done, although changed from in the book. I got a kick out of the 
little bows and hand manoeuvers and such that everyone does before dueling - 
it's very precise and I found it a bit comical, but my husband seemed to 
think that's just the way people start other sorts of duels, so he didn't 
find it strange. Snape does a fine job of blasting Lockhart with his 
Expelliarmus, although I don't recall there being as much of Lockhart's 
banter and Snapes expressions in the film as we get in the book. A few other 
changes - The whole group does not get paired off to duel. Lockhart asks 
Harry and Ron to do a demonstration, and Snape suggests that Harry duel with 
Draco, as Ron's wand is rather deadly (too true). And I didn't notice Snape 
whisper anything to Draco, so we must assume that film!Draco already knew the 
spell for conjuring a snake. (One of the things I thought was cool in CoS is 
that we hear and see a lot of spells in this film, some from canon and some 
not. One of these days I want to pay more attention and write down all the 
words for them). As others have mentioned, Snape does not immediately act to 
handle the snake, but I didn't find this disturbing. It seemed to fit with 
the other changes they made to the scene. Here again, the scene isn't as well 
done in the film as it's written in the books, IMO. But, oh well. 

I think the only other significant Snape we get is the scene after Ginny has 
been taken into the Chamber. The teachers have their chat (and 
"confrontation" with Lockhart) in a hallway instead of in the staff room, and 
it is much shortened. (no squeals or tears from Flitwick. I actually felt 
really sorry for Warwick Davis - I don't think he has a single line in the 
entire film). 

I've just remembered another Snape moment from the books which I think is 
missing -after Mrs. Norris is discovered petrified, and Lockhart goes on 
about making the potion and Snape says that he is "still the potions master 
here." I don't think that line is in the film - does anyone else remember for 
certain? I honestly can't remember what they did with that scene.

Anyhow, on the whole I found Rickman's performance as Snape to be excellent - 
(as I did in PS). There is less of him here, but that is the case with most 
of the staff members. And I enjoyed seeing the same actors playing those 
characters in the background (Snape, Flitwick, MacGonagall, etc) - it gave a 
sense of continuity, even when they didn't have big speaking parts. 

And just remember, we'll get TONS of FANTASTIC Snape scenes in Prisoner. 
There's lots of stuff in that book that they simply can't cut him out of! (Oh 
please, please, please let them leave in the scene when the Marauder's Map 
insults him. PLEASE). I wonder what you have to do to become a script 
consultant on that film, I would LOVE to put in my two pence about how to 
dramatise that book for the screen! 

I hope this answers some of your questions about Snape in this film - if 
there's anything else specific you want to know, just ask.

Cheers!
Wendy


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