[HPFGU-Movie] Lucius and Draco

[heidi tandy]

Wanda wrote:

> 
> Did anyone notice that, although Lucius had been in the stands 
> watching his son's first Quidditch game, he didn't bother going to 
> see the boy when he was in the infirmary after falling off his 
> broom?  Now, I'm guessing from Madame Pomfrey's quick dismissal of 
> him that he wasn't REALLY hurt that much - I get the impression that 
> Draco is a pampered little rich boy who hasn't had to get his hands 
> dirty very often, so he'd make a big fuss over what is a trifling 
> little injury.  But it says something that his father didn't care 
> enough to come and check on him.  If Molly Weasley had been in the 
> stands and Fred or George had gotten hurt, even if they'd been 
> goofing off, I'll bet she'd have gone to see them.  She might have 
> given them a scolding, but she'd have gone.  This movie has done 
> something I wouldn't have really thought possible - it's actually 
> made me start to feel a bit sorry for Draco.

One quick point about Draco's injuries: I actually think he likely broke
a few ribs in that fall, but as we know, she can mend bones in about a
minute so by that point he was probably fine. But still, for Lucius not
to show up is very telling.  

Now, I am going to take the opening Wanda set up here and run right
through it.

Of course the story is set up to make the viewer have a bit of sympathy
for Draco. I mean, given everything Jason Isaacs has said about how he
portrayed Lucius, it's pretty odd not to have some sympathy for a kid
whose father is abusive and somewhat homicidal. And in the movies,
that's what Draco is - he's a pretty much friendless twelve year old
whose father is abusive and perfectly willing to kill kids his son's
age, or younger. 

How can you not sympathyze with that, at least a bit?

A quick read on some of Isaac's comments about the role make it clear
that Lucius is not a good father, not a kind parent, but rather is an
abusive SOB:

## When I arrived and we played the first scene, we went straight into
the first scene, and I just grabbed him by the ear, and then I rapped
him on the knuckles, and he looked up at me really hurt. I didn't know
if it was Tom or Draco that was looking so hurt, because I just thought
it was right that Lucius is a really horrible Dad, really abusive Dad.
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/IsaacsInterview.html

## Lucius' relationship with his son Draco, a role reprised by 14
year-old Tom Felton (Anna and the King, The Borrowers), is vital to the
story, as well as the key to understanding why Draco is such an
antagonistic bully. "Draco has a monstrous home life," says Isaacs.
"Lucius bullies him, which makes Draco bully others. He's a chip off the
old block."

The true nature of Lucius and Draco's relationship was surprising to
young Felton. "I always thought that theirs would be quite a loving
relationship, since Lucius and Draco are both really mean people, but I
think there's actually something quite scary going on between them,"
Felton observes. "Draco always gets the rough end of the stick and is
quite afraid of his father." 
WB's official press notes,
http://movies.warnerbros.com/pub/movie/potter2/potter2notes.htm


And there's more in places like the LA Times
(http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/suncal/cl-ca-shortsxy
z3nov03,0,2417218.story?coll=cl-suncal) and Empire Online, where they've
mentioned the Draco-and-Lucius characterisation and interaction.

Of course, we won't know the full extent of it until we actually get to
see the Borgin & Burkes scene when the DVD comes out in May, but it's
clearly going to be in line with the portrayal we see in the film, if
not crueler. 

And Jason Isaacs didn't get this from nowhere - he got it from reading
the books (I, and many others, got the same sense from the books too,
btw) and talking with the director - and if it was really utterly
noncanonical in terms of the books, he wouldn't've been able to do this
kind of portrayal, or at least Columbus and Kloves would've made it
clear that this is one area where the books and movie really diverge,
instead of touting the faithfulness to the book of the movie. Or at a
minimum, they would've had him at least show up to make sure Draco was
ok - had Draco not been in the infirmary at that point, everyone
would've presumed that caring!lucius took him to St Mungo's or
something, for The Best Medimagic Galleons Could Buy.

One thing that JKR did with the books, although in subtle and subtextual
ways in some cases, is show various ways that parents or guardians can
be abusive to their kids - with Harry, of course, it's text. We know it,
we see it. With Dudley, in contrast, JKR's already said that the
spoiling his parents do is a type of child abuse. The contrast to Draco
is interesting - because Harry sees him as like Dudley, he never bothers
to think about what it must be like to be a son to Lucius - even once he
knows how utterly evil Lucius is - and nor, from what we've seen, does
Dumbledore do anything about it. Snape, possibly, has the opportunity to
intervene, and maybe even a motive to do so, but we haven't seen any
direct evidence of that either. 

What we do see, in the books (and played out in the film) is that when
Lucius is around, and peers of either Malfoy are present, Draco doesn't
speak - not in the bookstore and not in the top box. We see Lucius
criticising him - and clearly, it's something Draco's heard before. We
see Lucius being physically cruel to others - not just the Muggles at
the campsite in GoF, but to Dobby too - and to Harry, in Dumbledore's
office, who he shoves out of the way such that Harry almost falls down. 

The movie just removes you from Harry's perspective so you can actually
see it more clearly with your own two eyes than Harry does with his. 


Heidi Tandy