[HPFGU-Movie] I liked the movie too (reasons why)

[Shaun Hately]

On 7 Jun 2004 at 12:59, jjpandy wrote:

> So glad to read some recent messages about people LIKING the movie.  
> I loved many of the changes.  
> Students out of uniform -  If you recall, the kids didn't wear their 
> uniforms at the end of SS (Hermione in a sweater and skirt combo)and 
> to me that detail jumped out in the SS movie because they had been in 
> their uniforms most of the movie until then.  PoA was more 
> realistically done - kids don't wear their uniforms during their free 
> time, but they did wear them during school hours.

Well, the thing is - at some schools, some boarding schools, kids 
*do* wear their uniforms during a lot of their free time - and the 
more traditional the school the more likely this is. Hogwarts has 
always struck me as a very traditional place.

The kids not wearing the uniforms outside school hours isn't a huge 
problem for me personally - but it's not unrealistic for them to 
wear out of those times - I've got nothing against the change, but 
I don't think this is inherently more realistic.

I haven't seen PoA yet, because it's not out here until Thursday - 
but what I've seen in shorts and previews, my problems with the 
uniforms are not so much that I don't like them - I do. Nor is it 
with the fact that they don't always wear them. It's that the 
uniforms have changed - not incredibly, but noticeably. This is the 
third movie in a series and I would have preferred it to remain 
fairly visually consistent with the first two films. Schools - 
especially traditional schools - don't change their uniforms that 
often (the school I attended hasn't made a major change in a 
century now). One change I don't *really* have a problem with, 
because that could happen - but I now worry that every future 
director will feel they have carte blanche to make any changes they 
like - and a different uniform (even subtly different) every year 
would get annoying.

Something I think many fans may be unfamiliar with - especially 
American fans - is that Britain has a very long and very large 
tradition of 'school stories'. Stories set in boarding schools 
mostly. These school stories form a massive literary genre with its 
own conventions, and JKR draws on these conventions heavily in 
writing her books - Hogwarts has a lot of influence from the 
schools in these stories.

And quite a lot of fans in Britain and the Commonwealth are 
familiar with these stories - probably not so much children, but 
people in their late twenties or older - many of them will know at 
least some of these stories. And for quite a number of these adult 
fans part of the reason Harry Potter appeals to them is because it 
*does* follow those conventions, it does fit into that genre.

The first two films, for all their faults, also fitted into the 
genre pretty well - the uniforms, the way the classrooms look, etc. 
>From what I've seen of PoA (and I'm reserving final judgement on 
this until Thursday when I see it), I'm relly not sure it's 
followed those conventions as well - and I think that's largely 
down to the director. His background means he's not likely to be 
that familiar with the genre, if at all, and he won't understand 
why certain things might be important to some people and so he 
makes decisions that they don't like that much.

I'm not saying he should have stuck slavishly to the genre - but I 
think quite a few fans aren't even aware that the genre exists, and 
if they don't know that, some of the reasons some people don't like 
the film may not be that intelligible, because people won't 
understand why seemingly irrelevant details such as a uniform and 
clothing *matter* to some people. It matters to some of us because 
part of the reason Harry Potter appealed to some of us was because 
it is a 'traditional British school story' at its core. It has a 
lot more to it as well - but for those of us who grew up reading 
the hundreds of books written in that style it's very much there.

For me, part of the reason Harry Potter appealed to me when I first 
encountered it was because Harry's joy at discovering Hogwarts was 
so familiar to me, based on my own experiences winding up at a 
school which was in the very traditional British model at 13, after 
years of reading about such schools. Those feelings - of the type 
of school Hogwarts is portayed as being matter to me. And the first 
two movies really did do quite a good job of showing that 
resonance. I'm just not sure that PoA will from what I've seen so 
far. It may be a better film in so many other ways - but if it 
doesn't have that, it's not the same for me, personally.

And strange as it may seem to you - issues like the kids not 
wearing their uniforms outside of school hours matter - because in 
those books, in the books that belong to that genre, in the vast 
majority of cases, the kids *do* wear their uniforms outside school 
hours. That's a feature of the genre - it's not universal but it is 
commonplace.

So on one level, that does matter to me.

I don't expect everybody to agree - but I do hope that people can 
be at least aware of the genre of schools stories and the influence 
it has on some people's perceptions here.

The one bright spot for me - the ray of hope I suppose - is that 
JKR is very obviously aware of the genre in her writing, and knows 
it's "rules" and chose to use them. And she likes this film - so 
that makes me hope it won't be as bad as I fear.

It's not that I'm going to hate the film - I very much doubt I 
will. From what I've heard, I think I'm likely to agree with far 
more of the new decisions than I disagree with. But this is a real 
issue - and I just think many fans don't understand why it is - 
especially, as I say, the American fans, who are much less likely 
to have had any real exposure to this genre (and younger fans, even 
in the UK and the Commonwealth aren't that likely to have it 
either).


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia