[HPFGU-Movie] Re: the greatest difference

[clshannon at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/14/04 10:11:36 PM, valerie.flowe at verizon.net writes:


> THANK YOU! That bugged me as well. I expected a lot more show of surprise
> and interest when Lupin said that he knew Harry's parents.
> 

I got the impression that we had only come in to the conversation after it 
had been going on for awhile - hence, avoiding the rather awkward reaction that 
Harry would have to have ;) I guess it's a matter of preference, but I don't 
think it would have worked if Harry had had to say something like, 'Oh, you 
knew my parents!?', followed by Lupin's explanation, which would have been what? 
- 'yeah, I was their friend' - seems rather superfluous to me. I just assumed 
that they had been talking for awhile when we 'eavesdrop'. It worked for me. 
Also, I think that since later we hear Harry say (in response to why he spared 
Peter), 'I didn't think my dad would have wanted his two best friends to 
become killers' - in that sentence, we are told that Harry knows that Lupin, Sirius 
and James were best friends - so we can assume that at some point Lupin told 
him.
A movie can't have every conversation between all the characters - it's not 
realistic. A shorthand has to be employed. That's the way it is with all movies 
-   off screen events are either referred to or explained otherwise in a more 
succinct way. Otherwise, we would all still be sitting in the theater 
watching the 5 day movie ;-)
Of course, I wouldn't mind taking dinner breaks for a word by word adaptation 
on screen, but they would still be filming it (imagine a 2 and half year 
shooting schedule, lol!.)
Cindy

P.S. This explanation also serves as a response to a recent post (if it was 
on this list, if not, sorry!) about how we didn't get to see Aunt Marge's 
cruelty over a week's time or even her long term abuse of Harry - well, to be fair, 
even in the book, JKR 'refers' to her past visits. We didn't read an account 
of EVERY visit by Aunt Marge. Some things have to be referred to rather than 
written out explicitly in the present tense. That's just a basic, I can't even 
explain it better. 

We accept in the books that the Potters were killed by Voldemort, but did she 
actually write that scene in detail as it happens? No, not that I remember. 
Same for Aunt Marge - we couldn't possibly have been shown in the movie every 
day of the WEEK of her latest visit, in order to establish her cruelty and 
verbal abuse. It's not plausible. The Dursley segment would have been much longer 
in order to convey a week long visit or god forbid, to actually film every day 
of her visit - yikes! I can imagine the complaining that would go on if that 
had happened. People already say that the Dursley and Knight Bus scenes took 
precious time away from other things they wanted in the film - (something I 
don't adhere to - some of my favorite moments are in those opening minutes; Harry 
kicking the dresser in anger and frustration, the wonderful interlude in the 
playground where I had a genuine sense of fear and creepiness). 

Seems that there is no way to satisfy everyone about everything ;-)


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