[HPFGU-Movie] why I was uncomfortable with the Aunt Marge scene

[GulPlum]

Ahhh... I'm reading the list messages in reverse order and whilst I've 
already addressed one of the points Susan made (and others have given their 
opinion on the rest), I still want to wade in with a few comments...

At 04:33 15/06/04 , Susan wrote:
>It was funny in a slapstick way. I LOVED it when MoM Fudge (and I
>did  fancy his grey pinstriped robes, although I missed the lime
>green bowler --- invoking Chamberlain, I assume ---)mentioned she had
>been found somewhere in Surrey (?) stuck in a chimney. Wonderful.

"A little south of Sheffield, circling a chimney stack", actually. :-)

I have a little issue with that - Sheffield is about 200 miles from London.

In fact, I have several issues with the chronology of the film's opening 
sequences. I was going to save this for a later post but here goes: 
(WARNING: this is VERY sad and geeky) :-)

At the Dursleys', Dudley is watching The Generation Game on TV. This show 
went out on Saturday afternoons between around 5 and 6pm (depending on the 
season, it could have started as early as 4.45 or as late as 5.15) and 
lasted 50 minutes (the episode in the movie is hosted by Jim Davidson, who 
did so for 7 seasons between 1995 and 2002). Yes, I am VERY sad - I made a 
trip to the library specifically to check old TV schedules. :-)

So, the very latest Marge's "take-off" could be is around 6pm (and I'm 
being generous; the show has at least two rounds to go, as there are least 
two pairs of contestants involved). Some might argue that he's watching a 
recording, but this wouldn't make sense, as I can't imagine Dudley 
preferring to watch a recording of a daft game show rather than the live 
programming on a Saturday evening of the time which would be more up his 
street. ("Noel's House Party", anyone? *shudder*)

At the end of August in Surrey, it doesn't start getting dark until after 
about 7.30pm and official sunset is around 8pm. Marge takes off into dusk. 
Just after she's taken off, Harry packs his trunk. In the time it takes 
Vernon to get back to foot of the stairs, Harry is packed and on his way 
out.  Either Vernon is very slow and it takes him absolutely forever to get 
from his garden to the front of his house (we know the layout - it should 
be less than 10 seconds), or Harry is basically already packed (which is 
reasonable, as it is later implied that the Hogwarts Express leaves the 
next morning).

One way or the other, Harry leaves the house and we see Marge floating into 
the fairly light dusk. The shot changes but it's now pitch black. Sorry, 
but it takes a good half hour to get from dusk to pitch black in Southern 
England in August. Although there's a bit of a jolt with the shot change, 
it seems to pick up where the previous one left off.

Harry sits down and the wind blows through the playground and bushes (well, 
that's my interpretation; I know that some consider this a sign of Magic in 
the air), Sirius turns up and then the Knight Bus, in swift succession. 
There is no implication that any time has passed (on the contrary, various 
things imply that this is one continuous movement).

So, being generous, the night sky indicates that it must be well after 
8pm-ish, but other information points to it being no later than about 6.30.

Nevertheless, the Knight Bus picks up Harry and they speed of to London. 
Granted we don't know whereabouts in Surrey Little Whinging is meant to be, 
but even so, we're talking a distance of no more than about 30 miles. The 
bus goes at a fair whack and arrives at the Leaky Cauldron after 1am (the 
clock during the Fudge scene shows approx 1.20).

I know that in the books, the Bus goes via Aberystwyth, but no hint of its 
roundabout route is given in the movie. More than five hours (at best, 
closer to seven at worst) between Surrey and Central London is an extremely 
poor time (I've done the trip in a Muggle bus and it took just over an 
hour), and whilst I'm not claiming for a second that we see the entire 
journey, there is no implication that we're talking about quite such a long 
time. Certainly there's no implication that we're leaving the vicinity of 
London.

Talking of Muggle buses, the two we see the Knight Bus overtaking on the 
bridge (it's been a while, but that *is* Lambeth Bridge, isn't it?) are not 
real services. The N7 (the "N" denoting a Night Bus - geddit?) doesn't go 
to Kings Cross, and the 143 keeps to North London.

In other words, just *what* did they get up to for five hours that they're 
not showing us? ;-)

Anyway, back to Fudge and where all of this digression starter. He says to 
Harry that Marge was found "earlier this evening ... just South of 
Sheffield". Even Muggle trains don't get there as fast as Marge seems to 
have floated there, powered by nothing but (cold) air.

The movie thus gives conflicting impressions: if it takes some time for 
Marge to float from the Dursleys' back garden to the skies whilst remaining 
identifiable,  yet it takes her fairly little time to travel 200 miles.

Incidentally, I agree with several comments that having Marge float off 
quite such a distance isn't fair to the sprit of the Potterverse (and 
certainly not to the book): given her cries, *lots* of Muggles would have 
seen her and they'd all have needed attention from the Accidental Magic 
Reversal Squad.

>I can't believe that any boy would be mostly oblivious to his father 
>screaming, his aunt swelling and floating away....the dog barking, etc.

I think this was a fair characterisation of Dudley in purely cinematic 
terms: he's so involved in himself and his own little world that he really 
doesn't care what happens to anyone else. I think it's also a nice subtle 
message about our media-obsessed times when we are so easily distracted by 
stupid game shows (and The Generation Game really *was* stupid - and 
demeaning to its participants, if you ask me).

>I was uncomfortable because we didn't see the history of Aunt Marge's
>persecution of Harry, nor did we see her being vile for a week. In the 
>book, Harry tries not to provoke her, and she persecutes him and says 
>horrible things about him daily. Therefore, we have a better appreciation 
>about why Harry finally lost control of himself.

I thought the film summarised their attitude towards each other fairly well 
(and Petunia's attitude as well - during one of my 8 viewings, I 
concentrated solely on her throughout the scene; her waving to Marge as she 
floats away had me in hysterics). The imperious handing over of the soaking 
brolly and the way Marge simply takes over the house ordering everyone 
around makes her thoroughly unpleasant.

As for what sets Harry off, the scene remains true to one of the themes of 
the movie, which is Harry's connection to his parents. When Marge insults 
Harry, he shrugs it off with sarcastic remarks. But when she insults his 
parents, he breaks. Note that on insulting James ("he was a drunk"), all he 
does is smash her glass; on insulting Lily, Harry goes ballistic - as does 
Marge. :-)

>I loved how the lights went on and off (and later how the playground
>equipment was moving)indicating Harry was losing control.

Actually, I thought the lights were a bit OTT (the "breeze" across Harry's 
face was enough for me to indicate magical activity), but I can live with it...

>BUT in the movie we did not see the continuous horribleness of Aunt
>Marge, and so I had a twinge of feeling sorry for her...it wasn't BAD
>enough in the movie (in my humble opinion) for Harry to totally lose
>it, and leave the house.

The brief horribleness wasn't enough for you? :-) It would be very 
difficult for me to have any sympathy for Aunt Marge from the moment he 
sour face shows through the door to the moment she floats away...

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, waffling on for *far* too long