Messrs M, W, P & P

[GulPlum]

This text has been written over several days and I intend to make use of it 
in various circumstances (some people may get a sense of deja vu on seeing 
these comments as I've already put them out in different forms here and 
there), so it's not necessarily going to make complete sense here in the 
context of discussions to date.

A couple of specific items before I go on. Someone (sorry, can't remember 
who) claimed that Lupin says something in the Shack about the Map's 
authorship - sorry, there's nothing of the sort.

Secondly, whilst I've not had the opportunity to see the movie in IMAX (we 
don't get it on this side of the Atlantic until mid-to-late July) :-( the 
cinema I attend has a magnificent sound system in each of its auditoria 
(THX-certified, next step down from IMAX) and despite having listened out 
for it at three different viewings (in three different auditoria), I can 
hear no trace of Lupin's saying anything approaching "Padfoot" before, 
during, or after his transformation. All I hear are grunts and several 
guttural screams. Sorry, but I think it's wishful thinking.

Something which surprised me (I have been unforgivably *S-L-O-W*!) is that 
it took eight viewings of the movie for me to realise that the PoA movie 
*completely* misses any identification of James, Sirius & co as the authors 
of the Map or that all four of them became Animagi at the same time, or 
that there was any connection between these elements, or that they were 
connected in any way to Lupin's lycanthropy.

Book readers have claimed to have seen hints or suggestions of these facts 
in the movie, but this is only because we know the background: there are no 
hints *at all* within the framework of the film itself of any of these 
issues. People have looked for hints and some have even seen (or rather, 
heard) things which I believe simply aren't there, because people 
desperately *want* the movie to have included this material in some form. 
The only reasonable extrapolation any non-book-reader could make (although 
we are not invited to do so) is to connect the name "Mooney" with Lupin. 
All the film makes clear regarding the Map is that Lupin and Sirius knew 
what it was and how it worked.

I then started wondering why the movie could have done this, because it 
struck me as much more than an oversight - this is very much deliberate! 
The fans are up in arms all over the internet about how Kloves, Cuaron & Co 
could possibly have dropped such a significant clanger, and for a huge 
proportion of fans, this is enough for them to detest this movie. But 
nobody appears to be trying to understand why the makers might possibly 
have done this. There is simply NO WAY that JKR would have allowed them to 
write a script that doesn't include something so fundamental to the ongoing 
plot without kicking and screaming. (We don't know the extent of her input 
into the movie-making process, but we do know that she has script approval 
and is consulted during script development.)

A few days ago, I had some thoughts on why this might have been done from a 
psychological perspective. More recently, however, I've re-examined the 
book (and seen the movie again...)  and I am increasingly certain that 
including that information in the *movie* at this point was simply wrong.

In the movie, the Shack scene was all about revealing Peter as a rat and 
the inter-relationships between the three surviving Marauders plus Snape 
(and how all of them connected to James), without going off onto 
explanations which aren't directly related to that central disclosure.

Including details about the back-story would have been information overload 
in what was already an information-rich scene. Non-book-reading viewers 
would be correct in leaving the cinema wondering how come Lupin and Sirius 
knew about the Map, because it is a question they are *meant* to be asking 
themselves! This way, the movie leaves such members of the audience ready 
for the revelations of the *next* movie, and hopefully already waiting for it.

Apart from the developmental reasons I gave a few days ago for those 
revelations not to be made at this stage, they give something for Harry and 
Sirius to bond over in GoF. In book-GoF, their conversations are about the 
tournament and how Harry's going to get through it. This way (in no more 
than a couple of minutes' screen time), they can talk about something that 
connects them both: James's schooldays, and *then* go into Harry's more 
immediate problems.

The audience can thus discover why they became Animagi and who MWPP were in 
the context of friendly reminiscences (and reminding us of James's presence 
in Harry's life, of which there is nothing in GoF before the 
wand-connection moment in the graveyard), rather than in the context of 
angry quid-pro-quos in the Shrieking Shack. This also permits the 
information to sink in so much more. Arguments are pretty much by 
definition irrational and lots of things are said which don't actually mean 
much. Having this information come out calmly (with, hopefully, some 
reaction from Dan for a change), even (or perhaps, especially!) given how 
plot-heavy GoF will have to be, means that the audience will have to take 
notice. This means that instead of being a *secondary* revelation (the 
primary being who betrayed the Potters), it becomes the driving force of 
Harry's relationship with Sirius.

Furthermore, GoF is the movie in which the Animagi register should be 
introduced, because it becomes a specific plot point within that 
movie/book. Introducing the term in the overloaded PoA plot makes no sense, 
because non-readers will have to be reminded of that fact when it's brought 
up with regard to Rita.

One of the most important parts of adapating a tightly-plotted book like 
PoA into a movie script is that all the plot elements must be seen in their 
mutual context, and furthermore in the context of books to come. When all 
the different plot elements are seen in context, it becomes clear that some 
elements make much better sense being included in the GoF adaptation than 
they do in PoA.

The reason why Sirius, James and Peter became Animagi is ultimately 
irrelevant to the plot of PoA. The circumstances of the Map's authorship 
are equally irrelevant. The only thing which matters is that they were four 
friends who trusted each other and (at least in Sirius's case) were 
prepared to die for each other. Introducing any details of what they got up 
to together (especially when it's something as ultimately banal and 
childish as roaming the grounds at night!), adds nothing to to the depth of 
that relationship, especially in the context of revealing a murderer.

Furthermore, this allows us to gloss over one of the fundamental 
shortcomings of the book: why the hell didn't Lupin tell Dumbledore that 
Sirius could become a dog? Especially after he'd *already* successfully 
entered the grounds? Evil!Lupin theories aside, his explanation in the book 
that he was scared of losing Dumbledore's respect and trust is so lame as 
to be laughable. If he were still 15, I could understand it. But he's not 
15 any more, there's a dangerous killer on the loose who's already breached 
Hogwarts security, and he remains silent?!? Come on! It just doesn't make 
sense!

Of course, by the time the MWPP-as-Animagi theme is explored in a later 
movie, people will have forgotten that nobody ever told Dumbledore...

(My own view is that in the book, Lupin could have told Dumbledore after 
the attack on the Fat Lady, without having had any impact on the plot at 
all - Dumbledore would have spent the remainder of the year looking for a 
dog instead of a man.)

To end, a slight tangent, if I may, talking of plot holes in the book: 
something the movie exacerbates rather than makes any attempt to hide or 
gloss over because we can see the logistics laid out in front of us, is 
something that always annoyed me about the book: if Time-Turned H&H could 
get Buckbeak out of the way while the "execution committee" was inside 
Hagrid's hut, why didn't HRH do it the first time around?

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, ending this a bit abruptly but wanting to get it out 
before leaving home for five days