Snape and DD in GoF

[lupinlore]

Did anyone else notice that Snape's part was relatively small?  I
particularly noticed the lack of the final scene in the hospital wing,
i.e. the "show our Dark Mark to Fudge and return to spy on Voldemort"
scene.

Now, I wonder why that scene was left out?  My own thought is that the
film makers are unsure what JKR intends to do with Snape, and
therefore have decided to play it safe by keeping his part minimal. 
That way they don't risk inadvertantly taking him in the "wrong"
direction.

Of course we DID have that interesting insert of DD, Snape, and McG
talking about Harry's name coming out of the GoF.  I did wonder about
what Kloves/Newell were trying to do there.  Were they trying to make
DD's actions/attitudes clearer?  I have to say the people I saw the
movie with didn't care for the scene much, as they thought it made DD
look uncaring and manipulative, as well as thinking it was unnecessary
given the "magically binding contract".  On the other hand was the
whole purpose of the scene to underscore that Snape was the one who
brought up the idea of allowing Harry to continue in the tournament?

<Shrug.>  I don't really know.  My own sense was that it was simply a
Kloves insert to try and explain some things that inadvertantly made
DD look bad.  A couple of more lines of explanation, e.g. that going
ahead was the best way to protect Harry because otherwise the enemy
would just try again from a direction no one could predict, would
probably have cleared up the problem.


Lupinlore