[HPFGU-Movie] Re: Inconsistency and Incoherence/GOF!Movie!DD/JKR's input to the script

[Richard]

At 02:06 28/11/2005 , JenD wrote:

>Richard,
>By implication you bring up a very, perhaps, depressing idea, that  the 
>film versions of Harry Potter can only be crude approximations of JKR's 
>books and that to expect them to be more is unrealistic. Is that a fair 
>statement?

Not entirely. I wouldn't use the word "crude" (well, except perhaps for 
Columbus's efforts) :-) but I would submit that, as currently produced, 
they should be thought of as simplified, or abbreviated, versions. The time 
constraints are actually just a minor element in that. Of much greater 
significance is the fact that, as I have said on many, many occasions 
before and will continue to repeat, the adapters don't know where the story 
is going and thus cannot make the important editorial decisions they need 
to be able to make.

An additional constraint is that film-makers are aware that they have this 
huge fandom which they need to satisfy: most of the fandom (as far as I can 
tell) simply will not accept any deviation from the books in any way 
whatsoever, and so the production team has to play very, very safe - 
considerably safer than they would otherwise. The fans know MUCH more about 
the minutest details of each and every turn in every chapter than the 
film-makers (or even JKR) ever can. Not to mention that we get complaints 
that such-and-such a favourite scene or such-and-such a piece of dialogue 
which will have repercussions two movies down the line has been cut, even 
though it's not necessarily important to the immediate plot.

I am a little concerned, though, that the script for each of the movies to 
date has made one expositional dialogue cut too many, leaving one plot 
element unexplained. And this is particularly annoying, because otherwise, 
I for one would be entirely happy.

And last but not least is the fact that they're making the movies 
child-friendly. I don't mean in terms of blood-and-gore, but the emotional 
(and cinematic!) complexity they feel they can put up on screen. They are, 
instead, making action movies, and the action scenes will always be the 
driving force behind each chapter. I think they've got the balance right 
*for the kind of movie that they're making*, but I'm not sure that's the 
kind of movie most adult fans want. Ultimately though, they don't really 
care what the adult fans want because it's the kids they want coming back 
for more - I am convinced that Warners are rubbing their hands with glee at 
the PG13/12A ratings GoF got, because for every child ticket they sell, 
they'll have to sell at least one adult one (and perhaps a second, as many 
parents will want to pre-watch the film for themselves to decide whether to 
take their kids along).

At least the one thing the HP movies have in their favour is that, for 
better or worse, they are still telling the same story as the books 
(albeit, as I say above, a simplified version). I remember being utterly 
disappointed with The Bourne Identity a few years ago because they'd 
changed the core story of one of my favourite books as a teenager into 
something unrecognisable. That really *was* a crude adaptation, taking a 
complex, interesting story as something on which to hang a fairly ordinary 
action movie (even if the action sequences were well done for what they 
were), and removing all traces of the original complexity. And that was an 
*adult* movie!

--
Richard, off to bed