WorkoutDan and Study Hall

[phoenix_kevin]

I'd agree that Mik Newell did do a very credible job. It didn't seem 
to be that brutal to me either rather mild actually. But we all come 
from different environments so some things would ring more true than 
others.

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "Shaun Hately" <drednort at a...> 
wrote:
>
> On 29 Jan 2006 at 13:31, laurenmcoakley wrote:
> 
> > --- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "alchemillalady" 
> > <alchemillalady at a...> wrote:
> > 
> > SNIP
> > >I think Mike Newell's attempt to convey the British Boarding 
school 
> > >environment included the notion that these closed environments 
could 
> > >be rather brutal.  Teachers did not refrain from physical 
punishment  
> > >(some were almost sadistic with it) and students were sometimes 
> > >horribly cruel to one another, as only unsupervised children 
can be   
> > >(such as the scene in the cloister where every passerby is 
taunting 
> > >Harry, including Cedric's friends).
> > > 
> > > --alchemilla
> > 
> > And now Lauren:
> > Is this really ONLY characteristic of British boarding schools?  
I 
> > went to school in the states, and before there were laws about 
> > teachers handing out corporal punishment, I seem to remember 
being hit 
> > on the hand with a ruler once.  And kids being horribly cruel to 
each 
> > other I think occurs in every school environment... I remember 
some 
> > that were horribly cruel to me... I went to public school, by 
the way.
> 
> It's certainly not only characteristic of British Boarding 
Schools, 
> but, it's *very* common as a stereotypical view of British 
Boarding 
> Schools, particularly the Public Schools. And even more so, it's a 
> very common feature of the fiction based on those schools.
> 
> Honestly, speaking as someone who attended an Australian school 
> heavily based on the British Public Schools, I don't think what 
was 
> seen in that scene is at all brutal or sadistic. It's very mild 
> actually. It might be somewhat inappropriate, and certainly, I'm 
not 
> sure that it is character for Snape. But brutal and sadistic - no. 
> It's nothing like as bad as I got at school - and my school was 
> actually far milder than some of the schools of even a few decades 
> earlier (I was at school in the late 80s/early 90s).
> 
> A news story that was in newspapers all over the world in November 
> last year, just as the movie came out gives a little insight into 
> Newell's thinking on this:
> 
> "Much as he admires the first two 'Harry Potter' flicks crafted by 
> U.S. filmmaker Chris Columbus and the one made by Mexican director 
> Alfonso Cuaron, Newell felt he brought the one thing his 
predecessors 
> lacked: Intimate knowledge about the quirks of a British education.
> 
> 'It wasn't possible for them to get that right. They'd never been 
to 
> such a school,' Newell said. 'English schools are very, very 
> eccentric. They're not like any other. I know they've changed now, 
> but when I was in school in the '50s, I was beaten with a cane, a 
> rattan cane, as thick as my little finger.
> 
> 'And that was a very common occurrence, and so they were kind of 
> dangerous and violent places, but they also were very funny and 
> anarchic places. I wanted to get the sense of the school as a 
> character, having a character, so that the kind of crazinesses 
that 
> she, Jo (Rowling) is so good at, I wanted to find an organization 
> into which that kind of stuff could fit and bring the two things 
> together. Bring the individuals and the institution together. So I 
> think that's something I could bring in a major way to the table.'
> 
> To that end, Newell rewrote a scene to add a glint of schoolboy 
> mischievousness and the corporal punishment it provokes, in which 
> dour Professor Snape ( Alan Rickman) bonks Harry and Ron in the 
head 
> with a book for goofing off during a study period."
> 
> Believe me, I don't think many people who have been caned are 
likely 
> to see what Snape does as all that bad. (-8
> 
> Incidentally, I think Newell really did succeed in given a proper 
> 'school feel' to Hogwarts in Goblet of Fire - I was very glad to 
see 
> that he did take the issue of making it seem like a real school in 
> line with its roots, so seriously, because *to me*, that is 
important 
> - it's something I liked about the books, I could see the 
tradition 
> JKR was drawing from - and so I like to see it in the movies. I 
think 
> Columbus did a pretty good job (although his Hogwarts was a rather 
> 'sanitised' version), but I thought Cuaron - no matter how much 
> better he is in general terms as a film maker - missed this.
> 
> Newell, I think did a very credible job - but I am probably 
somewhat 
> unusual in how important this is to me. 
> http://www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/HSWW.html is evidence of 
that 
> (and in my view worth reading if people don't know that much about 
> the British public school tradition and how (I and others think) 
it 
> has influenced Hogwarts.
> 
> Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
> Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
> (ISTJ)       | drednort at a... | ICQ: 6898200 
> "You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
> thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
> facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
> uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
> need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
> Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia
>