Seeing OOTP

[Carol]

Carolyn asked:
> > Does anyone know who made the decision for Sirius to call Harry
"James" during the climactic battle?

Valerie Flowe replied::
>
> I'm sure it was just a way to wrap up (in 1 sentence, no less!) the
whole 'other' side of Sirius's character that was woefully omitted
from the film, due to time, no doubt (the lunatic fringe, alcoholic,
deeply depressed, soul-sucked, very egocentric Sirius). He was truly a
broken man in the books; Azkaban had ruined him. If he was depressed
before (by having a psychotic mother who would burn his name off the
family tree and drove him out of the house with her pure-blood mania
and blatant favoritism towards Regulus) than Azkaban surely drove him
over the edge. I don't think he was capable of truly separating Harry
from James. <snip>

> ANYHOW, I think the director just threw that in to appease the HP
readers, though it was a bit jarring and probably made no sense 
whatsoever to the non-HP readers. <snip> Someone (director, writer,
both?) obviously decided to just make Sirius a warm, fuzzy,
ever-so-slightly sad ("I gave my house to the OotP; It's the only
thing I've been able to do") and ever-so-slightly reckless ("What's
life without a little risk?") Ahhh, can you tell I've spent many, many
hours on Sirius!?! 
> He's my fav, and I believe, the most miscast, though otherwise I
think Oldman is brilliant; just all wrong as canon Sirius. <snip>

Carol responds:

I agree that neither the casting of Gary Oldman nor the writing of
Sirius Black's role in the films was canon!Sirius. I also agree that
Book!Sirius was much more damaged than the skinny, tattooed,
bare-chested, macho yet loving Sirius that we see in the film.
However, I want to point out that Sirius Black was not soul-sucked
like canon!Barty Crouch Sr. or he'd be a virtual zombie. Granted, he
seems to lose his soul and get it back in PoA, but what was sucked
from him and from Harry was their *happiness* (just as neither Harry
nor Dudley has his soul sucked out in OoP, book or film. "Of course,
he hasn't had his soul sucked," Book!Harry tells the Dursleys. "You'd
know it if he had.")

Also, I don't recall any evidence that Sirius's mother kicked him out.
His decision not to return home seems to have been his own. And, if we
believe Kreacher's tale (and I see no reason not to), that decision,
far from being approved by his mother, "broke her heart."

That aside, I thought that small line, "Good one, James!" was a stroke
of brilliance by the writer, summing up in a few words Sirius Black's
tendency to live either in the past or vicariously through James.
Unfortunately, James is depicted in this film as a "swine," and the
use of the same line in the earlier scene must be confusing to readers
who haven't read the book. Are they supposed to approve the bullying
of young Severus by James and Sirius or not? (And film!Snape's
uncanonical reference to adult!Sirius as a "felon" in the overheard
dialogue muddies matters still further.) 

I think that the script writer wanted to make the relationship between
Harry and his godfather closer than it is in the books so that Harry
has more reason to mourn his loss. Instead of being handed a photo of
the old Order by Mad-Eye Moody (whose appearance as a good guy in this
film is probably confusing to viewers of the GoF film, who may not
remember that the real Mad-Eye was trapped in his trunk) and being
upset by it, he's given the photo as a gift by Sirius, who has risked
imprisonment to give it to him. (The "fate worse than death" of the
Longbottoms, with Mrs. L. given the hairstyle that should have been
Tonks's, is also confusing. Why not just remind viewers that they were
Crucio'd into insanity by Barty Crouch Jr. and Bellatrix Lestrange,
even if they're going to leave out Rodolphus and Rabastan?)

Sorry. I'm getting off topic because the film does as many things
wrong as right in terms of consistency with GoF and leading into HBP
are concerned, even setting aside what's canonical and what isn't.
Again, I think the film made Sirius Black a much more sympathetic and
less ambiguous character than he is in the film (except for the teeny
SWM segment). I confess that I liked his "So there!" gesture when
Harry says that he wants to fight, whereas my sentiments were with
Molly in the book.

Carol, who also didn't like Sirius's death scene (if he's going to die
from Avada Kedavra so that the viewer will know he's really dead
rather than from passing through the Veil, he needs to die instantly,
which is how Avada Kedavra works)