POA - Book vrs movie

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 100249

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Damit Lazarus" <lkotur at y...> wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> Having just seen the movie POA, I must say I was quite disappointed. 
> The move was just an outline (threadbare at best) of the book.  I 
> know it hit the major storyline items (mostly) but there was so many 
> details missing.  
snip..
> As fans of the books, should the movies capture the 
> story of the books or would "poetic license" with the story upset 
> book fans?
> 

There was a recent post by Eloise on the OT board that expressed 
her opinions on just this aspect - and I  suspect (hope) that her
views are shared by many of the fans.

Basically it  was "Books Rule - OK!"

I for one refuse to accept that the interpretations of a director who
admitted  never having read the books are even a pale reflection of 
canon. Warner Bros.  are in  the film business. Their aim is to produce
a healthy bottom line, not to be true to the spirit or even substance
of a well-loved book. 

Recall the horror  that swept fandom a few years back when it looked
as if Speilberg was going to direct PS and what he intended to do to
the story. Relief all round when he was sidelined *except* in some
quarters in Hollywood - because he puts bums on seats just by being
associated with a film, and to them that's what matters.

I posted last year that I wished that I'd never seen the films. I'd read 
the books and I  had a clear picture of exactly what Harry, Hagrid, 
Snape, DD and all the rest looked like. Not now - they've been usurped
by someone else's vision. I've lost good 'friends' and it's too late to call
them back.

If, as we all hope, the books become much loved all-time classics there's
a strong possibility that many if not most future readers will see the 
films before reading the books. It's more or less inevitable given how 
quickly films go to DVD and TV. How heavily will they be influenced by 
first seeing the story filtered by someone else? We're lucky - we're ahead
of the game, most of us were immersed in the WW first and in some
respects we still lead by a short head - we'll read books 6 & 7 before
the films in their unavoidably condensed versions hit the public. For
later generations that won't be so. Hopefully having seen the films many
will graduate to the books, but it's probable that their reading will still
be influenced by the filmic interpretation. Character traits, emphases,
body language, appearance all have an immediate and lasting impact 
when encountered visually and I think it inevitable that there will be
carry-over.

OK, I'm a purist and I'm not ashamed of it. The current threads that
delve into the minutiae of the PoA film are irrelevant so far as I'm
concerned; I haven't read any of them. Why bother? The film isn't
canon, it's a version of fan-fic IMO. The true quill it ain't.

This doesn't mean that the films are not good entertaining fare; that
will be decided by the audiences, just that the books and the films
are "clean different things"; each should be considered on it's merits
and clear distinctions made between the two. After all, that's why
there's a separate board for the HP films. I've seen the first two films,
but I don't think I'll bother going to see this one and probably not 
any of those still to come. I find they restrict my imagination. Others
probably feel differently; each to his own.

I take heart from an exchange between a critic and a writer (forgotten
 who) who had just signed a big film deal for his book:
"Aren't you afraid they'll ruin it?"
"They can't ruin the book; all they can do is ruin the film."

Kneasy