MOVIE: Comparisons

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 191124

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:

Pippin:
Movies are a visual medium. As important as Harry's blood in Voldemort's body is
thematically to the books, it's still a complicated idea to convey even in words
and plenty of readers were puzzled by it. It would be harder still to get across
in images. I really can't blame the filmmakers for sidestepping that and
concentrating on Harry's courage and the powers of the Elder Wand. They did an
admirable job with that.

Geoff:
Actually, I didn't raise the point of Harry's blood. My point was that the 
importance of the last scene was undermined by the way in which it was 
handled, and sticking to a similar format to the book would have emphasised 
why these things were happening.

As I said originally, Harry reveals himself to be alive and we have this chase 
through the castle. We have had most of the latter part of the film consisting 
of wizards of one persuasion of another running around hurling curses at 
each other and this scene does not seem different. We have this added 
peculiarity of Voldemort and Harry coming almost nose to nose on the tower. 
Why didn't Voldemort just have another go at blasting Harry out of existence 
at this point  –though I have a theory it wouldn`t have worked anyway, as I shall 
comment later? Harry pulls him off the tower. They seem to Apparate – but do 
we have any other examples of people Apparating while in free fall? Some one 
answered my comments about the `smoke' trails being Death Eaters flying 
without brooms. OK, so where does Harry fit into that? The trails are going 
all around the castle before ending up in the courtyard.

Now, how do things go in the book; what is perhaps the core of the scene 
which would have dealt with a lot of matters in a short, and not too wordy,
 scene? Harry throws off his cloak when Voldemort goes to attack Molly. 
Everyone realises that Harry is alive and as Voldemort turns, everyone falls 
silent to watch events. The two protagonists face off and the onlookers get 
out of the way and, as I said, there is a feel of a gladiatorial arena or a Greek 
amphitheatre. They circle and perhaps the main thrust is that Harry 
progressively knocks out the rungs of Voldemort's confidence ladder, finally 
by his revelations about the Elder Wand.

Pippin:
OTOH, some images which are powerful on paper might come across differently on
film. Sunrises imagined or in real life are amazing -- pictures of sunrises tend
to be trite.

Geoff:
The great point about the sunrise is that like sunrises or sunsets which I 
sometimes see when I am out with my dog is that they seem to happen 
almost instantly. Harry throws his last challenge at Voldemort: "Does the 
wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does
 
I am the true master of the Elder Wand." Probably with overweening arrogance 
leading him to disregard these last words, it is this sudden blaze of light which 
jogs Voldemort into rashly throwing his spell which brings about his downfall. 
It would have been a great scene, worthy of Greek tragedy.

The theory to which I referred is one I have been mulling over about the role 
of the Elder Wand in the last two duels; I have almost started to write a post 
but have hung fire for the moment. But one thought I would throw out for 
readers to consider, agree, disagree, fillet and general mangle is this: I believe 
that, even if Harry had not countered the AK with his Expelliarmus, Voldemort 
would still have not succeeded because since I think the Elder Wand is sentient, 
it would have refused to cast such a spell against its master. Possibly Harry's 
famous protective love would have also come into play and some sort of rebound 
or backfire would have still removed Voldemort.

Over to you!