Warning:
Major Harry Potter spoilers ahead.
I’m a book person. And like most
book people, I tend to prefer the book to the movie. Despite this, I try to
give movie adaptations the benefit of the doubt. Or, more accurately, I expect
to like the movie less, and I just accept that. It doesn’t matter if the actors
don’t look the way I imagined the characters. It doesn’t matter if they left
out my favorite little side scene. Sure, I really wanted to see sparklers
spelling out “POO” in the fifth Harry Potter film, and I was thrilled when the
extended Lord of the Rings had my favorite scene with Eowyn and Faramir. But in
the grand scheme of things, these events don’t really affect the meaning of the
story.**
However, there are times when
Hollywood really messes up. When they completely fail (in my not so humble
opinion, of course) in ways so epic that I just want to kick them in the
shins.* These are the times that try women’s souls. And these are the times
that require a rant. So, let the ranting begin . . . with Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows!
Okay, I know the producers had a
major challenge: shoving a bazillion pages into two movies. But. BUT. What is
the core conflict of this book? Sure, the obvious one is Harry versus
Voldemort. But I don’t think that’s it. I think the core conflict is hallows
versus horcruxes—power versus responsibility and sacrifice. It’s Harry versus
the natural man’s lust for control. The book portrays Harry struggling with
which things he should chase. This is a real challenge for him. It seems so
logical that the battle should be about who has the most power and control—thus
he should seek out the hallows. But in reality, the battle is about self-control—making the hard decisions
even when you don’t like it. It’s about being the kind of person who can find
and destroy the horcruxes.
This entire struggle is completely lost
in the movie. Heck, it isn’t even clear from just the movie that Harry had
actually owned the invisibility cloak
(not just an invisibility cloak). The
only inkling we get of the struggle to decide between horcruxes and hallows is
in the very end when Harry contemplates the Elder Wand for about three seconds
before breaking it and chucking it off a cliff.
Maybe I’m getting a little
overheated about this, but I think there is a powerful message to the horcrux/hallows
struggle that really gets lost in translation. It’s about how we beat the evil
in the world. Is it by gathering more power so that we can crush the evil?***
Or is it by choosing difficult, yet quieter, roads (and yes, I recognize that
destroying the horcruxes was in no way “quiet”; I’m talking metaphorically
here)? Destroying the horcruxes was a task that almost wouldn’t get you noticed
(think of RAB, who stole one, though nobody knew he’d done this huge thing).
Gathering the hallows would make you impossible to ignore. And yet, in the end,
when you possess the hallows, they destroy you, no matter how enticing they are
at first. This is about real life, people, and it’s a nuance totally lost in
the movie adaptation.
Sigh. Hollywood should really
consult me before doing such foolish things.*** (By the way, despite my
frustration over this particular aspect of the movie—which is, do not forget,
still a major mistake—I did enjoy the
movie overall. So don’t start sending me hate mail.)
Stay tuned next fortnight when I
rant about the movie adaptation of the Broadway play Into the Woods! There will be fun, there will be laughter, there
will be witty rhyming lyrics and shirtless princes!****
*
Yes, I realize that’s a pretty pathetic response, but I’m sort of a pacifist,
so that’s pretty high conflict for me.
** I would argue that my other favorite LofR scene, the scouring of the Shire, does in fact affect the story’s meaning, but that’s another subject entirely.
** I would argue that my other favorite LofR scene, the scouring of the Shire, does in fact affect the story’s meaning, but that’s another subject entirely.
*** I can’t help but
think there’s a lesson in here for the upcoming elections, but I’m not going to
try to suggest to you what it might be.
**** Don’t worry, I
will not be so foolish as to complain about the shirtless princes.
I only read the first few paragraphs and I skipped the rest because I'm just reading the HP series for the first time this summer- but I've seen all the movies.
ReplyDeleteI just finished #3, so once I'm done with the rest I'll come back and read this. :-)
Hallows vs. Horcruxes: maybe not "quieter", but one was more personally enriching (ie, I get power and then I use it for good) and one was much more "in the trenches" and selfless (I find an destroy horcruxes, which may destroy me and no one will know what I did; I get left with less power in the end). Which is back to our struggle in real life. Do we just seek to do good, and accept what comes with it, good or bad? Or do we seek for power, and assume that once we get it, we'll do good with it?
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