Today I gave a presentation on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone<\/I>. I present it to you below, with the ad-libs (for which many will hate me) presented in bold. The ensuing discussion actually led to something pretty interesting that I might be inspired to write later, about adaptation.<\/p>\n
Discuss: The Magic of Film Undoes the Magic of Reading; or The Magic of Film Outdoes the Magic of Reading.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If you’ve ever watched Futurama<\/i>, you might know that there’s an episode that ends with the narrator claiming “You just watched it! You can’t un<\/i>watch it!” I didn’t immediately think of this when I read the question, because the “magic of film” is a bit of a weasel proposition. It’s not a strict “versus” question; it seems to be one of ruination. Do we have to go to such extremes? After all, only a Sith deals in absolutes.<\/b><\/p>\n
Does Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone<\/i>, as a movie, bring ruination upon Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone<\/i> as a book? Well, no, not really. However, there is a degree of cross-pollination inherent \u00e2\u20ac\u201c while you can’t unwatch or unread something, you can have your memory of them overwritten. For some, the greatest and most terrible aspect of seeing a beloved book turned into a film is the seeing<\/i> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c your bushy haired Hermione replaced by the equally bushy haired Emma Watson; Hogwarts, that most reverend of castles, replaced by \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 a castle.<\/p>\n
This is the sort of question that you can’t really argue with any real degree of objectivity, so I’ll tell you my own personal Potter story. I read the books a short while after Prisoner of Azkaban<\/i> came out. When Philosopher’s Stone<\/i> was released on the screens, I went and saw it, and I loved it. I loved how it constructed Snape as a villain, and I believed<\/i> this construction. So I reread the books from the top. Then I watched the movie again, and I thought “what the hell is this crap?” <\/p>\n
For me, the problem of the Philosopher’s Stone<\/i> movie is not the visualisation, because most people would probably agree that the film’s physical realisation of its characters and places is spot on; I’m not as harsh a judge as my sixteen year old self, but I distinctly think that the movie lacks magic. (Please keep in mind that I’m sticking to the first text here).<\/p>\n
I firmly believe that it is the structure of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone<\/i> is what endows it with magic. While it’s a short book, it’s filled with details that are steamrolled out of the way of the filmic adaptation for the monster known as plot<\/i>. This book is, after its quite awkward reading Harry and the Dursleys chapters \u00e2\u20ac\u201c written completely unlike anything else in any of the books \u00e2\u20ac\u201c structured around a school year. Through her description of little things, Rowling builds a world more effectively than Christopher Columbus’ camera ever does. A fine example of this is when Winter hits Hogwarts: Fred and George Weasley get in trouble for bewitching snowballs to bounce off the back of Quirrell’s turban. In fact, one could say that the Weasley twins embody the very spirit of Hogwarts, revealing new and fun things about all of the magic that is happening at Hogwarts. You can compare this to their participation in the film in only a few scenes, with only a couple of lines of dialogue afforded to each of them \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the cinematic Hogwarts has presence, but it lacks character beyond the Escher-like rotating staircases.<\/p>\n
While Harry Potter<\/i> is all about Action! Exposition! Drama! it’s also got a definite streak of humour and whimsy as one of the central ingredients. Hence, in the books, we are given the benefit of silly little asides, and information on the content of classes \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 totally separate to the plot, because Rowling is world building and conveniently indicating the passage of time as well. The movie has to swoop from one piece of exposition to the next, and its abridged nature means that key lines in the overall Potterverse (Hagrid’s “He didn’t have enough human in him to die” principal amongst them) are demolished. In fact, for a narrative so simple, a lot of the concatenation doesn’t make any sense at all. The Norbert subplot, which in the book is a way of marking time because you can’t have something exciting and conspiratorial happening every day<\/I>, but you can’t exactly skip ahead by months, is reduced to a special effects plot. Illegality of dragons? Gone. 150 points taken from Gryffindor from being out of bed late at night \u00e2\u20ac\u201c when the children have a freaking invisibility cloak<\/I> at their disposal? Nonsense!
\nThe one saving grace of these changes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which also serve to make Malfoy snivelly and lame rather than a conniving little twerp \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is the relationship established between Filch and Hagrid.<\/p>\n
So, obviously, cinema is a visual medium. And we have to make sacrifices for this. The deliciously condescending Richard Harris doesn’t get to serve precisely so much of Dumbledore’s “walk on exposition” role, because Harry gets to see Quirrell crumbling before his eyes and \u00e2\u20ac\u201c perhaps the film’s biggest disappointment \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the manifestation of Voldemort. We’re talking about this movie, so we’re not considering Ralph Fienne’s star turn \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we’re talking about Ian Hart’s face. This is lame stuff, people. There may be some Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/i> level things going on, but here we’ve got what, in retrospect for even the film makers, was a poor choice. The revelation of Voldemort as just a face \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a human face, no red eyes, just talk of power \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 he loses any majesty or terror that he may have instilled beyond the novelty value of being on the back of someone’s head.<\/p>\n
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone<\/i> is eminently readable. As a film, it’s somehow slavishly devoted to its source material while deviating too much and omitting too much \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we don’t even know that James saved Snape’s life! \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to be a truly satisfactory piece of work. We spoke last week of the mundane, and that’s what this movie largely is. We’re given no spirit of wonder, and no sense of place. Sets are not the same as prose, and special effects are no substitute for giving Neville a genuine sense of heroism.<\/p>\n
Christopher Columbus’ foul hand weaved an horrid curse on the Harry Potter<\/I> franchise but, I’m happy to say, it’s picked up since his departure. Oh God, I can’t believe I actually wrote that for my conclusion. Sorry about that, everyone.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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