I’ve just come back from taking Ariel to a midnight showing of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” and it was the single most surreal movie experience of my life. Explaining why will require blowing a major plot point, although it’s nothing that wasn’t included in the book. So if you read the book, read on without fear of spoilers. If you haven’t, then proceed at your own risk.
The local theater was running two late night shows: One at 12:05, the other at 12:10. We opted for the 12:05 because, y’know, why not?
So…
The climax of the film hinges on a sequence where Harry and Hermoine have used a time traveling device to catapult themselves back in time. They sprint from one end of Hogwarts to the other in order to, among other things, save an innocent Hippogryff named “Buckbeak” from dying at the blade of an executioner’s axe. In doing so, they wind up witnessing certain events all over again.
So the film has reached the point where Harry and Hermoine have managed to coax Buckbeak to safety. The annoyed Executioner, deprived of his target, decides to take out his frustration on a pumpkin in a patch outside Hagrid’s cabin. The angle of the picture is worm’s eye, aimed up at the Executioner, who is facing the camera. He swings the axe back over his head, brings it slamming down right toward “us”…
And the INSTANT the axe blade completes its arc, the film breaks. As if the Executioner, like a demented film editor, had sliced the celluloid clean apart.
The timing of it was so precise that it took a couple of seconds to register on the audience that it wasn’t some sort of inspired filmic breaking of the fourth wall. Then came an outraged roar and moan as the remains of the film proceeded to burn in the projector.
Ariel looked to me in frustration, and I said aloud, “Well, y’know, the film’s playing in another theater, five minutes behind. If we hurry…”
At which point I realized I was speaking to an empty chair. Ariel was already sprinting out the back of the auditorium. Either having heard my words, or having realized the same thing, the theater started emptying out. I immediately grabbed my jacket and headed out after Ariel.
In the hallway, I saw stunned theater workers gaping at the sight of a hoard of patrons dashing from one end of the movie house to the other (since, of course, they had to be playing at opposite ends of the place.) I got to the theater and found Ariel, comfortably nestled in the exact same seats we’d had in the previous theater. And sure enough, the movie was five minutes behind where we’d been.
So as Harry and Hermoine on the screen watched a familiar scene over again, we sat there and watched a familiar scene over again. I mean, I’ve witnessed live action movie participation before, but not even “Rocky Horror” involves running from one screening room to another and watching entire scenes over again.
The film itself? Easily the best cinematic representation of “Harry Potter,” although the new Dumbledore lacks the gravitas of Richard Harris and the explanation of who made the Marauder Map was oddly missing (I guess they figure everyone who’s seen the movie has read the book.)
And if you haven’t seen “A Little Princess” by the same director, you’re missing one of the best family films of the 1990s.
PAD
• 
X-Men:
We’re in the theatre not five minutes into the WWII stuff, and the sound starts to come and go, and finally, bout just after the Jean Grey/Senator Kelly scene, they stopped the movie adn we had to come back to a later showing.
I can’t rememebr which Friday The 13Th it was, but at the beginning of the movie, they did a retrospective type thing where they talk about the previous films.
I went to the dollar theatre during a summer rainstorm. I was the ONLY person in the theatre at this showing and I’m 13 years old.
During the line:”No one has seen Jason Voorhess and lived.” A body comes crashing out of the window. KRAKOW! Thunder goes off and I am surrounded by darkness.
I am GLUED to my seat because of fear and then I hear the door creak open and my only recourse was to say,”YOU BETTER BE AN USHER OR YOU’RE DEAD!”
Needless to say, the usher fell down laughing his butt off. I also got a free pass,popcorn and a refund just for making the manager laugh too.
Not a film break story but we found this kind of amusing. My wife and I were an early “internet relationship”. We met online playing GemStone III. We were married exactly one year after we met. A couple of weeks after the wedding, I’m still in Edmonton & she’s in Las Vegas, I get e-mail from a producer of The Shirley Show, a talk show based in Toronto. They wanted us to be the sucess couple on a show about the new online relationship phenomenom. They flew us to Toronto, put us up in a hotel, all the bells and whistles. After the show aired we heard that a clip of us had appeared on Talk Soup. This is back when Greg Kinnear was hosting. We never did see the clip but we heard from a lot of people who did. Flash forward five years. We’re sitting in the theater watching You’ve Got Mail. It’s about Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan meeting via the Internet. The co-star is Greg Kinnear. About halfway through the show, my wife an I turn to each other and say “This is weird.” We’re watching a guy how talked about us meeting online in a movie about people meeting online. We still smile when we think of that moment.
About ten years ago, Channel 21/27 out of Lynchburg, Virginia showed Star Trek reruns every night at ten o’clock instead of a local news program. Their showings were, to put it mildly, peculiar. It wasn’t uncommon for commercial breaks to be spliced into the middle of a scene. (I remember one in “The Conscience of the King” where Kirk reveals that Anton Keridian is actually Kodos the Executioner to the man’s daughter, and instead of carrying on with the scene, we get a commercial, and come back to her stunned reaction shot.)
One night, the episode started. “City on the Edge of Forever.” Teaser, first two acts.
Then, an extra long commercial break.
When we returned to Star Trek, Kirk and his crew were stranded on a lifeless planet menaced by a beautiful woman, and Spock and the Enterprise were hundreds of light-years distant! Yes, instead of 1930s New York, we were finished up the hour with “That Which Survives”!
I don’t think I have had any moviehouse horror stories, unless of course, you count the zombies you could loosely call a “crowd” when seeing ID4. Only Person laughing was either me or a member of my family. No cheering, no gasps, no nothing.
At Daredevil (last year) at the $1 theater here in Salt Lake City, the sound was out for all the trailers, because this was April and some of the films previewed had come out between the Film’s release in Feb. and the Cheap Release the last week in March. I was wondering if there was going to be no sound for the whole movie, but they ultimately got it right. Still in a movie where sound is an important plot point I find it intersting that the trailers didn’t have any.
I was watching the remake of the Fly. A friend and I snuck in, because we were underage. ((well, we payed for another movie))
The scene where he steps out of the second telepod. We saw smoke billowing out, a leg and then..
The power in the Mall went out. That was freaky.
We did get passes to go back the next day….
PAD and company were probably fortunate that the two showings of the movie were at opposite ends of the multiplex. I say this because in some complexes a movie is shown on two screens with a single print, which is threaded to goes from the projector for the first theater to the projector for the second, where the audience sees the film on a slight delay. Had this been the case, the 12:10 showing would presumably have broken down five minutes after the 12:05 showing (just as Peter and Ariel were settling in to watch it, I imagine).
Interesting. All the movies I’ve gone to and I only remember one film breaking – “Speed.” During the beginning credits.
Daredevil, broke right before the final fight scene between Daredevil and the Kingpin. The sound was still playing so at first we weren’t sure if it was suppposed to be on purpose like we were supposed to be blind. It wasn’t. We got vouchers.
Just got out of “Harry Potter;” dug the heck out of the third flick.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the second “Matrix” movie. Saw it with a group of friends, all of whom left wanting their money back. A few us stayed through the credits to see the trailer for the third movie.
Instead of the audio for the trailer, the in-house music comes up with some “love” song by a country act. The trailer played in its entirety, eerily synched to the action. As Agent Smith and Neo rush towards each other in the rain, the crescendo builds… ending in what looks like a mid-air embrace. The theater roared.
Easily better than either movie…
Okay – here’s my favorite film tech flub story.
I was at the premiere (yes the world premiere in NYC) of Time Bandits. All the actors were there – Michael Palin, Shelley Duvall, etc, the director, Terry Gilliam.
Obviously a film with lots of great special effects and many bizarre time distortions.
So no one has EVER seen the film before (including the cast and much of the media). And at a reel change suddenly we are watching a segment of the film in which everything is upside down and backwards.
And the audience sat watching for, perhaps, a good five minutes before people realized that this was not part of the film… it was a projectionist mistake – which, because the film was playing off a platter system (new back then) could not be corrected quickly. Two or three hours until the film could be re-looped and reshown. Obviously everyone had to leave, the film unwatched.
Oy.
(We all got free tix to a future showing, BTW)
Not sure if this counts, but…
I was a big fan of Back to the Future and went to see Part II as soon as it came out.
However, my brother was not as keen and waited until the video came out. Moreover, he waited until *I* rented the video and then watched it after I was done.
During the alternative-1985 scene, when Marty is accosted my Biff’s cohorts, they hit him on the head and say something like “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” then they crack him on the head, the screen goes dark and you hear a voice that slows down as it speaks say “the easy way….”
When I saw this in the cinema, I thought nothing of it, but my brother assumed something had gone wrong with the tape at this point, so he hit rewind, watched the scene again and saw the exact same thing happen.
Needless to say, I found this quite amusing!
I took my “Army of Darkness” to see the movie, last night. Five neices, three nephews and $200 later, and all I can think is that as good as it was, it should have been longer. So? Who wants to start a campaign to get WB to do a “Kill Bill” volume one and two for “Goblet of Fire”?
I can remember wayy back when seeing Jaws 3D …
the theater owner who was also a slum lord collected the cardboard 3D glasses at the end of the film to use them for the next showing..not only is it cheap but it wasn’t too healthy to hand out those used things…..
I can remember a very teed off theater manager who wanted to go home at the 9PM showing of “Mars Attacks”…I remember I was the only person who was there to see it…it was the last day of it’s showing and I needed those laughs to get me through the evening…my grandfather was very sick in the hospital and I was very much in need of some humor…..
When I was a little girl in Cuba, we had the oldest possible movie theater imaginable. It had the original Deco columns and ancient velvet chairs. The reel machine was really old,and when it would screw up, the people would scream the name of a guy. I didn’t know who the guy was, so I asked my dad. Mathias was the old guy who changed the reels. He liked drinking a whole lot, so he fell asleep on the job, and forgot to change the reels. The funny thing was that, even though Mathias died when my dad was a child, people would scream his name in theaters all throughout the country when I was a child. His name became symbolic with broken reels. Aw, little towns.
Also, I agree with you about the Marauder’s Map. That needed more explanation. :o)
So the showing of X2 that I saw at one of the Ottawa theatres wasn’t the only one where the sound kept cutting in and out during the final battle at Alkali Lake. I’d wondered about that for a while there. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Given the tension level at that point, it was almost a relief to have reality kick in like that.
I just about wrote myself an in-plot explanation for the sound issues. 😀
Yours,
Dwight
I saw the movie last night, and was very happy with it. I adore Cuaron’s “A Little Princess”, one of my all-time favorite page-to-screen adaptations, and just from what I’d seen in the trailer, I was sure this would be terrific.
I think I read in Entertainment Weekly that Cuaron & Co. chose to save the reveal of the Marauder’s Map for the next movie. Which, I suppose will make sense since Mad-Eye-Moody is one of the map-makers, but it’s a little odd, considering the massive amounts of exposition & plot in the 4th book, it hardly needs any extra. (It also said that Cuaron convinced Warner Bros that they should keep Goblet of Fire as a single movie, not a two-parter)
The one bit I was sad not to see was Snape’s backstory, about his schoolboy rivalry with James Potter, explaining his undying hatred for Harry. I’d just like to see Alan Rickman get a chance to do a bit more with Snapes than the menacing lurk. Ah well, maybe in Goblet of Fire.
Sorry, Mara, but Mad-Eye Moody is not one of the mapmakers. The marauders’ map was made by Moony (Remus Lupin), Wormtail (Peter Pettigrew), Padfoot (Sirius Black) and Prongs (James Potter), when they were students at Hogwarts. Moody had nothing to do with it.
Saw the movie for the second time last night (this time in IMAX), and I liked it better the second time around. The first time just fealt rushed to me.
Not to nitpick, but I really didn’t like the werewolf. Lupin looked more like were-rat to me. Oh well, different strokes….
I used to work as a projectionist in a theatre with four screens: two were platter systems, the other two were still reel to reel (each projector held two reels, with most films being four). The reel systems had to be synced to startup and change at the right times. There was a pegboard automation system to “program” the projection changes.
“The Living Daylights” had opened the Friday of my first week. I accidentally started the SECOND projector instead of the first. Since it started in the middle of an action sequence (car chase on ice?) it was about 20 min before anyone noticed…
Hermoine?
sigh…
Hang your head, PAD!
It wasn’t that great, really. I mean, when you get Harry facing the Boggart, only to get a scene where Harry talks to Lupin about why wasn’t he allowed to face the Boggart, and Lupin doesn’t know that Harry was thinking of the Dementors (taken straight out the book, only it actually fits there), you know something’s gone wrong, at least in the editing. (Similarly, despite Harry seeing the stag-patronas from across the lake, there’s no sign that it’s a stag when he actually casts the spell in the timeloop).
Plus the bit about Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs needed to be in there.
> I think I read in Entertainment Weekly that Cuaron & Co. chose to save the reveal of the Marauder’s Map for the next movie. Which, I suppose will make sense since Mad-Eye-Moody is one of the map-makers, but it’s a little odd, considering the massive amounts of exposition & plot in the 4th book, it hardly needs any extra.
Umm… Mooney (i.e. Lupin, who’s not in the fourth book), not Moody.
Urp – thanks for the correction, guys. My best friend & I were sharing a senile moment last night, walking back to the train afterwards neither of us could remember all 4 names of the mapmakers and who they corresponded with. Mooney was the name we both blanked on, so I was thinking that Padfoot was Lupin, and then Moody popped into my brain and seemed to fit. The rest of my faulty memory aside, I’m sure I read that bit about the map-revelation being saved for the next movie.
Ah well. My best friend had confused Lupin & Moody while before going to the movie, and was disappointed that they didn’t give him a crazy eye. Heh. That was the only thing she hadn’t liked about Thewlis, so once I corrected her, she was perfectly happy with him.
And though it has made me look foolish here, I’m glad I had such vague memories of the book while watching the movie, as it made the ending more exciting.
For what it’s worth, I saw the movie but have not read the book, and thought it was fine. The identity of the mapmakers was not something I thought was in the least bit relevant while watching it — I didn’t find out its significance until it was explained to me afterward, but it wasn’t something that I felt was a lack in the movie while watching it.
—KRAD
I remember going to a theater in Manhattan in early 1992 to see a double feature of an advance screening of “Memoirs of an Invisible Man” and “Naked Lunch.” “Memoirs” played through, then about 20 minutes into “Naked Lunch,” the film shut down, and an announcement was made that there had been a bomb threat, and that the theater was being evacuated. However, we were told that we could pick up tickets for another showing on our way out (which seems strange if one is trying to quickly empty a theater, but if I recall, they simply handed passes to everyone as they left the building). On the way back to her apartment, I asked my then-girlfriend if she wanted to go back the next week to see the rest of the movie. She replied, “I was actually thinking of walking out anyway, so this worked out well.” So, in short, we saw the film we went to see initially, avoided sitting through something we both found incomprehensible, and got a pass to return at our convenience to see something else we wanted to later on. Good deal!
Yep, the second time is even better. One get the opportunity to catch more details and differences from the second movie, like the janitor’s cat (sorry, don’t know its name in english) whose eyes are no longer red, the landscape and so one…
I remember seeing the original release of “The Exorcist when I was 14 or 15. I believe it was up to where Regan (sp?) was up to yelling and screaming and stuff was flying and suddenly the frame froze on her face with the purple-white eyes…… and then it began to melt!!! Then it broke and there was this huge *BLAT!* of sound and the white light blinded everyone! I ducked down and people were screaming and carrying on, it was something! They actually had to bring in another copy and set it up like 15 minutes or so later.
Re: the Mathias story told above. Movies at MIT are run by the student group Lecture Series Committee (which use the proceeds to bring in lecturers, such as, say, PAD, Harlan, and Neil, the Three High Verbals :-)). The group’s commonly known by their initials, LSC.
Now, as you’d expect at MIT, they’re a pretty competent group, and the projection and sound system quality in the lecture hall where they show movies is usually first-rate. But, sometimes something will go wrong. At which point, someone in the audience will yell out “LSC…” and the entire audience will respond with “SUCKS!”.
I’ve personally not witnessed it, but I’ve heard second hand that you can yell “LSC” out in various Silicon Valley theaters, at least for the expected movies, and get a fair percentage of the audience responding with “SUCKS!”.
I do believe the following, which while second hand, I was told by a whole bunch of different people who were there within a few hours of it happening. Back in ’83, Return of the Jedi opened. Most of LSC went to the first big Boston theatre showing. Of course, there was a line, so the theater was packed a half hour or more before the movie would actually start. So, to pass the time, someone yelled out “LSC…” and a sizable majority of the audience responded “SUCKS!”.
While watching the second Charlie’s Angels movie at a local discount theatre several months ago, I quickly became aware that the story didn’t make any sense. My wife observed that the characters seemed to be showing up in different outifts in the middle of a scene. I realized what was happening and went to tell the management that the film’s reels were being shown out of order. Many apologies and tickets to future shows made me happy enough but…
my wife and I seemed to be the only people who noticed the problem.
“my wife and I seemed to be the only people who noticed the problem.”
Which tells us something about either the movie, or the audience… 🙂
“(Similarly, despite Harry seeing the stag-patronas from across the lake, there’s no sign that it’s a stag when he actually casts the spell in the timeloop).”
I don’t know about the whole Dementor/Boggart thing, but this one actually makes sense. We remained consistently within Harry’s POV, and it’s clear that from Harry’s side of the Patronus spell, all he sees is a shield of light. That’s where the camera remains at all times, over his shoulder. The only reason the stag is ever visible is that Harry sees the spell being cast from the other side of the lake. You have to look at it straight on, but since the camera is always sharing Harry’s POV for that sequence, the stag isn’t visible except when staring at his time-displaced self (whom he mistook to be his dad.)
PAD
During a little shore time at the Admin Support Unit in Bahrain, the movie theater was showing “While You Were Sleeping.” About 20 minutes into the move there was a loud crash from the projection booth and the screen went white. Turns out the reel fell off the projector. They had to rewind the reel and start the movie from the beginning. Somehow it seemed twice as long the second time around.
When seeing Highlander 3, the film broke midway,
My friend and I turned to each other and questioned if we should just leave, as this was like the first showing on the first day….
We decided to stay, as it couldn’t get any worse…
It did…
We then realized one of two things had happened. Either the projector just couldn’t stand the movie being run through it’s sprockets so it ripped the film apart, or, the film itself, despairing at the thought of a life spent as a print of Highlander 3, tried to commit suicide!
Peter David: Easily the best cinematic representation of “Harry Potter…
Luigi Novi: No way. The first two, despite the criticisms that it was “too slavish” in its adaptation of the source material, far captured the books than this one did. The longer the books get, the more you have to compress into a two and and a half hour film, and because of this, the entire first Act of the film totally lacked any subtlety or patience. The entire thing felt rushed, and much of the rest of the film felt that way too. The lack of explanation of who made the Marauders Map, the neglect in mentioning who “Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs” were, the lack of any pacing during the Marge incident, etc.
I was really disappointed by this one, and since Goblet of Fire is even longer, I wonder if Mike Newell, who just starting filming it, will be forced to rush that story even more. Given that Goblet is the best installment in the series, IMO, I’m dreading how it might be mutilated.
Kid’s movie or now, I’d much rather invest a good three or three and a half hours in the theater if the depth and detail were retained.
I also missed Richard Harris, and felt Michael Gambon a poor substitute. Harris enunciated his words with a aged feel in his voice. Gambon talks like just about anyone, his beard looked gray rather than white, and I didn’t understand the tie in the lower half.
“the lack of any pacing during the Marge incident, etc.”
I thought that bit was fine. Did you REALLY want to have to put up with Marge any longer than neccersery.
Shame we lost all the stuff with Oliver Wood (his last Quidditch season as a pupil and see Gryffindor win the Quidditch Cup) and Draco and his cronies dressed up as Dementors.
I wonder if there’s a longer cut out there somewhere. How much of the book was filmed before being paired down to 2 and a half hours?
I agree with an earlier post, Goblet of Fire needs the Kill Bill treatment (though with the scenes hopefully in order)
I think drawing Marge’s insults toward Harry out a bit more, as well as Harry’s SLOWLY stewing anger, would’ve been better. That’s just me. 🙂
I’ve been to several movies where the film has broken, and the theatre has apologized and offered free passes.
I do, however, remember one occasion when the movie broke down in the last 10 mintues. Being a polite Canadian crowd, we sat patiently, assuming they were fixing the problem. About ten minutes later a staff member from the theatre comes in, demanding to know what we are all doing there, telling us the movie was over and we should go home.
So someone explains, no, the movie isn’t over, it cut, and we’d like to see the last 10 mintues.
But the staff person is sreaming insistantly that the movie ended, and we should get out. And we’re trying to explain, “It was mid-sentence, there was no conclusion, there were no credits!”
Eventually, after much frustration, we were grudgingly given free passes, the theatre still insisting we had seen the whole movie. And I’ve never been back to that theatre again.
As far as things omitted from the HP&PoA movie go, yeah, I missed the explanation of who made the Mauraduer’s Map, but the moment from the book that I really missed was how godfather Sirius signed a permissions form for Harry so he could join his friends on Hogmeade trips.
Sure, the movie’s ending with the gift of a new broom was nice (and more visual; always good for a movie) but I always liked how getting that form represented a brief respite from Harry’s fundamental loneliness.
That said, I can see how these scenes might work well for a future movie. Telling Harry the story about the Maurader’s Map might be a good way to introduce Lupin in the next movie. Having him sign off on the out-of-town permission might be a good way to introduce Sirius. So maybe it’ll all work out for the best.
Regardless, HP&PoA was an enjoyable night at the movies for me. Just as the time I spent reading the original novel was loads of fun, too.
Haven’t seen any of the Harry Potter films, or read the books, but I’m reminded of a recent bit of unbelievable timing I experienced. Two weeks ago, a friend and I went to see “Life of Brian”, but the theatre had some sort of technical problem, and the film wasn’t being shown that day. So we decided to go to the nearby McDonald’s and catch up over dinner.
As we walked past the drive-thru from the parking lot, I was reminded of the “Man From Atlantis” episode where Mark Harris, recently arrived in the surface world, walks up to a drive-thru order sign. The voice over the speaker asks what he wants to order, and Mark, naturally, has no clue what’s happening. I pointed out that even as a kid watching that episode, I wondered why the McWaiter (to paraphrase the Joker) didn’t seem to think it odd that someone had _walked_ up to the order sign. Didn’t they see that on their closed-circuit camera?
Anyway, we ate, talked and left, continuing our conversation at our cars. Then we glanced over and saw a woman standing at the drive-thru order sign.
In her case, she was a limo driver who couldn’t get her car through the narrow, winding drive through lane. She ended up walking up to the pay window and ordering from there. Why she didn’t just go inside and get her food to go, I have no idea, but it was an amusing coincidence to see someone walk up to a fast food drive-thru sign only a few hours after I’d commented about a fictional character doing the same.
I’m sure Rod Serling was in the neighborhood somewhere.
Rick
I had a similar experience with The Matrix.
S
P
O
I
L
e
r
s…
Having already revealed that the regular world is a lie, Keanu is aboard the ship which has powered down hiding from the machine. At a tense moment the film suddenly breaks.
My instant thought: That was creative, I didn’t see the “2nd reality is fake, too” plot device coming. Hey, howcome it’s taking so long to get to the 3rd reality?
I have a theory which I invite people to shoot down…but first
SPOILER ALERT !!!
OK – having dispensed with that…
I had a nagging problem with ” Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ” as I was reading it – and when I got to the end of the book it was a big, stonking, really quite annoyed response.
And it was the marginalisation of Ron Weasley.
Now – way back in the fisrt book it was made manifest by that magig mirror than Ron’s gerat desire was to do better than his older brothers. This was understandable and presented with great sensitivity by JK – it wasn’t that Ron resented his brothers in any particular way he just wanted to achieve an identity of his own, something other than ” the youngest of the Weasley boys”
When I read Goblet of Fire I understood Ron’s frustrations with Harry such that they cooled towards one another – everyone is the hero in their own head, but poor Ron was finding himself in the position of ” sidekick” and didn’t like it. Again, I thought that was a very sensitive handling of the feelings of a 15 year old boy finding himself eclipsed by his flashier pal who is achieving the recognition that he hoped to achieve himself.
So when Ron got made a prefect I thought – great, about time, well done Ron, now your going somewhere, nows your chance. That Harry was a bit resentful for it made it all the sweeter – not that I have anything against Harry but it was nice to see his reactions at not being made a prefect himself, since he had expected to.
Good for the Weasley lad, I thought – and when the final scenes with Dumbledore took place in ” Order of The Phoenix ” I expected some reason to be advanced by the great Professor that would make sense, and advance Ron as a character – something he was manifestly in need of. I expected there to be some positive reason for his choice of Ron – that Ron works at being a wizard whilst Harry breezes along ( which would also have been in keeping with the hints we are given as to James Potter’s character ), or that Ron has leadership abilities that Harry lacks ( in the same way that whilst, say , Patton or Monty were better fighters Ike was a better coalition general ) or some such.
And JK Rowling bottled it.
Dumbledore said something along the lines of, well, Harry, you would have been prefect by natural selection, but I thought it would be too much pressure on you given that you also had to fight off Voldemort’s attack, so I went for Ron to relieve you of worry.
And as I read it I thought – gee, what a swizz. What a gip, what a rotten thing to do to Ron.
It seemed phony in some way – as if Rowling felt that the alternative approach would suggest Harry wasn’t so perfect, that Ron was better at him in some things – and that would never do.
So, on Ron’s behalf ( and because he is my favourite character ) I felt a bit aggrieved.
Then I went to the new movie.
And where were Ron’s scenes ? Where were his LINES ? A few mutters about Hermione’s cat and that’s about it. All the subtext of their love/hate relationship was expunged near totally.
But then I noticed something else that has nagged at me ever since. I’m sorry, I hate to say this, I don’t WANT to suggest this but – I don’t think Rupert Grint can act.
He was fine in the first film, when he was acting with the other kids, but whilst Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe are maturing into fine young actors, with some very sensitive playing by the latter in his scenes with David Thewliss in particular, Rupert Grint reamins stuck in the one slot – gawky, constantly near-hysterical buffoon. Look at the scene where Hermione suggest they go up to the spooky mansion but Ron misreads her suggestion as a come-on. In the book, its nice and touching and probably the first manifestation of his secret, um, feelings for her. In the film, Rupert Grint plays it on one level – surprise, nerves and too stupid to realise what she’s talking about at any level.
Not Ron at all.
Which brings me to my theory – I think JK Rowling realised this. Indeed, I think that Ron is the one character who has been adversely affected by being put on screen. Rowling has substituted the filmic Ron for the Ron of the first four books beacuse, at some level, she realises that the flimic Ron is just close enough to book Ron to eclipse the latter in peoples’ – particularly kids – minds. From now on Ron = Rupert Grint.
I don’t blame Rupert – I do blame JK Rowling to some extent, but who can blame her. No-one would ever accept that Grint/Ron can do ANYTHING better than Harry – the films, particularly Chamber of Secrets, have gone out of their way to establish his inability at anything ( that’s your sister in there Ron – but you’re going to stay out here and look after treacherous Professor Lockwood are you ? Let Harry do it, eh ? Yes – its a big load of rocks, but if my sister were in there I’d be trying to dig through with my fingernails ) Ron is now a cut-price Inspector Clouseau.
Poor sod – he deserves better.
In fact, I think that bbok Ron is actually in there. There’s a kid at the back of Harry – no, not Neville, another kid – wee chap with close cropped hair. He’s the lad that asks Harry for the next ride on the broomstick at the end of the film – thereby getting the last word.
HE’S Ron !!!
Oh, he’s had to lose the hair, and give himself a false name and stuff. But there he is – Ron of the book, keeping an eye on his mate, taking delight in his victories – watching his pals back.
More power to him!
That’s what Dumbledore told Harry about why he made Ron a prefect, but I’m sure balancing the scales to protect Harry from Prefect Malfoy played a major part in it all too. Especially since the way Rowling has written Ron’s character, while he’s a great guy and tries hard, I imagine him as the c-student who tries his best. Now Hermione I can easily see getting prefect status on her grades and abilities.
And frankly, Harry was just so frustrated at everything that was happening to and around him by OotP that he was lashing out at everyone, can you really blame him? Everyone had told him how special he is for surviving Lord Voldemort’s slaying of his parents, and everyone (well, almost everyone) holds him to such a high standard because of it, yet he’s stuck with the Dursleys in the off-season, and he only finds out at the end of book 5 why he’s stuck with them?
C’mon, growing up with that kind of abuse, I wouldn’t blame him if he joined Voldemort. Ron and Hermione help keep Harry grounded too.
Ron’s better at chess…
Plus, Ron had one thing Harry never had growing up, a loving family. Ron, being the youngest boy, was always picked on by his older brothers, he was always mistaking the fact that they were older and had more practice and training for a deficiency on his part, where none existed. He just needs time to come into his own. As far letting Harry go ahead, Ron had a broken wand, and low self-confidence. He’s confident in Harry, not in himself, so he let Harry go ahead out of fear that he’d fail his sister… Rowling wasn’t short selling Ron, it was actually another facet of who Ron is.
With his growing confidence on the Quidditch field and the fact that the only Weasley’s left at Hogwarts are he and Ginny, he can finally grow into his own. (Although the spectacular nature of the twins departure will truly be the stuff of legends at Hogwarts for as long as the school remains).
I don’t disagree – that is all totally true.
For Ron of the books. T
he Ron of the films is a dunderhead however, and I fear he is beginning to manifest himself in the books – if you follow me.
Yeah – Ron’s a c-student. But as I suggest – Ike was never the greatest of fighting generals, but he had attributes that were in many spheres outstanding.
Ron should also be allowed the opportunities to show what he can do – but he isn’t getting them. And in both film and book this is looking increasingly artificial – he’s being pushed to the back in favour of more exotic characters such as Syrius and Mad Eye Moody ( who should be played by Geoffrey Rush by the way and no-one else ).
The expansion of the cast and of Harry’s gang is at the expense of Ron. And its getting worse
Oh, I wasn’t insulting Ron about being a c-student, some of the best people in the world don’t always test well…
Considering how much of PoA had to be cut to get the movie to it’s current size, it’s unfortunate that Ron is getting the brunt of it.
He’s actually my fave too, although it’s a close race with Lupin.
I dunno, I think he started to develop with his slowly improving Quidditch skils in OotP, and you couldn’t ask for a more loyal friend. Hopefully in book 6 he and Hermione will quit fighting it and admit they love each other already.
The movies aren’t going to push Ron, he’s just a sidekick in Hollywood, where every frame of film has to count and everyone expects the hero and the “special characters” (Syrius for example) to be the main focus. That’s more Hollywood’s fault.
Ron someone I could gladly call friend and trust.
And on that, we can heartily agree.
warmest regards
dave
Dave Moran: I don’t blame Rupert – I do blame JK Rowling to some extent, but who can blame her. No-one would ever accept that Grint/Ron can do ANYTHING better than Harry – the films, particularly Chamber of Secrets, have gone out of their way to establish his inability at anything ( that’s your sister in there Ron – but you’re going to stay out here and look after treacherous Professor Lockwood are you ? Let Harry do it, eh ? Yes – its a big load of rocks, but if my sister were in there I’d be trying to dig through with my fingernails ) Ron is now a cut-price Inspector Clouseau.
Luigi Novi: I dunno, I think Ron acquitted himself brilliantly during the chess game at the end of Sorcerer
With Ron and Hermione as fellow prefects, they could block a lot of prefect-based trouble that Malfoy could drum up. Those two in particular as prefects kept Malfoy from abusing his position as much as he would have from lesser prefects…
But wouldn’t making Harry a prefect have been a more direct and effective means of “protecting” him?
Yes, but I didn’t say Dumbledore was lying about Harry not needing the extra pressure. Harry would’ve failed all his classes and self-destructed had he the addition duties of prefect to go with everything else he went through in book 5…