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Harry Potter Goblet of Fire at the Movies

I went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on Thursday night. As I wandered down the hallway towards theatre 9 with two members of the family I commented on how few people were walking in. I would have thought the place would be packed. I soon found out why. Everyone was already there. I ended up with a seat three from the front - not good for the neck I tell you. Apart from the awkward seating angles required to see the screen, it was well worth going.

The movie opens with Harry, Hermoine and the Weasleys heading off to the Quidditch World Cup with two members of the Diggory family.

The first thing I noticed was the long hair. These are teenagers as I remember them in the mid 1970s. The visual effects were sheer magic. The director Mike Newell managed to convey a the sense of panic and destruction that ensues on the night of the match.

Mike Newell was also the director of Mona Lisa Smile, Donnie Brasco, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Masks of Evil. He’s quoted as saying, “”I was very anxious to break the franchise out of this goody-two-shoes feel. It’s my view that children are violent, dirty, corrupt anarchists. Just adults-in-waiting basically.”

The movie, and even more so the book, brings out the ambiguity of life. Harry’s discovering that it’s not so easy to distinguish between good and evil. The friendship between Harry, Ron and Hermione goes through the throes of jealousy, mistrust and sheer bad communication - the plight of fourteen year olds. And then there’s the sheer frustration of fourteen year old girls struggle with the inability of their peers to rise to the challenge of romance.

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Roger Lloyd-Pack, best known for his work as Owen Newitt in Vicar of Dibley, does an excellent job as Barty Crouch. Eric Sykes, famous English comedian, plays the part of the murdered caretaker right at the beginning. Reporter Rita Skeeter is played by Miranda Richardson, best known in our house as Queenie (Queen Elizabeth I) in Blackadder. Madame Olympe Maxime is played by Frances de la Tour, known for her role in British sitcom, Rising Damp.

Tags: Fiction, Harry Potter, Movies

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Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Just finished reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Bought it a Kmart yesterday morning and have managed to share it with one of the family since. Merrin and I had both read a spoiler on Friday night - alerting us to the death of ***** and the identity of the Half Blood Prince. Needless to say the book’s a good read, hard to put down right from the start.

The opening chapter is sited in 10 Downing St, with a newly elected British Prime Minister trying to respond to apparent acts of terrorism. Throughout the book we’re invited to explore with Harry why Dumbledore continues to trust Severus Snape.

Harry comes across more well-adjusted, a relief considering the depression and anxiety that affected him so strongly in Book 5, The Goblet of Fire.

Themes that come through strongly:
Love as a redeeming, saving power (not just romantic love)
Discernment - where do we draw the line in trusting those who have dabbled in ‘the dark arts’?
Power of persuasion as opposed to coercion and confrontation

Ethics of Reading Harry Potter
No doubt there will be some who will not be reading the book on principle. Some people choose to keep anything like this out of their lives, concerned that books and movies can ‘give the Devil a foothold’ in their family’s life. I respect that choice. But personally I don’t see my family being tainted by reading fantasy, especially as we have a God-centred, life-focused life, with a healthy distinction between reality and imagined worlds.

We don’t read the Harry Potter books as literal invitations to practice witchcraft. We read them as set in a ‘make believe’ world in which characters must choose between the paths of truth, love and sharing of resources and the paths of fear, acquisition, domination and evil. It’s life and death, good and evil. However because of the increasing grimness in the Harry Potter series, we’ve said that our youngest child can only read as far as book 3 before she’s 12.

Tags: fantasy, Fiction, Harry Potter, Reading

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