The Culture Beat

The Harry Potter films have been a franchise distinguished by source novels that are telling one great big story. As such they have singular traits that a recent New York Times article discussed. In following its youthful wizard over a total of seven years, in films all but one of which are made a snug 18 months apart, we get a sense of Harry Potter’s growth from 11-year old into a young adult, in the very specific case of actor Daniel Radcliffe, as well as the other young actors who co-star with him. This was a chancy move by the studio to cast untried youngsters in a series of blockbuster films directed by a handful of different artists. As it turns out, the record-breaking books have become highly profitable film adaptations.

But as each successive book has expanded in length and author J. K. Rowling’s epic fantasy series grows in complexity and depth, the film adaptations can only stay the length of a feature film, at least two hours or more. The Order of the Phoenix was easily the longest of the tomes and, as had happened with earlier volumes, was sure to be chopped, compressed and, using the physics of film adaptation, converted from text to celluloid storytelling with its own conventions and strengths. I go into the Harry Potter films knowing I will get both more and less: more spectacle and the specific surface details that Hollywood production design can create and less of the actual imaginative incidents, character interactions and plot complexity that have made the books unique in publishing history.

But I must say that I was surprised at my response to the Phoenix the film–the plot rolled along at a nice pace, neither too fast nor slow (it’s never too slow in these movies–too much plot to cover), and with scenes that were as good or better than I had imagined as I read the book. Harry in the fifth book is a mess–the teenager has been witness to his mortal enemy Voldemort’s return but the wizarding world’s governing body, the Ministry of Magic, officially denies any such thing, living in such dread of another confrontation with the dark lord that it has willed itself into a state of denial. Harry is publically branded a liar or lunatic and his own headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, seems strangely aloof from the boy who needs his wisdom and council more than ever. So the darkness that setteled over the end of the previous film, Goblet of Fire, only grows with Phoenix and the film’s visual palette is mostly quite dark, to match the emotional tone of the story.

Yes, there are the series’ trademark moments of whimsy and hijinks to break up the gloom but since this is a story about a gathering storm, there is simply no room for much mirth. As the story grows to a climax, I began to recall more and more of the books’ rich details, plot mechanics, characters and motivations and it became harder to overlook the film’s race through the book’s 870 pages. The film’s audience must simply guess at varous implications of and reasons for plot turns. I will admit that though some of the eliminations weren’t missed as even Rowling has admitted that she could have perhaps indulged herself less in the telling.

At the end, instead of the usual necessary concluding explanation by Dumbledore as to what and why things have transpired as they have–a very long passage in the book as there is so much crucial information that needs expositing–we get a very brief scene of the mentor and boy together that barely covers the events that have just rushed by.

So, yes, even though I know in my head that a book is a book with its own virtues and strengths and a movie adapation cannot be a cinematic transcription of it, such marvelous and carefully plotted storytelling as Rowling’s suffers under even the best attempts at adaptation. You simply have to take the films for what they are, not for what they cannot be, (short of careful adaptation into a well-funded television miniseries.) And for those of you who haven’t read the books, stop reading this and get started! You’ve got to catch up before the final volume, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is released this Saturday, July 21.