JK Rowling’s books and the films that have followed have enjoyed huge success around the world. Sarah Wild traces Harry’s journey, the hormonal rages, the pseudo druggie experimentation, along with all that death and destruction permeating this latest offering
Alohomora! Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is finally here. People all over the world — adults and children alike — have been crossing the days off their calendars, waiting with gleeful anticipation for its release.
With 400 million copies of JK Rowling’s books already sold, and a whopping 4,49-billion made on the movies, you’d be hard-pressed to meet someone who has not heard of Harry Potter.
He’s a global phenomenon; even the word Potteresque (something reminiscent of a scene or situation from the Potter books) can be found in the Collins English dictionary.
Detractors will sneer at the mere mention of it. “It’s for kids,” they’ll moan, but with the release of the sixth film in the fanchise, their remarks couldn’t be further from the truth.
If we were talking about the first movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, they might have had a point. In 2001, we first met Harry on screen in the form of gawky 12-year-old Daniel Radcliffe. As Harry has gotten older, his story has become that much darker.
For those Potter virgins out there, here is a quick recap: Harry Potter is a unique boy. It isn’t just that he’s a wizard; he’s also the only person in the world to have survived the Avada Kedavra (killing) curse from the most diabolical wizard in history: Lord Voldemort.
It was the same attack that killed the young boy’s parents, and the reason he was brought up by his Muggle (non-magic folk) relatives. On his 11th birthday, Harry not only discovers how he got the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, but that he is a wizard and has been invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
This forms the basis for the adventures that follow, most of which centre on the fight against Voldemort, who although greatly weakened, is still alive and as malevolent as ever. Each book (and movie) represents a year of Harry’s life, so as he grows up and finds out more about his past, the story itself reflects his developing maturity.
At Hogwarts, Harry meets Albus Dumbledore (played by Richard Harris in the first two films, but replaced by Michael Gambon after his death), the headmaster and the only man who Voldemort ever feared.
The fifth instalment, The Order of the Phoenix, saw Potter and Dumbledore united as outcasts and persecuted when no one believed that Voldemort had returned. With the latest movie, this is taken one step further. Harry is no longer just the student and Dumbledore the wise teacher.
Now they fight together as equals in the quest to vanquish Voldemort, and as Dumbledore explains to Harry, he cannot hope to destroy him alone.
Whereas the first five films saw Harry and his classmates caught up in the plots and schemes of adults, they are no longer innocent bystanders. It is through their actions, or lack thereof in some cases, that the fate of the world will be decided, and their choices will affect the war against Voldemort.
At the end of the last movie, Harry found out why Voldemort tried to kill him in the first place: Neither of them can live while the other survives. So, in effect, Harry either has to be murdered by Voldemort or become a murderer himself.
If this isn’t enough, the terror of Voldemort is no longer confined to the wizarding world and has spilled over into ours, that’s to say the Muggle world.
With awe-inspiring special effects in a feast of visual stimulation, Voldemort’s minions, the Death Eaters, demolish London’s Millennium Bridge and launch attacks on innocent bystanders just for the hell of it. In a post-2001 world, with many societies under the constant threat of terrorism, the Half-Blood Prince realises some prominent fears that hound us.
But all is not doom and gloom. Maturity and danger are not the only things that age has brought Harry and his friends. Now that they are 16, a healthy dose of hormones is also making life more complicated. Burgeoning teenage romance is everywhere — in every dorm, in every corner.
The sexual tension, skirmishes and constant bickering of Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson), which were previously just hinted at in the previous movies, now becomes a prominent plot strand. Plus, the wizarding world thinks that Harry is The Chosen One and the girls are falling all over themselves to get his attention. Some even resort to drastic measures, and a love potion in the hands of the wrong person may just be as dangerous as the Dark Lord — something which Ron accidentally discovers after drinking a potion meant for Harry.
Actually, the taking of tonics is something the new movie goes into great detail about. Some critics have even speculated that the ingesting of these elixirs stands as a metaphor for drug taking. Huzzah! Radcliffe, when asked about drinking the luck potion at the UK press junket, replied: “There are a few drug metaphors in the film …” Mmm.
However, what really makes Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince stand apart from the other movies is its focus on the mood of the book, rather than just the action. Instead of the sometimes-stilted plot progression we’ve come to expect with the series, this time around, it’s the interrelationships between characters that lend weight to the story.
Perhaps the most “real” plot strand is when Ron hooks up with Lavender Brown (a vivacious and buxom, although unanswerably dim, fellow student played by Jessie Cave). Hermione is gutted, as though someone ripped out her heart and ate it. In a revealing scene, she opens up to Harry on a stairwell.
Harry, who has watched and pined for Ron’s sister, Ginny Weasley, understands Hermione’s predicament. “How does it feel, watching Ginny with someone else?” she asks him through tears. Harry replies, “Like this.”
Mortality and impending death is also a theme that lays heavy on The Half-Blood Prince. Rowling has always believed her books to be concerned with death: “[They’re] largely about death.
They open with the death of Harry’s parents. There is Voldemort’s obsession with conquering death and his quest for immortality at any price, the goal of anyone with magic. I so understand why Voldemort wants to conquer death. We’re all frightened of it.”
However, this time it’s a major character and even though fans will know what’s in store, the penultimate scene will come as a bit of a shock.
The Half-Blood Prince also brings with it the return of old favourites. Most of the cast has come back for the sixth movie, showcasing some of the best of British talent.
One of the only provisos that Rowling laid down when she sold the rights to make the movies was that the cast had to comprise British actors.
It has been eight long years since the first movie lit up cinema screens, and there have been mutterings about 19-year-old Radcliffe playing a character who is meant to be 16. Personally, I couldn’t be happier: now I can perv the main characters, safe in the knowledge that they are nearly in their 20s, rather than being dogged by the guilt of noticing how much hotter they were getting as the movies progressed. (Not that I did this, of course!)
You’ll also get a chance to be awed once again by the creepy Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), the jovial Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) and the pinched and austere Prof MacGonagall (Maggie Smith), amongst others.
The sixth movie also introduces some new, although not unknown, faces to the cast: Jim Broadbent becomes potions master Prof Horace Slughorn (in whose memory is the key to Voldemort’s immortality and his rise to power).
The 20-year-old Frank Dillane also joins the crew as the teenaged Voldemort — adding to the already jam-packed host of eye-candy.
It isn’t possible to talk about the new Potter film without emphasising the mind-blowing cinematography. In an interview during the premier in London, director David Yates commented that his French cinematographer, Bruno Delbonnel, had based many of the shots on Rembrandt’s chiaroscuro style.
This homage shows in the film, which is breathtaking. You find yourself sitting forward in your seat, popcorn discarded, wishing your eyes were bigger or that you had at least another four and a spare pair of ears to take it all in.
It is beautifully put together, and watching it you can see why Yates is the most adept to take on the series. Sure, each director has brought his own characteristic style, but Yates seems to fill the screen with wonder and imbues Harry’s world with every detail of Rowling’s imagination.
This is his second try, and he has agreed to take on the last book and split it into two films, to break up the five-hour running time. I just can’t wait to see what happens next. Bring it on.
