Lower Decks

In 2007 the final book in J.K. Rowling’s famous book series was released, the same year Hollywood got around to ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,’ the fifth book. That film concluded with an epic wizarding clash in the halls of the Ministry of Magic, where it was finally confirmed for all that Voldemort had returned, after ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ had resolved the entire affair. All the secrets were out, and yet the fans were still enthralled to see it play out on the big screen. With the release of ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,’ a different kind of culmination comes to pass, the sixth and final film before audiences, in 2010 and 2011, have a chance to experience the conclusion all over again. Far from a slowing momentum, the odd way in which the books and films have complemented each other only further lends the symbiotic relationship along the path, to the point where the films become bigger all the time because they are and they aren’t, exactly, what came before them. They become an expression, more and more, of what makes the story of Harry Potter so great, so timeless, even as they so immediately make an extended moment of it in our own time, at the start of its impact on the culture.

I knew ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,’ the third entry in the series, was my favorite book, and would probably remain my favorite book, as I originally read it, but I felt a greater impact in the film adaptation of the next book, ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,’ when the cinematic appeal of a world of magic began to truly blossom, and I think that marks the difference and only real divide between mediums. Fantasy is by no means new because of Harry in either one, but Rowling’s triumph was in making it relevant perhaps for the first time since Arthur first met Merlin. She made a living, breathing reality of it, a culture and a heartbeat all its own, and came about it at the same time where adaptations could be made for films to begin release as Peter Jackson was adapting a slightly earlier tale of comparable grandeur, which had a different kind of momentum altogether. Where Harry Potter was a recent phenomenon, the Lord of the Rings trilogy (and a continually expanding backlog of supporting material) had become almost classical, though it was written in the same century as the first few of Rowling’s books.

Now we reach the point in the films where we can begin to truly compare the movies, if not the books (which are written so much differently that it would always be a point of opinion), because ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ is revealed, in this form, to be very much the ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ of this particular series, five previous films, if one were wont to do so, seen as mere prologue. That would, of course, drastically reduce much of the appeal of the Harry Potter films, which audiences have grown with much as the cast has, where Jackson filmed and released his in quick succession, so that the whole was basically one experience all along. Still, as with one particular development most fans of either story will be familiar with but should still be left unsaid for the possible few who aren’t, there’s a fair parallel to be made between the stories, which counts back and forward to the lasting impact the films, at least, will have. At this point, the Harry Potter films have finally won a greater impact.

This may be unfair in some respects, because the final tale, split as it will be, has yet to be released, and the same will be true a year from now as it is now, but the filmmakers have such an established tradition now that unless they thoroughly mess ‘Deathly Hallows’ up, ‘Half-Blood Prince’ once and for all exposes the rich and bankable treasures inherent in this series, which the Lord of the Rings, ultimately, couldn’t sustain.

The format is the one thing that will always differentiate the books; whereas Harry Potter stuck to a formula of a school year throughout the first six books, Tolkien was more free to do as a single narrative allowed him, but while Rowling was allowed to nurture a similar, singular story along, the Lord of the Rings became grounded in a sense that this one instant was but a moment in history that dwarfed it in importance, and it was only in heroic deed that its characters distinguished themselves, in courage to allow a single redemptive act to be made. Harry, of course, has one destiny as well, a final duel with Voldemort, but it’s a sense of a culmination, of a denial and steady acceptance, depending on who you are within this story, that defines the work.

‘Half-Blood Prince’ is a film that understands quite thoroughly the transient nature of the moment its story takes place in, indulging in flighty romance that sees no real resolve within, but rather suggesting, as other elements do, about future developments, lingering on insignificance as the weight of the future, of inevitably, threatens to crush each of the important members of the cast, as never before. Draco Malfoy, who has been a constant presence in the series, has never really had anything important to do until now, which must have come as a relief to Tom Fenton, who was an early voice of dissension in the cast, who might have been the first one to leave, several films ago, because he wasn’t happy with a nakedly antagonistic role with no real substance to fall back on. It’s easy to envision Rowling, several years ago, telling Fenton about this moment, as a reassurance, and we might as well be watching an impatient Tom waiting for it as Draco broods throughout the film, plotting uncomfortably for a task too big for him, but to which he grimly dedicates himself.

I guess I lied, earlier, when I implied I derived no comparable pleasure from the third film as from the third book, because Sirius Black provided in both instances a bridge between childhood and maturity for Harry, of dawning responsibility, which is felt keenly in ‘Half-Blood Prince,’ which begins directly after the events within the Ministry of Magic from the last film, and Jim Broadbent’s Professor Slughorn references them, and the fact of Black’s death in them, just as casually, as the filmmakers once again naturally assume that their audience will know what they don’t say. This has the problem of once more addressing the central riddle of the films, in how they appeal to an audience that may not be so familiar with the books; what must they think, when they aren’t told everything, film to film? To that, I think the truth must be, they will understand by the end of the film. Especially this one.

I compare ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ also because I find the latter to be the best, most complete of its family, most accessible and singularly epic, and ‘Half-Blood Prince’ is like that in its utter concentration, its foreboding, the sense that something is going to happen, which in the right hands is the same as something happening, and these films have by now shown that they are undoubtedly in the right hands, which is remarkable in the sense that since the Harry Potter craze began, there have certainly been many other writers and filmmakers attempting to duplicate the success, and until the Twilight saga began, there was never any real comparison to be made. But I humbly submit that Twilight, for all its charm, is no Harry Potter, if not because it is a completely different story, but because it also doesn’t carry even a semblance of the scope. There are four of those books, and probably will be four films, and even in count can’t begin to compare in scope.

Nothing does, in fact. There will be, when all is said and done, eight Harry Potter films, and that is incomparable, two more than there are Star Wars (no matter how one appreciates the second trilogy), five more than Lord of the Rings, and as I’ve said, the mounting appeal is all in evidence during ‘Half-Blood Prince,’ as well as a singular sensation, that finally childhood’s over, the games are over. Harry has become comfortable enough at Hogwarts where he commands himself almost as a peer with the staff. I won’t go into performances or characters, which and who are by now quite familiar, suffice it to say, in their brilliance, and because there is still more to come, conclusions to be made, which in a series counts for something, a cumulative effect. This is the first time in three films Ralph Fiennes doesn’t appear as Voldemort, but there is no real loss at the absence of this increasingly essential element of the films; my sister went from a neophyte to an expert within a matter of months as the books go, and her perspective on the films always points out what’s been changed (what’s been “lost,” as she suggests), but the scripts for me have always been judicious in what must be done, what told, to round out each individual installment, and this one is no different. In fact, as I’ve said, it’s probably the best so far. As the films really started to heat up with ‘Goblet of Fire,’ it’s nice to see many of the cues for ‘Half-Blood Prince’ picked up from that entry, but there’s less time left for the romance in that film, more time needed to ruminate on the gravity of the situation.

‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ is a film that reflects well on what has come before and asserts confidence in what is to come, but as this series has done for most of its run, provides a strong individual stamp of entertainment, which is always the key for something like this, especially, when you’ve got to wait for each new installment. The time’s coming fast when there be no more waiting, just reflection, and here’s a good place to start that, too.