MY MOVIE SHELF: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 59 Days to go: 41

Movie #381:  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

If you’re going to pit Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) against Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), it had better be a major battle. No wand sparks and streams of green and red light emitting from forcefully pointed sticks. There had better be destruction. Chaos. All hell breaking loose. Thankfully, the filmmakers of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix understood this, and the final battle in the film is one for the ages, with fire and floods and shards of glass and complete havoc wreaked inside the Ministry of Magic, nearly tearing it apart. It’s everything a magical confrontation of the two most powerful wizards should be. It even ends with Voldemort briefly possessing Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and tormenting his mind in terrible, frightening ways. But even the terrorizing, merciless acts of Voldemort don’t hold a candle to the real villain of Order of the Phoenix: Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton).

Dolores Umbridge is a Ministry official intent on quashing talk that Voldemort has returned. In an effort to discredit Harry’s and Dumbledore’s claims that he has, she takes the open Defense Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts and then uses her influence with the Minister Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy) to appoint herself High Inquisitor — a position of great power than allows her to fire teachers, ban activities and use corporal punishment (or even torture) on students. As a teacher she is practically useless, offering the students no actual skills or defenses, instead insisting on teaching them strictly theory via a child’s textbook, as a means to simply pass their assessment tests but not gain any real knowledge, but as High Inquisitor she’s a despot, cruelly interrogating students with veritaserum (or the Cruciatus Curse, if it suits her), having them followed, and forbidding any and all activities that could be considered independent or against her rule. She is racist against “half-breeds” like centaurs, she is gleefully sadistic and power-hungry, and she is the enemy of free thought.

In every way, Dolores Umbridge gives off a feeling of unease, like she is not to be trusted, and once again, this is evidence of J. K. Rowling’s imaginative and thoughtful storytelling. If something is dolorous, it is mournful, bringing about pain or grief or sorrow. And umbrage is a feeling of offense or annoyance or hostility. Rowling gives her villain a name using homonyms of these words to express someone who, despite her sunny, perfectly pink wardrobe, affection for fluffy kitties and high, cheerful voice, is incredibly off-putting, offensive and hostile. She brings nothing but grief and sorrow and pain to people at Hogwarts, interfering with the school on every level, and eventually deposing Dumbledore as Headmaster when the Ministry attempts to arrest him for building an army against them.

Dumbledore’s Army, as it is called, comes into being not by Dumbledore’s hand, but by Harry’s as he, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) convince other students that Voldemort is out there and that they have to learn how to defend themselves. The students band together and meet in secret, in the hidden Room of Requirement, practicing stuns and patronuses and all sorts of other defensive magic, with Harry as their teacher. It’s one of my favorite sequences in all the films — indeed, I think Order of the Phoenix is the best of the films overall — because it involves so many of our favorite students interacting with one another and building confidence in their abilities. Plus you get to see many of their patronuses — always a favorite insight into their character.

The characters in Order of the Phoenix expand as well, as we’re introduced to many people outside of Hogwarts who are also part of the titular Order, secretly amassing against the Death Eaters. In addition to characters we already know, like Sirius (Gary Oldman), Lupin (David Thewlis), Moody (Brendan Gleeson), the Weasleys (Mark Williams and Julie Walters) and (to Harry’s displeasure) Snape (Alan Rickman), there is also Tonks (Natalia Tena) and Ministry guard Kingsley Shacklebolt (George Harris). And there is the introduction of the headquarter’s secret location, in the hidden Black family home, where House Elf Kreacher (voiced by Timothy Bateson), will prove important later. And at school we also meet the unique and incomparable Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) who, in addition to Fred and George Weasley (James and Oliver Phelps), Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis) and Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright) will become instrumental to the cause as well. But there aren’t just new good guys, however, as one of the most notorious followers of Voldemort, Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter), is broken out of Azkaban and proves to be a deadly addition to Voldemort’s crew.

There are a lot of things going on in Order of the Phoenix, both inside Hogwarts and out, and it is clear that an all-out war between good and evil is inevitable and forces are mounting. The magical world is no longer limited to the school, just as, at fifteen the world tends to open up beyond that of your school and home life. Bigger issues are at play, and sometimes terrible things will happen, but, in Hogwarts as in life, Harry is best equipped to handle them because of his friends, because of his loved ones and because, “We have something worth fighting for.” As the forces of good and evil come ever closer to confrontation, Harry and the members of the Order are all going to have to cling to those things more than ever.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 61 Days to go: 42

Movie #379:  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

For Christmas, the month after seeing Chamber of Secrets, I got my first Harry Potter book. Then I got the other three and read them all in short order. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was my easy favorite, and by the time movie posters started showing up in the local multiplex, replicating the wanted notice for Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), asking, “Have You Seen This Wizard,” I was giddy. (The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios Orlando has an animated one, just like in the film. It is my very favorite thing.)

As the tone and mood gets darker in the lives of Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson), so does the look and feel of the film. Alfonso Cuarón’s direction plays with light and shadow, angle and focus, to create a visually affecting piece of art. When the dementors come into a scene, for example, not only do the edges of everything frost over, but the very sense of the thing is coldness, so much so that it seems to lower the temperature of the air around the audience as well.

The plot of Prisoner of Azkaban is also rich, as Rowling introduces several characters from the past (in addition to a few crucial devices, like the secret passages and the Marauder’s Map) who will have a great impact on Harry and his future. The clandestine group of friends known as Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs — made up of Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall), Sirius, and Harry’s father James (Adrian Rawlins) — were my favorite new additions, and their story a twisty and compelling one. I regretted somewhat that the film didn’t execute the reveal quite as well as the book did, but overall the handling of this meeting of the past with the present was done quite well. I love the way Lupin is a real mentor for Harry, and the way he’s also a friend the way he was to James. I love the way Peter is fidgety and scattered after years of living as a rat. I love that Harry’s pratronus is an image of his father’s animagus form. And I’m especially heartwarmed by the thought of Sirius being a father to Harry, who has been without for so long.

Given my penchant for stories of the manipulation of time, it’s to be expected that Azkaban would be my favorite Harry Potter tale. In perfect form, the events in question happen the first time simultaneously with the second time, so that if you’re paying attention you can see (and hear) the manipulation going on off-screen, and then you get to see it all as it actually played out from a wider, alternate angle. It’s like getting a behind the scenes look at something to show you how it was different than you thought. And I desperately want a time turner necklace. I mean, I have one, from Universal Studios, but the chain isn’t as long as Hermione’s and it doesn’t actually turn back time. I’d like a real one.

Until the very end of the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is actually the most hopeful of all the installments, despite its dark themes and slow advance toward the return of the dark lord. At the end of the film, Sirius is safe, Harry has a true family member who loves him, and there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. It won’t be until Year Four that things turn deadly.