MY MOVIE SHELF: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

 

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: 56 Days to go: 40

Movie #384:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Since that midnight showing of Chamber of Secrets back in 2002, I don’t think there was a single Harry Potter film I didn’t attend a midnight screening for. I was certainly not going to miss the first showing of the final installment. Being the end of the series, though, the midnight screening was handled a little differently. Instead of a single night of screenings of a single film, my local AMC theater offered an entire week of screenings — Monday thru Thursday — of the entire series, much like I’ve done for these posts. My husband, mother-in-law and stepdaughter went every night and watched two films, all leading up to the final night of Deathly Hallows part 1, followed by the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. That final morning, though — Thursday, July 14, 2011 — I had a growing suspicion and I took a test to confirm it. I was pregnant. It was scary and unexpected, but also thrilling and incredible. And I will always associate my first knowledge of my darling little princess with the final Harry Potter film. It’s fitting, really, because life, as we know, goes on. In our world as well as this fictional one.

From the very start of the series, death has always been an accepted and even integral part of life in the magical world. So it follows that death is an integral part of this last film as well. Indeed, it is his unnatural obsession with thwarting death, with living forever, that corrupts Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) so completely. No one is meant to live forever, and the twisted desire to will result in the ruination of your soul. It is for this reason that Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) goes to die in the forest. It is the next logical step in the mystery, and the next step in destroying Voldemort. And as Neville (Matthew Lewis) says when they all think Harry has died, he still lives within them, just as all their fallen comrades do. “People die every day.” But not Harry. Harry is the boy who lived.

The maturation of Neville Longbottom over the course of the eight films is easily one of the most moving among all the characters. Not only has he changed physically (and oh, has he changed — Neville’s transformation from a schlubby kid to a tall, impressive young man is perhaps the best example to kids that they won’t always be the awkward dope they are at 11), but he’s grown in confidence and abilities too. He’s a leader now, and an inspiration to others. He’s also a courageous fighter, and it is he, not Harry, not Ron (Rupert Grint) and not Hermione (Emma Watson) who kills Voldemort’s snake Nagini.

Other characters get some triumphant moments in Part 2 as well. Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) stands up to Snape (Alan Rickman) and Slytherins looking to turn over Harry alike, as well as to use the spell she’s always wanted to use, in the protection of Hogwarts. Likewise, it is Luna (Evanna Lynch) and her rare and logical reasoning that directs Harry to the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw (Kelly Macdonald) to find the lost Ravenclaw diadem, long since turned into another of Voldemort’s horcruxes. And prototypical nurturer Molly Weasley (Julie Walters) has always been a formidable mother to her children, but mostly just a loving and gracious host the rest of the time. Not so when Ginny (Bonnie Wright) is threatened by mad killer Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter). “Not my daughter, you bitch,” she shouts, and she unleashes some seriously badass magic, shriveling Bellatrix into nothing and then exploding her apart. Take THAT, you evil witch!

Helena Bonham Carter, of course, is a phenomenal actress, and no scene is better than her acting as Hermione disguised as Bellatrix via Polyjuice Potion. The uncertainty and stilted nature of her carriage and speech is masterful and so unlike the unflinching cruelty Carter infuses Bellatrix with normally. It may have been a longshot, but I really would’ve liked to see a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her in this film. She earned it, completely.

The movie is different from Rowling’s text in several places, as it needs to be in order to transform the story to a visual medium, but the spirit of the narrative remains largely intact to a really impressive degree. There are thrilling action sequences, weighty emotional scenes, and an almost zen acceptance of the inevitability of what’s to come. Be it the goblin Griphook (Warwick Davis) leading Harry, Ron and Hermione into Bellatrix’s vault at Gringott’s Bank, and their subsequently wild escape on the back of a dragon, the terrifying release of the Fiendfyre in the Room of Requirement, Snape’s loving and heartbreaking memories of Harry’s mother Lily (Geraldine Somerville) (and Snape’s role in Dumbledore’s plan), Harry’s talk with Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) in the heavenly King’s Cross Station, or Harry’s final battle with Voldemort, the film moves seamlessly between moods and tones and creates a world as fully realized on the screen as it was in our minds when reading the books. “Of course it’s happening inside your head, Harry, but why should that mean that it’s not real?”

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 does not hold back at all, and several lives are lost in the course of the film. Characters on both sides are killed, and many of our favorites are still being mourned by fans. (I will never ever get over my beloved Fred (James Phelps) having to perish.) But death is a part of life, and no one can live forever except in our hearts. Which they do, as evidenced by the children we have to carry on our names and legacies, and the children Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione have as they start a brand new cycle of life and growth by sending their own children off to Hogwarts. A new generation to grow and change, to face their own trials, their own triumphs, and their own lives.

Life, as we know, goes on.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Willow

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: 133 Days to go: 92

Movie #307:  Willow

After Top Gun, Willow was probably the first movie my family ever owned. We recorded it off either HBO or Showtime way back in the day when you had to use a VCR and a blank VHS tape. It was on the same tape as the Showtime comedy special we recorded off a free weekend, Steven Banks’ Home Entertainment Center (which you should totally watch, because it’s FUCKING AMAZING, it’s on YouTube in its entirety, and it will explain why I sometimes break into seemingly nonsensical songs about barbeques or Carly Simon’s thighs). This particular tape was a beloved one-two punch of entertainment, and I held onto it for years and years after I no longer had a VCR.

Willow is a great little fantasy flick. The main story revolves around the tried and true angle of a child born to fulfill a prophecy for saving the world and an evil queen trying to destroy it before it can destroy her. It’s got fairy tale elements, biblical elements (the midwife who smuggles the child to safety conveniently finds a ready-made bassinet of twigs on the river bank for her to send the baby off in), and it throws a noble quest in the mix as well. These are all familiar tropes of the genre, which makes it imperative to a successful film that the characters are strong, unique and compelling.

In the universe of Willow, there are three different humanoid species — Nelwyns are all little people (and are played all by little people actors in roles that don’t demean them or ask them to be cutesy munchkins or greedy goblins or anything like that), Daikinis are your standard full-size people (to which both the prophecized baby and the evil queen belong), and Brownies are tiny little fairy-sized people but without wings (think The Indian in the Cupboard or The Secret World of Arrietty or some such). Smartly, there is dissension among these races, making their quest all the more difficult.

The baby drifts along the river to the farm of Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis), a wannabe sorcerer who is pretty much the laughingstock of his village but who has a great loyal friend, an incredibly romantic, loving relationship with his wife, and the two most adorable children ever. The presence of a Daikini baby, however, would be met with skepticism and foreboding even if that baby wasn’t wanted by the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh). So the high council decides Willow should return the baby to the Daikini crossroads. He does, with the help of a few villagers who accompany him, but when they come across Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) hanging in a Daikini prison cage, everyone wants to wash their Nelwyn hands of the problem, leaving Willow on his own. Madmartigan wants to get out of his prison, obviously, so he cajoles the Nelwyns into letting him out and eventually convinces Willow to hand over the care and keeping of the baby. (He doesn’t care about the baby, though, and quickly has it stolen from him by a couple of Brownies who I always thought, as a kid, were played by Lenny & Squiggy — which, let’s face it, would’ve been brilliant — but who were really just Kevin Pollak and some other guy (Rick Overton).) Willow chases after the Brownies to get the baby back but is captured by them and finds out about the prophecy and how important the baby is. He is sent on a quest to bring her to safety, and through a series of events he, with the Brownies as his guides and Madmartigan as his warrior protection, sets off.

Of course, they are being chased by Bavmorda’s guards at every turn, including her uber badass daughter Sorsha (Joanne Whalley). Sorsha is a great warrior herself, and she carries the scariest sword ever in existence. Yes, she gets thrown off course a bit by Madmartigan’s wooing words one night, but in her defense Val Kilmer was brutally hot back then (I even had a Madmartigan poster on my bedroom wall) and those two had some sizzling chemistry (no doubt the reason she was Joanne Whalley-Kilmer for a while after this movie came out). She doesn’t fully turn against her mother and join up with Madmartigan until she sees what an amazing swordsman and warrior he is, battling her entire army by himself. That’s worth being impressed over.

It’s a funny, sweet, spectacular thrill ride of a film (you really can’t go wrong with Kevin Pollak doing a silly accent) and it appeals to the young and the old. (I used to be young, and now I’m old, plus my stepdaughter watched it every day when she was seven or so.) It’s hard to come across a true family film like that these days. I’ve never gotten sick of it, and I’ve watched it A LOT. I would recommend it to anyone.