As for Snape, I have to admit I saw the first two movies before reading the books and was biased by the ‘Alan Rickman’ attraction

That is the kind of death I would have liked for Snape, not with a whimper but with a blast of horns and taking out a dozen Death Eaters with him before succumbing to his wounds with the word “Always” upon his lips.

Faramir was always one of my favorite characters, but I guess I wasn’t as invested in his story being accurately told as you were. Good thing too, because he hardly left a mark on our consciousness, didn’t he?

I think that the whole balance between the family of the Steward of Gondor and Aragorn was not very well worked out in the movie. The actor who played Denethor was repulsive. Not only could I not see any remnants of the noble man Denethor had to have been, I wanted him dispatched quickly so I didn’t have to look at him any more. Paradoxically, the actor who played Boromir – Sean Bean – was too attractive. He seemed too strong and charismatic for the role. And there was real chemistry between his character and the character of Vigo Mortensen. The actor who played Faramir seemed to recede into the background in comparison with three such foreceful and virile men. My fancy, when I first saw The Fellowship was that Bean would come back to play Faramir, so reluctant was I to see him go.

Good death scene, you have to admit.

Just had a chance to listen to the pubcast today. Great stuff once again. I don’t have too much to say on it since I basically am of the same position you are on authorial intent. Thank you, though, for the kind words about reyhan & myself & our contributions. I really enjoy the discussion here.

I’m still trying to talk my wife into letting me go to Portus, but she’s holding out pretty firmly. I think because I couldn’t deduct it from taxes like I could a theological conference. Sigh! Ah well, in most things she’s really quite indulgent of my Potter mania, so I shouldn’t complain too much. Again, thanks for the great pubcast.

Maybe Travis could grant us an indulgence to gripe about the LOTR films?

It’s actually been so long since I’ve seen the films, & I never saw ROTK, that I’ve fortunately repressed a lot of my memories of them.

I like your thoughts on how Fiennes is playing LV. More cartoonish & movie villany than actually seriously evil.

I guess for me what makes Voldemort more horrific in the books is his plain callousness & nonchalance about all the evil & killing he’s doing. In some cases it almost seems as if he’s done so much killing that he’s bored with it & just does it without thought. The Muggle Studies teacher & even Snape! For me the scene in Godric’s Hallow on Halloween is most telling & chilling where he contemplates AKing a trick or treater but decides not to just because he’s so close to the Potter’s house & his ultimate goal.

I also get chills watching Coulson’s performance in COS. He just nails LV spitefulness & disregard of other human beings. He also nails how LV is handsome as a youth but his handsomeness is overshadowed & destroyed by his actions & overall demeanor.

You went and mentioned the Faramir Fiasco! Now I’ll be swinging at the walls for the rest of the day and its only 9AM here! In the books Faramir, like Aragorn (and not the movie Aragorn) understands the lure of The Ring but also understands the peril it represents. He’s not weak-will like the movie suggests but extremely disciplined and wise- a fact that his father derides him for ie. wanting to appear wise and noble also comparing him to Boromir who was “no wizard’s pupil.”

This thing that stuffed the movies for me was that the Nazgul were rendered impotent in the early stages; they held no fear. On Weathertop Aragorn fights off five of them all by hisself… right. Why should we fear them now? In the book they depart to let the morgul knife-shard do its work on Frodo once some resistance is given against them. Gandalf had been put to flight a few days before by the same five.

Anyway, I have a list of gripes as long as my leg and this is a Harry Potter blog.

Matthew

I think you’re right. The scene at the train platform (I didn’t know it was King’s Cross)does suggest that the two worlds (wizarding and Muggles, and by extension, our world) are coming closer. And the suit emphasizes the same point. Suddenly he is more than a concept. And for some strange reason, the fact that he just stands there, arms at his side, is especially menacing.

Fiennes can do evil – remember Amon Goeth, Tony Angel and Francis Dolarhyde? But he’s choosing to show Voldemort more as cartoonish, exaggerated evil. Except when he stands there.

Movies often rely on disorienting the viewer to begin the sense of fear. The platform scene is, I think, the first time the movies really tried that trick with Voldemort — and despite objections by some, I liked the suit — it was an especially nice touch wherein the Wizarding World and Muggle World seemed to collide in an especially frightening way.

Maybe that’s the disorienting trick that works best in the scene. For the first time, Voldemort looks like he could step out of the fictional world of HP and into the theater. Placing it at King’s Cross helps, too. It’s as though the director is trying to reinforce what is human about Voldemort and remind everyone he’s not purely a cardboard villain devoid of anything human. He is not Joker, or Sauron. He’s more than a concept.

Watching the movies with my 7 year old is an education in what children find scary. He hates the hand lopping off scene in GoF, so I always warn him ahead of time and he looks away until it’s over. Also hates Voldemort tracing a dark mark on Harry’s arm, so he doesn’t watch that either. Or babymort being dumped in the cauldron. In fact, that whole grave yard scene is pretty much a write-off for him. Doesn’t like Nagini attacking Arthur Weasley – the blood bothers him. What all these things have in common is they show bodily harm. He doesn’t like the Dementors, but isn’t as bothered by them. He’s also very scared of Gollum. Suspects he’s a cannibal (I don’t know where he got that from, but it’s probably not too far off the mark). I think it’s the fact that Gollum is humanoid but not quite human that bothers him. He also doesn’t like Ralph Finenes’ nostrils (or lack thereof). It’s a good thing that he’ll be 9 by the time DH comes out in film so he can better handle the Nagini/Bathilda scene. Not to mention the thing hiding under the bench at King’s Cross.

I think that will scare me too.