Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince
Warner Bros
R4 DVD
Harry
Potter is a well established series of books which have a devoted fan base and
which have been carefully translated from book to film. While the earlier films
have certainly been impressive and entertaining, the maturity of this film is
truly astounding. It has moved the story into a world which is conflicted,
filled with teen angst and unsettled by the battle between good and evil.
The
earlier films has a real sense of kids action films even perhaps The Hardy Boys or Scooby Doo, as a team of friends battle the unknown; each tale is
completed with an uplifting ending and the films marked by light-hearted
content as well as the more challenging overarching storyline. In the Half
Blood Prince things are very different, there is little “magical packaging” and
the film has a more mature feel. The children are now young adults and there is
an exploration of the pain of teen romance, relationships and competition but the
focus is on how to deal with living with trauma.
This
is a dark and at times reflective exploration examining how evil develops not
from a monster or another world (which could have been an easy possibility
within the Harry Potter universe) but from the distorted mind of a single
individual. We come to appreciate how Tom Riddle, trying to fight off the one
thing none of us can change, death, decides to deliberately split his soul by
committing the most meaningless and destructive act of all, killing for its own
sake. Slowly he is transformed from a lonely and underprivileged child into
Lord Voldemort. This take on the banality of evil as it develops from poverty
and suffering is significant to the Harry Potter films as it creates a real
character out of Voldemort rather than a simple two dimensional cardboard
Villain.
All
the characters in the Half Blood Prince are very well developed; we start to
get a much deeper insight into the main figures such as Harry Potter, Ron and
Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger, they are far more nuanced and textured than
in earlier films. The true nature of
Severus Snape is fascinating in itself and will not be revealed until the final
film but his complex and at times confusing behaviour again makes us reflect on
the nature on tolerance and how we cannot really divine other people’s motives
at a moment’s glance.
Many
have argued that this is not as action packed as the earlier films. Certainly
it would be fair to say that it is a “bridging” film and offers a lot of the background
story which will be used in the final film to create a true climax. In many
ways you might as well have added a “to be continued”... sign at the end. That
being said, the death of Dumbledore and the sheer intensity of emotion with
which the film concludes is powerful and beautifully handled. While it may be a
“coming of age” film, it is one fraught with pain and suffering and it honestly
reflects on the innate complexity of life. While Harry Potter may be a hero
figure and this is a film about courage and friendship, it is a post modern
tale where everyone is flawed and all too human and I have to admire both J.K.
Rowling and the filmmakers for combining a fantasy tale with such depth of
character and significant themes.
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This review will appear in Volume 2 No.6 (2009) of the digital and
print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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