Harry's First Year

2001 is a rather recent film for this blog to cover, but I had the opportunity to watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone again with a friend, so it seemed like a good opportunity to expand my focus a bit and discuss this rather lovely movie. I'm a big fan of Harry Potter (both the books and the films), so I was pleased when my friend decided we should make that a "movie night" selection.

The basic plot: Baby Harry Potter is left on the doorstep of his Aunt Petunia (Fiona Shaw) and Uncle Vernon (Richard Griffiths) Dursley. He endures 11 years of neglect, living in a cupboard under the stairs in the Dursleys' home, belittled by his guardians and their obnoxious son Dudley (Harry Melling).  However, on his 11th birthday, letters begin to arrive, not just by post, but down the chimney, delivered apparently by a flock of owls.  Harru's uncle tries to destroy them, but a visit by giant Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) results in Harry being taken from the Durleys for enrollment in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry, it turns out, is a wizard, whose parents were killed defending him from a dark wizard, Voldemort. Voldemort disappeared after being unable to kill Harry, and Harry is famous in the wizarding community as The Boy Who Lived.

I was dubious when I read the first Harry Potter novel. It was a children's book after all, and I was a grown-up. I read the first three chapters, muttering under my breath "children's book." And then I became so engrossed that I stopped categorizing it.  As more books were released, I snatched them off the shelf; attending parties in Barnes and Nobles (one treat was listening to Jim Dale read from the prior book), waiting for my book to arrive in the mail, and spending the next few days savoring the new story. I don't often cry when reading books, but the Harry Potter made me cry three times. Thankfully, the movies lived up to the novels, primarily due to the excellent casting of the key characters.

Richard Harris was the perfect Albus Dumbledore.  Sorry, Michael Gambon, good as you are, you will always be second best.  Mr. Harris was not keen on taking the role - he turned it down THREE times and only accepted it when his granddaughter told him she would never speak to him again if he didn't do the part (The Guardian). Sadly, Mr. Harris died after the second film, and the role was assumed by Mr. Gambon.

Severus Snape, as played by the amazing Alan Rickman is really a minor character in this film. He is quite disagreeable, and of course, we won't find out for some time just what Snape's problem is with Harry Potter. Mr. Rickman was at first reluctant to take on a part that, in the first script really just appeared to be a standard child's villain, but author J.K. Rowling told him what was planned for later in the film (Vanity Fair). Once you've read all the books (or seen all the films), you realize how marvelous Mr. Rickman makes Snape - he is a character it is hard to hate.

This is, however, a film about children: Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and the enduring friendship and partnership that develops during their years at Hogwarts. I've always felt that Harry falls in love with the entire Weasley family, not just Ginny (spoiler - that's in a later book). The Weasleys represent for Harry the family that he lost. 

Mr. Radcliffe is especially good as Harry in this first film. The scene in which he encounters the Mirror of Erised is especially moving. As this child, who has never known love, looks into the mirror and sees the affection in the eyes of his dead parents, it's hard not to cry for him. As he has grown, Mr. Radcliffe has become an impressive actor. I had the opportunity to see him in Equus on Broadway, and recently in a NTLive broadcast of Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead. I look forward to seeing more of his work.

Look also for the performances of Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), and Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom, who will grow to become a fierce and fearless warrior for good). It's an exceptional cast in a movie that I can watch over and over - would that I had the time to binge all 8 of them!

I'll leave you with a trailer of the film. Next time, an earlier classic!