Harry Potter 6: Love, tragedy, and a whole lot of questions, Part II

There is a huge difference between writing a book and making a movie. And the difference is very clear in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Whereas J.K. Rowling could dedicate huge chunks of Book 6 to flashbacks, long dialogues, and wizard politics, Harry Potter 6 had to keep the pace and the story streamlined and, thus, remove some of the huge moments in the book. Moreover, it is decidedly more expensive to make a film (or eight) so surely there were sacrifices to be made in the name of the big B word: budget.

I don’t agree with many of HP6’s producer’s, director’s, or screenwriter’s decisions, however, because after reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows recently, I’ve become more aware of how the six earlier books are neatly tied together by Book 7. Big moments in the first six books contribute to the big, heroic moments in Book 6. I don’t know how they would be able to get away with their edits in the two-part film version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows without watering down some of Book 7’s emotional wallop.

For instance, HP6 cut out the battle for Hogwarts after the Death Eaters penetrated it with the help of Draco Malfoy. In my opinion, this is the Order of the Pheonix’s and Dumbledore’s Army’s big moment in Book 6, and you get to see how serious they really are about fighting against Voldemort, how brave they all are, and how ready they are to sacrifice their lives. A lot of the children become more defined heroes in this battle—and Bill Weasley and Fleur dela Coeur’s love survives a major test.

HP 6 also cut out characters like the Dursleys, breaking from tradition, and Kreacher and Dobby. Both the Dursleys and Dobby have big good-bye scenes in Book 7, so I don’t know how that will be translated onto film, when they’re no longer fresh in our memory. It wouldn’t be too difficult, though.

 In my opinion, it was also a mistake to take out most of the flashbacks on Tom Riddle. Instead of being a lonely, love-deprived child, as he is depicted in the books, he is shown as a child who is dark and evil from the very beginning. Reading about Voldemort’s childhood, one actually feels sorry for him, feels hope that things could still turn out for the better, and feels exactly how Lily Potter’s love—an emotion so alien to Voldemort, so opposite to everything he stands for—can save The Boy Who Lived. Taking this out also means decreasing the understanding of how Harry feels when his connection with Voldemort is at its peak.

Speaking of love, I think the biggest mistake of HP 6 was to downplay the romances and just chalk them up to teenage hormones. Of course, hormones play a huge part in it—Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny are teenagers, after all, but great loves start to bloom in HP 6, and in light of the growing darkness in the wizarding world, it is this love that gives everyone the strength to push forward: Fleur and Bill, Tonks and Lupin, Ron and Hermione, and Harry and Ginny.

This part of Harry’s life is the darkest indeed, with Voldemort nearing his strongest. But the beauty of Book 6 is that it presents Harry and Voldemort as two opposing forces, and, thus, making it true that one cannot exist without the other: Harry is love and Voldemort is its absence.

This part about love is absent in HP 6. Then again, it would most likely make the film appear schizophrenic. Or, at the very least, it would probably make it not so dark, and a tad bit corny. But then—there is a difference between writing a book and making a movie.

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