Harry Potter: Lost in Translation

Books rarely translate well into movies. Plot details are sacrificed during the script writing process. Plot details, nuances and subtleties are lost because a book has to be condensed into two hours.

It was hard to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I am unable to clearly judge the film on the merits because I kept comparing the film to the book.

The plots in the Harry Potter book series develop during the course of a school year. The author, J.K. Rowling, carefully crafts the series with plot nuances that are lost in the movies – The Half Blood Prince being the most egregious example.

In the book, Harry Potter suspects Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater, and he is involved in a nefarious plan. Harry follows Draco, trying to gather more information. Draco manages to elude Harry throughout the book – until its too late.

The book opens humorously with the British Prime Minister being briefed on recent suspicious events by Cornelius Fudge – who also introduces the new Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour.

This sequence is not in the movie, but it is understandable because it is not essential to the movie plot.

The first scenes of the other Harry Potter movies started in the home of his uncle Vernon Dursley, aunt Petunia and cousin Dudley. The Dursley’s are in chapter three of the book, but were absent in the film.

The Dursley’s were not the only characters from the book that were absent in the film. The house elves Kreacher and Dooby, Percy Weasley, Bill Weasley and his fiancé Fleur Delacour, Ministers of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour and Cornelius Fudge were not in the film.

The house elves play an important role in the book. Harry Potter was not able to track Malfoy. Harry ordered the house elves to follow Draco Malfoy and report his movements.

Hagrid, an integral character in previous Harry Potter films, is virtually reduced to a cameo appearance.

The six Harry Potter films share a common fault – the underdeveloped character of Professor Severus Snape. Snape has more screen time and dialogue in the Half Blood Prince, but the character is very important to the development of the series. Alan Rickman’s talents have been squandered – so far.

Neville Longbottom is another underdeveloped movie character that plays an important role in the series finale.

A new character is introduced – retired potions Professor Horace Slughorn. Professor Dumbledore uses Harry Potter as bait to lure Professor Slughorn out of retirement.

Professor Slughorn’s vanity induces him to latch on to students who are from famous families, and students he believes will be famous. Harry Potter is already famous. As an infant, he survived an attack by Lord Voldemort. As a teenager, he is proclaimed the Chosen One – the wizard who could defeat Lord Voldemort.

In the book, Harry Potter tries to avoid Professor Slughorn. Professor Slughorn invites his favorite students to dinner parties. He invites Harry to the dinner parties, but Harry successfully avoids attending. He has no interest in becoming the most prized student trophy in Professor Slughorn’s collection.

In the film, Harry Potter tries to ingratiate himself to Professor Slughorn because he needs to retrieve a memory from the professor.

In the book, Professor Dumbledore retrieves several memories involving Tom Riddle’s lineage, childhood, and academic life at Hogwarts. These memories expose the dark side of Tom Riddle.

The movie makes two trips into Tom Riddles past, and one of the memories was tampered. Dumbledore assigned Harry the task of retrieving the tampered memory.

It was a mistake not to include the memory sequences from the book in the movie because it provided background information on Tom Riddle.

Tom Riddle is evil. He manipulates the egos of some, like Professor Slughorn, and the memories of others, like his uncle Morfin Gaunt. He is a murderer. Others are punished for his crimes.

You do not get a sense of how evil Tom Riddle really is in the movie. You almost have to take Professor Dumbledore, et al, at their word that Lord Voldemort is evil.

Character development needs points of reference in order to properly relate to the character.

The movie added a new detail to the plot. Lord Voldemort’s followers destroy the home of the Weasley’s. Destroying a house may seem inconsequential, but the Weasley’s home plays an important role in the first chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Forget the magic, the witches and wizards, the potions and the spells. The books are really about navigating adolescence, making and maintaining friendships, discovering the opposite sex, attending a boarding school, and avoiding pitfalls. Magic adds flavor to the narrative.

Some of my favorite passages of the books involve the relationships between Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. I enjoy these sequences because I can relate to them.

We can relate to Ron because as boys we all knew a girl who was a close friend, but we were too dense to understand how much we cared about the girl, were too embarrassed to admit to ourselves that we cared about the girl, or simply took the girl for granted.

We can understand Hermione’s frustration at Ron because she cares about him, but he does not recognize her feelings.

We can relate to Harry who is caught in the middle of a cold war between Ron and Hermione – after Ron gets a girlfriend to the dismay of Hermione.

In the book, Ron gets into a serious argument with his younger sister Ginny after he catches her kissing a boy. She makes fun of Ron because he never kissed a girl. Later on, Ron is kissing Lavender Brown in public – saddening Hermione.

Harry cannot spend time with his two best friends, together, because Ron is oblivious of Hermione’s feelings, and Hermione is jealous. The movie does not capture that tension.

The friendship between Harry and Hermione is further strained because Harry is using the handwritten notes in his used potions book to outperform Hermione in class.

The Half Blood Prince was the previous owner the book. Hermione warns Harry not to depend on the book. The previous owner is virtually anonymous. Harry ignores Hermione.

Hermione is used to getting the top grades in all her classes, but she is angry with Harry because she considers using the handwritten notes in the potions book as cheating.

I was looking forward to the movie version because I hoped a particular scene from the book would be included. Sadly it wasn’t.

Lavender has a pet name for Ron – Won-Won. It annoys Harry and Hermione.

Harry was talking to Hermione, trying to figure out when he can approach Professor Slughorn to get the memory Dumbledore needs. He tells Hermione that Ron suggested he wait until after potions class.

Hermione snapped. “Oh, well, if Won-Won thinks that, you’d better do it… After all, when has Won-Won’s judgment ever been faulty?”

That line of dialogue captures the dramatic tension between Harry, Ron and Hermione. She’s questioning Ron’s plan, Harry’s trust in Ron’s plan, and Ron’s judgment. If Ron can’t figure out Hermione loves him, then how can you trust his judgment?

Another detail that was added to the movie was Ginny and Harry’s first kiss in the Room of Requirement. They were in the room alone trying to hide Harry’s potion book.

In the book, Harry and Ginny kiss after a Quidditch match. Furthermore, Harry hides the potions book in the Requirement Room after Professor Snape orders Harry to produce the book. Harry had just cast a spell on another student, and the spell arouses Snape’s suspicions.

The climactic scene of the Half Blood Prince is Dumbledore’s death. The movie and the book differed.

In the book, Professor Dumbledore and Harry returned to Hogwarts after retrieving a mysterious locket. The mark of the Death Eaters is hovering over Hogwarts – meaning someone was killed.

Professor Dumbledore orders Harry to get Professor Snape. He is wearing his Invisibility Cloak to avoid detection. Suddenly, Harry is frozen. Draco Malfoy enters. Professor Dumbledore and Draco exchange words.

Meanwhile, a battle between the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix erupted below.

Professor Snape arrives, and kills Professor Dumbledore. The Death Eaters witness the event, then fight their way out of Hogwarts.

In the movie, the Death Eaters arrive and leave Hogwarts uncontested. Harry chases Snape, Malfoy and the Death Eaters out of Hogwarts by himself.

Finally, the movie does not include Dumbledore’s funeral.

The Harry Potter series was a unique challenge to film. The movies based on the earlier books were made before J.K. Rowling completed the book series.

Incidents that were minor, characters that did not seem important were not included in the film series. Professor Snape’s character and his personal history with Harry’s parents were not properly explored in the films.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows is too complex and the rich narrative cannot be captured in a two and a half hour movie. Thankfully, the producers of the series decided to split the book into two movies.

A lot of the details were lost in the six films, and it will be interesting to see how the Deathly Hallows will be approached, but I hope key elements of the Deathly Hallows will not be lost when the book is translated into film.