Great Film: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
A new director who proves equal to the task.
Director Alfonso Cuarón has taken the images conjured by J.K. Rowling's
magical words and created from her book, 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner
of Azkaban,' a film rife with visual symbolism and alive with inventive
images beyond those established by the first two films in the series.
Cuarón, a native of Mexico City and the acclaimed director of the
completely compelling, frequently hilarious and sexually explicit
coming-of-age film, 'Y tu mamá también,' was seen by many as an odd
choice to follow heartland American Chris Columbus into the Harry
Potter director's chair. The selection has resulted in a film darker
and more mature than its predecessors, just as was the book, but it is
also as approachable for young people as Cuarón's other internationally
heralded work, 'A Little Princess.'
It is late in the summer. Harry (a decidedly more assertive Daniel
Radcliffe, making his third appearance in the leading role) is at the
Dursleys in Privet Drive, preparing for his third year at Hogwart's,
when an obnoxious relative demeans his father's memory, causing Harry
to lose his temper. As a result, Harry violates the rules of student
witches and wizards, causing the offending aunt to inflate as a
dirigible and float away into the night sky on an stream of invectives.
It is a delightful opening to a film with far more serious issues to
explore and frightening obstacles to overcome. Sirius Black (Gary
Oldman), imprisoned at Azkaban for complicity in the murder of Harry's
parents, has escaped, and is looking for Harry. The soul-stealing
prison guards called 'Dementors' (Latin for mind-removers) are
searching for Black everywhere, but when he and Harry meet, there are
revelations which change everything.
The symbolism in the film is fascinating. Rowling is responsible for a
lot of it, but Cuarón has used symbolism as a visual tool to alert the
audience to impending danger and to keep tensions high. Traditionally,
black-feathered birds such as ravens, crows, and vultures all have
negative images associated with them; they are usually used to
represent carnage, bloodshed and battle; they are thought of in terms
of scavengers, messengers of the dead, and evil. Crows abound in this
film, but Cuarón has extended their traditional roles, turning them
into symbols of the Dementors, which fly around menacingly in black
garments with feather-like hems. Even when the Dementors are out of
sight (they are not allowed on the grounds of Hogwart's School) you can
feel their presence in the crows.
Rowling's most obvious use of symbolism is in the name she gives the
escaped prisoner Sirius Black. Sirius is a star in the constellation
Canis Majoris (in mythology, Canis Majoris is one of Orion's hunting
dogs; the Greater Dog), the brightest star in the sky. So, Sirius is
also called the Dog Star, and everyone knows that the dog is
distinguished above all other inferior animals for intelligence,
docility, and attachment to man. Would she give such a name, with all
its implications, to a villainous character? Not likely. But she would
give it to a wizard who could change into a dog.
Among the new visual images are animal ghosts which wander the halls of
Hogwart's Castle and the film's realization of Buckbeak the Hippogriff,
like Sirius, falsely accused and condemned. Hermione Granger (Emma
Watson), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and all of the established
characters return. Led by Harry, all the students have matured
considerably, as you would expect of 13-year-olds; they are more
independent and self assured, more emotionally developed and far less
childlike in their reactions and bearing. Michael Gambon is new and
effective as Aldus Dumbledore, following the death of Richard Harris.
Emma Thompson is wonderfully wacky as Divination Professor Sybil
Treelawney; who leaps from the pages of the book and onto the screen as
if Rowling had written the character specifically for Thompson. Also
new is Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Remus Lupin (David
Thewles), who comes to Harry's aid in ways that might befit his Latin
name. Remus was the brother of the founder of Rome. In mythology, he
was nursed by a she-wolf; Lupin means wolf-like (wolf is Canis Lupis).
The unheralded thread of creative continuity in this marvelous series,
as it moves from Chris Columbus to Alfonso Cuarón to incoming director
Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, now in production) is
Screenwriter Steve Kloves. He and the producers have been true to
Rowling's works and to Harry's fans, in ways that have always enhanced,
not diminished, the author's incredible achievement.
Cast
- Sirius Black played by Gary Oldman
- Ernie The Bus Driver played by Jimmy Gardner
- Harry Potter played by Daniel Radcliffe
- Ron Weasley played by Rupert Grint
- Uncle Vernon played by Richard Griffiths
- Aunt Petunia played by Fiona Shaw
- Dudley Dursley played by Harry Melling
