Harry Potter and the Test of Time...
It wasn't until I recently revisited the final installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, that I realized just how special, unique, and important this film series is, how relevant it is to us as human beings, and how it will stand the test of time and remain as a pop culture cornerstone like a Star Wars or an Indiana Jones.
Admittedly, I was never a part of the Harry Potter craze. I never got into the books, and while I found it interesting that adults seemed fascinated by these stories made for children, they were never really on my radar screen.
As the movies came out, I always found myself venturing over to the theater to see them with friends. Each film I found solid and enjoyable, but felt that seeing them one time was enough for me, and hardly worth owning and re-watching over and over again the way I have over the years with Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
But as the film series went on, I started to find myself getting more and more excited for the next installment in the adventure. I started to become more invested in the characters - not just the principles ala Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but in the supporting cast as well, from the delightfully evil Severus Snape to the warm, fatherly Hagrid, and even the mischievous Draco Malfoy. It seemed that at some point during this series, even these lesser important characters always had their moment to shine.
When the ending credits rolled after watching the final scene from Deathly Hallows Part 2, I found myself, a grown man, weeping. What was it about this series that touched me in this way? I certainly didn't find myself with tears flowing after seeing the last adventures, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and these are film series I've watched over and over again.
So what was it about Harry Potter that touched my heart in such a way?
Examining the series as a whole, I discovered four specific, tangible reasons why Harry Potter is just so uniquely special...
First, the historical nature of the films themselves. As a student of film with an extreme passion for cinema, I realized that Harry Potter achieves what no other film series has ever been able to do, something we may never ever see again in our lifetime. Across eight sweeping epic films, the series has been able to keep an entire cast of actors together.
(Note: Only one exception that I can think of, which was replacing Richard Harris with Michael Gambon as the character, Professor Dumbledore, as Harris had unfortunately passed away.)
In this day and age of franchises, Hollywood, agents, and financial greed, to keep such an extensive cast intact is nothing short of remarkable, and seemingly impossible, yet they did it. I remember at one point somewhere around the 4th film when Hollywood spoke about possibly replacing Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry, citing his aging and growing into a man as being a problem. Did those Hollywood types not understand that per the books, Harry is supposed to get older?
I find it impressive as well that there seems to have been a loyalty to this series by the actors. Obviously the main three characters were taken care of quite well financially, but take a character like Draco Malfoy, played by Tom Felton. Here is someone who easily could have "held out for more money" the way you read about most actors in today's day. I hardly think he was earning in the millions per film, and yet his character is integral to the story, his face just as recognizable. To have replaced him, an audience would probably have accepted it, but it would have felt different.
For all I know, Felton's agent may have aggressively negotiated for typical back-end residual stuff, who really knows, but it feels as if these actors recognized the importance of these films, and wanted to be a part of them to have their place in history.
And we're not just talking the principles. We're talking the smallest bit-part extras, the students in the background who each have only a line or two, who could easily have been swapped out for another actor, yet who miraculously just seem to be there through it all.
Even more impressive, all of the professors and staff at Hogwarts, most of whom are seasoned working actors, some of whom only find themselves in a few scenes at a time per film, maintain their loyalty to the franchise as well. Maggie Smith, who we remember from Hook, Clash of the Titans, and Murder by Death, as Professor McGonagall, with that twinkle in her eye that tugs at your heart across all 8 films. Warwick Davis of Willow and Wicket the Ewok from Return of the Jedi fame as Professor Flitwick. Alan Die Hard Rickman as Severus Snape. John Immortals, Alien, Crystal Skull Hurt as Ollivander. Helena All Tim Burton Movies Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange. The list goes on.
Either intentionally, or unintentionally, most, if not all, of the Hogwarts staff are actors we remember from films from our childhood. Harry Potter gives these actors the opportunity to all become Obi Wan's - the characters we, the audience, much like the students of Hogwart's, can look up to. Its a special renaissance for these aging actors who we recognize, even if we don't necessarily know them by name, and gives them a chance to be immortalized.
Across eight epic films, this achievement in itself is enough to give Harry Potter its place in cinematic history.
Then we have the phenomenon of the Harry Potter theme parks, further embedding this series into historical pop culture. Sure Star Wars has its own ride at Disneyland in Star Tours and similarly we have Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, but these are stand-alone rides.
Harry Potter has its own land, its own world, with a size and scope never before realized, and redefining how theme parks look at franchises in the worlds they are trying to create.
Point in case, Carsland at Disney California Adventure, set to open Summer 2012. Pre-Harry Potter, Disney may have simply created the Epcot Test Track-esque Radiator Springs Racers E-Ticket ride as a thematic addition to something like Adventureland, which would have worked.
Now, following the Harry Potter model, this signature attraction is one component of an entire land dedicated to the Disney franchise, Cars, which will also include shops, restaurants, smaller-scale rides, and visuals all dedicated to this one theme.
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| Yours truly with a Butterbeer mustache next to the conductor of the Hogwart's Express. |
I remember visiting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando before Deathly Hallows Part 1 came out, and was emotionally touched at the experience I had at Ollivander's wand shop, or while actually tasting Butterbeer during a conversation with the conductor of the Hogwart's express, or being excited on the epic thrill ride, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which pushes the technology envelope for a theme park ride into the next generation. Being able to live and breathe in the world of Harry Potter, done in such a tasteful way, further adds to how special this series has become for me.
Getting back to the movies, the 3rd component for why these films continue to resonate for me...the character of Severus Snape.
Spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen all of the films, stop reading right now. I'm about to ruin it for you.
Star Wars Episodes IV-VI showcase Luke Skywalker as the principle character we follow throughout the adventures. Episode I-III has us following the characters of Anakin and Obi Wan. But the entire Star Wars saga as a whole, as George Lucas himself states, is truly about the rise and fall of Darth Vader.
Similarly, while we focus on Harry, Ron, and Hermione, the Harry Potter series, in my opinion, is really about Severus Snape. He is the Darth Vader of this franchise. The visual references are obvious - the dark cloaks, the ominous presence, unyielding dangerous magical powers of the dark arts. In every film, we want to hate Snape, and yet there is a presence about him, something so intriguing. We hate Snape and yet we so badly want to like him and want him to be redeemed.
In Return of the Jedi, there is a very specific moment where Vader, while watching his son being electrocuted, has to choose between his loyalties to the Emperor and his love for his son. We only see that mask and helmet, and yet in that moment, we can see his face, or rather, we can feel his emotion. A pretty powerful achievement to convey emotion through a mask. He ultimately chooses to sacrifice himself to save his son.
Similarly, with Snape, we ultimately come to find out that he truly loved Harry, wanted to be the father-figure he never had, and yet destiny forced him to have to be brutally unkind to the boy. It isn't until Deathly Hallows Part 2 that we realize just how tormented Snape was, and like Vader, he ultimately makes his own sacrifice to save the closest thing he ever had to a son.
Harry, like Luke, is always innocent, his intentions always good, his persona, heroic. But Snape, like Vader, is complex. It is this nobility, this redemption, the fallen hero who returns to the light in a last fleeting moment, that fulfills the classic cinematic hero's journey, and in my opinion, truly pays this series off in a deeper, more meaningful way.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, on a thematic level, the Harry Potter series is about growing up. It's about aging. The films get darker, more serious in tone, more intense, and yet the message by the end tells us that it's okay to get older.
Having the same actors across all eight films helps to support this feeling. To physically see young Daniel Radcliffe playing Harry, who is supposed to be 11 years old I believe in the very first film, The Philosopher's Stone, become a 37-year old adult in the very last scene from Deathly Hallows Part 2, we realize that we have witnessed essentially an entire life on screen. We are introduced to Harry as a naive child, unsure of the scary world all around him. We see him have his first kiss, his first girlfriend. He goes through puberty, grows, gets stronger with every film. He makes sacrifices. And at the end, he has become a husband, a father.
To this last point, the series is about family as it relates to Harry's aging. As a boy being raised without parents, he so longs for these figures in his life. He wants to be loved. He looks to adult role models like Dumbledore or Hagrid to fill that void, and you get a sense that in the back of his mind, he hopes that some sort of magic could one day reunite him with his parents.
As the films progress, his friends become his family, and you get the sense that he starts to reserve himself to the fact that he really is not going to ever be with his actual parents. The middle act of the series as a whole, therefore, in my opinion, is about Harry letting go of the past, accepting the present, and being okay with it. If any of us have ever lost a loved one, especially way too soon at an earlier age, we realize that we can't change what fate has in store for us and that death is very much a natural part of life. It doesn't make handling our losses easier, but it's just what it means to be human.
Harry's parents are such a motivation for him throughout the series as a whole, and yet, while he has a small scene with his parents before the end of his journey, at the end, he never does get reunited with them. Interestingly, he seems okay with this. He never says "goodbye" to them, nor does he feel he needs to. Harry has accepted their fate as that natural part of life. This says to me that he has truly let go of them, which is such an important part of growing up and coming into your own as an adult.
Harry looks to Dumbledore, really, as the father figure role-model, and when he passes, Harry becomes a man. He recognizes that he can no longer look to others for guidance and to show him the way, that it's time to seize control of his own destiny, handle his own responsibilities, and put his fate in his own hands. Lastly, at the end, when we see that he has his own children who he starts at Hogwarts, it's life that has come full circle. Harry's destiny has been fulfilled, and now he chooses to take that backseat to let those gray hairs come in and that belly to round out just a bit, in favor of a new purpose in the latter half of his life to be the Dumbledore for his children.
Harry names his son "Albus Severus Potter." He tells his son that he is named after two of the strongest, bravest wizards he had ever known. Truthfully, he names his son not after his birth parents, but rather, after the true fathers who looked after him over all his years, the ones who guided him, supported him, and loved him.
Harry Potter is a series that will stand the test of time not just because of its awesome special effects, but because of its thematic, purposeful, heart-felt, humanistic contribution to society told through the mediums of books, cinema, and theme parks. It challenges our minds, asks us to look within, gives us the opportunity to experience its world, and allows us to explore our own humanity. Without even realizing it until now, it's a series I will continue to revisit over the years, and perhaps one day, if I myself have children, will be one I can't wait to share with them.
- Jeremy
Jeremy Howard is the Broker & President of Hpremiere Properties, (www.Hpremiere.com) a successful, progressive, modern real estate brokerage located in Southern California. With a separate background in the Film/Television industry, Jeremy has always had a passion for screenwriting, cinema, and the arts, and finds a particular enjoyment and love in the escapism of theme parks.
