Mel at the Movies: The Prisoner of Azkaban

It’s yet another Monday gang, which means I am now three Harry Potter films deep and I’m starting to feel the fandom you guys. Y’all may have hooked me.

Special thanks to all who reached out on social media to talk to me about Slytherin and how they’re not the racist house! I learned a lot. Apparently this is the house that Merlin was originally a member of! I feel much better, and I even wore a snake people sweater the other day! I am feeling my house pride.

Before we really dig in, it is worth noting that I treated Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban a little differently than I have the past two films.

It was brought to my attention by multiple fans and friends alike, that this film has a very divided camp between people who love it and hate it. There was a directorial switch over at this point to Alfonso Cuarón, who would later go on to direct such masterpieces as “Children of Men” and “Gravity”, and apparently the argument seems to be that he cut the most original book plot from any of the films. This idea was very interesting to me as a “Lord of the Rings” lover, as those were books that could not have been made into films unless they were cut down. I still remember the Tom Bombadil fan forums and the fury that lay within, so I was excited to see how a new director would tackle this. Just in case though, this time I took it upon myself to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with a dear friend and Harry Potter aficionado so that after the film, we could actively discuss any questions I might have to help me better understand why people have such passionate feelings about it.

Also, I know a lot of y’all come for the funny. This film was also unexpectedly dense, in a good way! I hope to throw you a few chuckles here and there, but strap in for a bit more of an academic read this time, folks.

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We start, much to my personal chagrin, with the Dursleys. Again. If you have read any of my past pieces, I find this framing device flagrantly overwrought and unnecessary. The idea that they’re adding even more Dursley family members just to rub in the child cruelty is just beyond me. It also shows me that they have run out of ways to keep this going, so I’m hoping there’s a reason we’re continuing to cling to tightly to such an uninteresting device. Anyway, a drunk relative drops the title to a Taylor Swift song as a result of some lineage smack talk before being turned into an actual Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character. The only bit of new information that is established within the first five minutes of this film is that we’re delving deeper into bloodlines and parentage this film.

So as a result of yet another summer not with actual magic people, Harry naturally uses his magic in anger and does, you know, what 13 year olds do. He packs a bag, screams “I hate you”, and runs away from home without really thinking things through. I did get a chuckle of satisfaction watching Harry literally walk out on this plot device.

We are met with a seemingly sinister dog, which to me was an interesting way of showcasing magic purposefully coming in to the scope the muggle realm, or more specifically, the muggle eye. We’ve obviously seen everyone else use magic in this world, but this is shown as an act of infiltration; scouting almost. If another war is coming, this is a very haunting image to present.

But as quickly as this dog appears, its presence is circumvented by charming, if not bewildering transportation vehicle, the Knight Bus.

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More so than any other magical item in this series to date, this one made the least sense, and yet was the most entertaining to me. I have no idea what connection knights have with this bus. It seems like an unfinished Monty Python pun. Yet this is the clearest moment of moving the plot forward with a new director that I could have possibly imagined. With seamless and quick explanation as to its purpose, we are thusly zipped through London town with the crash-whiz-bang of comical jazz and whimsically Dali-esque camera work that show the beginnings of stylistic franchise growth. We’re not just floating feathers anymore, magic is a physically world manipulating force, but not without its charm.

And just as quickly as we were thrust onto the Knight Bus, we are off it and back into the story. Harry is formally introduced to Cornelius Fudge, the most unfortunately named gentleman in politics, magic or otherwise. He almost immediately forgives Harry for using magic in the muggle world, informing him that he would not be expelled, because apparently this law is the marijuana of the wizarding world. It’s totally illegal most places but everybody flipping knows a guy who does it.

In fact, here’s a list of literally everyone who’s broken this rule so far.

  1. Headmaster Dumbledore
  2. Professor McGonagall
  3. Hagrid and his motorbike
  4. Dobby “Jar Jar” Binks
  5. Basically every male Weasley
  6. Harry Potter

That’s almost triple the amount of movies we’ve had.

Thankfully this unfortunately named politician is passing out more than just pardons, and we get a lovely moment as they talk about a war criminal.

Sirius Black, past Voldemort supporter and now super-max prison escapee, has caught everyone’s attention and has the community on edge. Fudge is predominantly straight forward about the fact that everyone’s freaking out about this guy. Of course the bits he chooses to leave out are the actually important ones for Harry, so you know, he’s still an adult in this universe.

We are then rewarded with a series of shots of the inherently sexual Gary Oldman doing his best dinosaur impression.

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This would remain a welcomed distraction throughout the remainder of the film.

But soon enough we’re back with friends. A cat and rat scene is presented, reminding everyone that Ron owns a rat and that the adults of this world don’t seem to give a single golden flying snitch that these thirteen year old kids are just hanging out in a bar. I half expected Arthur Weasley to buy them their first pints because he’s the cool dad.

Thankfully, he proves to be the most sensible adult around by actually informing Harry that this guy might actively try to murder him. Seeing how we have witnessed very little actual parenting beyond the two dimensional idea of the title until now, and in the defense of the presented parents it’s because they really haven’t been around due to the nature of boarding school, we see this guy really try to have a moment of honesty. Seen as more of the bumbling blue collar fool of the adult wizarding group we have been introduced to, this gave a nice shade of depth to this character.  

The tone for the remainder of these films always seems to be set by how they arrive at Hogwarts. The first film showed a jovial and moderately carefree nature as the children experience the train for the first time, filled with candy carts and new friends. It was thusly, a standard, textbook children’s film. Film two, we see a child’s exploration and drive towards their desires, still with a hint of whimsy, via the taking of the enchanted car. This film was a little more jokey with an air of danger. Cuarón was clearly hyper aware of this, and as a result, used the train to establish two really pivotal tones moving forward with his vision of the story.

To show a sense of growth and I would argue, rebellion, the children are finally dressed their age. We have abandoned the brightly colored, hand-me-down plaid layering shirts of old and have moved on to the most British teenager thing I can possibly imagine, the track jacket. Hermione in her hint of pink, what would later be an ongoing out-of-robe color scheme for her, was beginning to show more overt traditionally coded femininity. Ron actually still wore his hand-me-downs, an act that made sense for his character, but his hair had apparently been enchanted by a blow-out specialist over the summer. You could see that in spite of his cloths, he is starting to try to establish his own style and self from his brothers. This provided the much needed element of seeing normal, budding teenagers. Before we have seen exceedingly British children, that felt like storybook characters. These teenagers finally felt like people.

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Seeing this solidified leads to a very powerful second element.

Let’s talk about Nazis.

Did I say Nazis? I mean Ringwraiths. Did I say Ringwraiths? I mean Dementors. You can see where I’m going here.

Literature has always been rife with a black-hooded figure as the personification of death. Sometimes one of the hardest things to tackle is the trope that has been done by so many others before you. I’ve heard tons of arguments about what Ringwraiths have “ripped off”  in literature over the years, and I can only imagine what you poor Harry Potter fans went through, post-Tolkien films. The English, however, have really boiled it down to perfection over the years when they discovered they could fold it into realism by knocking the all powerful down a peg from leader to soldier. The black hooded, faceless soldier of death incarnate has always proven to be a remarkably terrifying henchman device.  This was something that Alfonso Cuarón really nailed. It is fulfilled to its highest allegorical esteem through one of my favorite villainous tableaus, the stop and search.

There’s always a scene in movies with Nazis where a Schutzstaffel, more commonly known as SS, officer stops a whole train and goes door-to-door asking to see everyone’s papers. I don’t make the rules you guys, JK Rowling just enforces them. It’s a remarkably common trope for showing the changing of the political tide. The act of having these Schutzstaffel figures makes a lot of sense with this timeline, as they were in charge of the concentration camps and maintaining the racial policies of Nazi Germany. Right now they’re playing prison guard, I can only assume they’ll move on to the other stuff later.

Cuarón really made this a terrifying experience for me by providing a different kind of English high-fantasy introduction, specifically European gothic horror. Through the use of sound, victorian music and stunning artistic visuals, we are introduced to an a stoic, tattered, floating figure with no face and no name. The gothic, ghastly visual is coupled with what I traditionally refer to as a “show me your papers” scene, only this time it is done in complete silence. The soldier just takes from Harry what it assumes it is within it’s rights to do. Finally in this series, we are faced with a physical villain, not the whispers of a name or magical creature. This is a villain, larger than life, frighteningly anonymous, and directly tangible.

Through the dismissal of faceless horror, we are introduced to not just a homeless man drunkenly sleeping it off on a children’s school train, but another Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

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I suppose the name Talbot was licensed, so they went with the next best totally subtle werewolf name.

Professor Lupin makes up for his hideously obvious plot device of a monogram by being exactly what I wanted in this series, a bridging adult between conflicts. You know the moment you see this guy’s face that he’s seen some shit. Yet here he is, riding the train with his students, almost as a disguised war general getting to know his troops. Lupin is instantly established, through the exchange of chocolate, that he is an authority figure with an actual heart, as compared to just an charmingly elderly yet enigmatic quotables factory.

But all that is put back on track as we arrive at Hogwarts.. Dumbledore informs us that these floating law enforcement terror officers will be guarding the school because of the murder guy on the loose. As he puts it, the Dementors are here to help, but they are unforgiving. I cannot think of a better way to describe Schutzstaffel to children. It is also in that moment that you can see that this was not the headmaster’s choice, it is an invasion. As an audience member, it is established there and after, that Hogwarts is not a school this year. It is a fortress.

The theme of less uniforms overall seems to continue, which speaking as a gal who grew up with a school uniform, that is the most accurate thing they could have possibly done. Nobody wants to wear those things if they don’t have to. More down time between classes is a huge part of this film. We begin to see new, previously unseen parts of the castle and just see the children interacting more as people and less as conventional students.

We are also given a remarkably charming scene of just the boys of Gryffindor bonding over candy and dumb animal noises, which was a very refreshing note of realism. They are being presented as real people in a fantasy world, which is frankly, remarkably unique. Even books such as The Princess Bride or The Neverending Story had always held a difficulty in plopping a modern tee shirt and jeans kid into a fantasy realm without compartmentalizing the modern and the hyper-traditional fantasy narrative. Harry Potter has truly done something unique in this regard, and I would be curious to see how much that has to do with what the director is showing versus what JK Rowling wrote.

A new class, Divination, is introduced. I find it hilarious that one film after Kenny B is made the fool, his ex-wife steps in for a recurring role. I also appreciate that what would be considered the most prevalent form of magic inclusion in the muggle world, (I live in Los Angeles where there are psychics on every corner), even in the magical world there is an admission that it is remarkably rare to have an actual talent for it.

Another new class, one with a sentient murder book, is of course being taught by the least qualified person to handle children, Hagrid. In a scene sporting a series of unusually short ties, we are given yet another example of teachers not actually teaching, but rather just throwing the children into potentially dangerous scenarios and seeing what happens. Harry of course, receives a triumphant punch-the-air hippogriff moment, while Draco Malfoy and his dramatically better haircut are severely injured due to his ongoing plot service of being a real prick.

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The difference though between this time and the usual moments of Draco based dicketry is that now he is old enough to know the implications of his station. While Harry just “is” one of the special children, Draco makes a point to actively prove that he is by throwing his societal weight around, actually curbing schooling as a result by having his father step in and insist upon the execution of the hippogriff, Buckbeak. My strange endearment towards Jason Issac’s villainous bearings were certainly curtailed at this notion, as it is very reminiscent of parents stepping in during times of societal turmoil to teach children to hate and to exterminate.

But then, it finally happened you guys. I got a scene with a competent flipping teacher.

Professor Lupin made my mind stand up and “Citizen Kane” style clap for him, as he is the only teacher to date to actually teach the class how to defend themselves before throwing them into the mire of a dangerous situation. As a result, not only is the teaching effective, but it turns into a jazzy, fun musical montage. Even the perpetually challenged Neville Longbottom is able to grasp the basic concepts of how to defend himself, and since your unit is only ever as strong as it’s weakest link, this speaks volumes.

Lupin’s character continues to impress as we get a nice transition into why Harry is separated from the other children due to his broken family through the use of an unsigned permission slip. The other children are able to  leave campus and go into town, while Harry is left to take long walks on a bridge with Lupin. Harry begins really learning more about his parents, not the war heroes, but the people. I cannot speak as to how wildly integral this was in order for this franchise to sustain. Lupin presents the eye of a survivor and a soldier, a mentor to the child while a friend to the parent. Again, the character depth that they begin to dig into is much more solidified through these interactions.

There’s also some mildly creepy overtones that apparently everyone wanted to get with Harry’s mom in high school, which I’m really hoping get squished sooner rather than later.

But after subtle mom-lusting bridge time, everyone returns to an actual metaphor as the Fat Lady has not just sung, she’s up and left the stage. In the form of Sirius Black, evil has penetrated the fortress and no one is safe. Not just the idea of war, but the right hand of war itself  is here, within the very walls of Hogwarts. We’re presented with harrowing imagery of the children sleeping together in the great hall, all too similar to what many communal shelters looked like during the London blitz.

And yet classes continue, this time with Snape moving a werewolf plot forward with his usual disdain and vitriol. Again, apart from being an angry exposition fairy, I’m not really sure why people flip their lid over this guy, with the exception that he is Alan Rickman. Similar to Harry, he has yet to do much of anything. I continue to wait with bated breath to see why the internet either would give their first born for him, or wants to see him dead.

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Quidditch has evolved, no longer does it hold it’s place as a distraction to the din of the world. It too is now a danger, flocked with reminders of the outside world in the form of the ever present and ever pending Dementors. It’s hard not to watch this scene in it’s non-fantastical form, showing the SS soldier like aspects of the creatures physically frightening the players. I’ll be curious to see how they continue to use Quidditch as these films progress, as their novelty and purpose is becoming circumvented by overarching themes.

Thankfully, some of that distraction is brought back through the comedy duo of Weasley One and Weasley Two, who while no one was looking, have morphed into anime characters.

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I have up to this point refused to learn their names because I’m still 100% convinced that they are going to die by the end of this series.

Harry, testing the bounds of teenage-dom in a triumphant realization of “Oh yeah, I can be invisible you guys”, attempts to leave the castle to go into Hogsmeade. Thankfully, Harry is super bad at teenager-ing and is promptly caught by the delinquent duo. Both viewer and Harry alike are introduced to the Marauder’s Map, a remarkably intelligent device that I can only imagine pays off far more throughout the series as we move forward because dear lord, that’s an incredibly eclectic item. The Dungeons and Dragons nerd in me severely wants one.

The result of this escape to witch mountain-town though seems to be just be to introduce the Shrieking Shack. I got the impression this was the local haunted house that Hogwarts kids would dare each other to go play spin-the-bottle and party in. There’s something endearing about the fact that they are all still at the “I dare you to go inside” phase as compared to the “look what my fake ID got us” phase, though I’m sure that’s to come later.

Harry also proceeds to learn some new information in town about Sirius and his connection to himself and his parents, leading him to proclaim a statement of murder, which is comfortably not as grand of a leap as your would expect from a children’s story.

After last film’s build with dueling, we have already given children the tools to maim. It’s an unfortunate but accurate extension to assume they would grasp the concept of killing rather naturally. It also brings us back to the heart of my ongoing issue with the adults in this film, because one has to wonder if Harry would have jumped directly to killing if someone had sat down with him and explained all of this within a context of learning to parry rather than trust, so to speak.

But almost as if the movie read my mind, Professor Lupin proceeds to teach Harry about the Patronus; an act of defense found from happiness, rather than the offense built from aggression that we saw with dueling. This was a remarkably powerful scene and for a film that is so packed to the gills, it was nice that the director gave it a moment to breathe because it really emotionally paid off. The fact that Harry doesn’t get it to work the first time showed volumes about the fact that he is learning, not just the magic lightning bolt baby who is better than everyone. It was a very visceral, clear intentioned, and beautiful.

A series of Act III rise-to-scale events occur involving the Hippogriff. This inane Hagrid B plot about how he has proceeded to Lenny yet another magical rabbit takes president in order to provide a grave but important character moment, as the children are actively witness to their first death in the series. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets did an A- job of creating a replacement of death by creating a state of magical coma, which worked remarkably well if you saw that the allegory was for something more akin to curb-stomping and less to straight up right away murder. As a result of bearing witness to an actual innocent’s execution, the characters are forced to grow, specifically Hermione. Hermione moves from sidelined strategist to finding her place within the heart of the violence by actively punching Draco Malfoy. We move in baby steps gearing this group towards fighting in war and as a result, this was vitally important. If Harry learned defence in this film, Hermione finally learned offence.

Anyways, in the din of plunging the A plot back into the B plot, we are chased back to what I’m calling the Love Shack, known to the rest of you as the Shrieking Shack, where we finally get to meet Sirius Black.

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Ron’s rat is not only important, but actually a super gross dude, Peter Pettigrew. We get a hauntingly beautiful moment of Gary Oldman just chewing the crap out of the scenery, and all is revealed in regard to Black’s innocence. Harry gets to be the bigger man for a moment, telling both adults that killing is not the answer. It was a lovely progression to get to this moment and it really paid off. Snape shows up to try to play hero, it gets weird, but nicely enough the kids come to the rescue, knocking him out in order for the adults to escape.

But hey, in a stroke of metaphor, the adults’ issues rear their monstrous heads in the form of an actual werewolf transformation. More fighting happens, a separation due to wolf stuff, and Harry and Sirius is born down upon by an army of Dementors. This results in Harry believing his father arrives to save them.

Awoken in a hospital bed, it appears that Sirius is alive but jailed. It is revealed that Hermione is not actually addicted to prescription drugs normally associated with academia, but rather she has been encouraged by a teacher to use the magical equivalent of caffeine pills.

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The time turner is a penultimate of “cool magic device, but did we really need it” in these films. Let’s be clear, the answer to this question to date is almost always an emphatic no, but this is the one that has affected plot the most.

In the blink of an eye, we undo all of the importance done in the B plot. The result is a series of time travel repeat misadventures where Buckbeak is saved. Thankfully, the memories and feelings of what it was like to witness the death of an innocent are still there, now just none of the actual consequence.

We are, however, gifted with a remarkably powerful scene.

One of the overarching themes throughout this film has been people talking about how flipping great Harry’s parents were, specifically his father. After seeing all of these people from the past come back, of course he assumes that his father is also one of these displaced soldiers, alive and well, waiting for his moment to properly reveal himself. Harry’s words to Hermione about how his father will return to save them become more hauntingly tragic as the reality sets in for Hermione, Harry, and the audience. “I don’t think anyone is coming,” she states. The adults will not save them. They cannot save them. They never could.

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As a result, a devastated but determined Harry Potter is forced in the moment to step up and becomes the hero everyone has implied he was, summoning his own Patronus.

Sirius is able to escape, fulfilling the perfect role for Harry, an alive but absentee parent figure. Someone is looking out for him, and yet there is no one to really tell him what to do, which is ultimately what every teenager wants. Lupin is asked to leave, continuing the rotating door of Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, leaving a hole in my heart for good parenting figures.

Overall, I can see why people have the most issues with this particular film. After its completion my friend filled me in on the connection with the Marauder’s Map, its creation, and the actual Marauders themselves. Though I must admit I wonder why Harry’s mom was not part of this weird club, I do have to agree, this is a B plot I would have much rather watched.

But that’s what makes Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban the Kobayashi Maru of the Harry Potter universe. From a filmmaker’s perspective, there was no way to make a Marauder’s centric film, complete with extra casting for flashbacks to break up the already lengthy exposition going on with all the animagus, without cutting the time turner. And if the time turner had been cut, they would have had to keep Buckbeak dead and change the nature of the Patronus plot, just having Harry save everyone outright the first time, which I’m sure would have angered a whole new slew of fans. No matter what, Cuarón was going to make a large portion of the book fandom furious. As a result, he went with the cheaper to shoot option with toy marketing capability and knowing the amount of people who I do who own time turners, I can’t blame him. You can still understand what’s going on in the film without the Marauders as a first time watcher. Sorry, book people.

At the end of the day though, this was a very seamless, dark, beautiful film. The transitions of the seasons through the use of the Whomping Willow were gorgeous, and the tone overall was a great extension of what Columbus was going for with his more subtle war imagery. This universal shift into wartime is very natural and very important as these children reached a pivotal age, specifically the age where war is something they are actively able to participate in now, rather than just observe. As a result, it is my favorite to date.

Final thoughts going into the next watch…

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And that’s the way the news goes, folks! Tune in next week as I talk about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and continue my ever obsessing quest to see what makes Alan Rickman so damned important in this series!


Check out more instalments in this journey below!

Melinda Gross
melindacatherinegross@gmail.com

2 thoughts on “Mel at the Movies: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

  1. Hi, I am loving seeing Harry Potter fresh through your eyes so far. When do we get to see your take on Goblet of Fire? Lots of good stuff in that one. I can’t wait!

    Thank you for writing these!

    Cheers,

    BarnyardOtter

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