Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

[Brian G Turner]

Saw the film at the weekend and really enjoyed it - probably my favourite so far.

I often hated how easily JK Rowling played with my emotions! The Dursley's are one thing, but Umbridge was another entirely - exaggerated yet believable. The entire sense of unfairness was too overwhelming for me to remain detached! Rowling has always been clever at leveraging that.

Even better, Harry did stuff.

Too often before he's been helped most of the time - for example, he didn't really seem to much in Goblet of Fire (film) except be told what to do and where to go, and then just wave his wand about.

But in the Order of the Phoenix - the rebellion was wonderful. I can especially see how it might appeal particularly to anyone in school.

The ending didn't feel much like a climax, and had a sense of being rushed - not sure what the Sirius Black situation was. Helena Bonham-Carter just seemed to play a caricature of herself, though she didn't get much in terms of lines, as much as mad cackling.

Favourite film so far - The Half Blood Prince this weekend.

 

[biodroid]

I read the book before the movie and was highly disappointed because there was a revelation in the book that was not included in the movie and was quite pivotal. Have you read the book Brian?

 

[Boaz]

Just reread The Order while laid up with a kidney stone. The Cruciatus Curse can't be any worse, let me tell you.

I'm guessing biodroid's referring to Harry's glimpse into the pensieve while in Snape's office. I've not seen the film.

What really stuck out to me is how this is the beginning of Harry's coming of age. Yes, you can argue that Voldemort's incessant attacks since the beginning have forced Harry to grow up faster. Harry faced death in all of the first four books. The tone of the series changed a bit with The Prisoner and really changed with the graveyard scene in The Goblet. Yet, through the first four books, Harry is a child. He sometimes does manly deeds, but he's still a boy.

The Order opens with Harry turning fifteen. He's still a boy and throughout the book he struggles with childish emotions, irrational conclusion, and impulsive responses. But circumstances really force him to begin to abandon his childish worldview by the book's end. He is banned from Quidditch. He has to take O.W.L.s. He suffers torture from Umbridge. He is unfairly labeled and judged by the world. He has his first crush. Sirius dies. He is played for a fool by Voldemort. He has zero contact with Dumbledore. He learns his father was the school bully. He becomes the unofficial DADA teacher. And finally, he learns that he must either kill Voldemort or be murdered... and that begins to put Chocolate Frogs, quidditch, snogging, and sneaking around school into perspective. None of that childish stuff matters. As the Apostle Paul said, "When I was a child, I spoke like a child..... And when I became a man I put away childish things."

Harry won't be able to rely on Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, the Ministry, Hermione, Ron, the Weasley family, his team, or the D.A. to bail him out. He won't be able to brush it aside. He won't be able to somehow fix it. It's either kill or be killed.

Harry spent most of the book imagining either stupidity, malfeasance, or outright hostility about some members of the Order, Dumbledore especially. He's headed towards a summer of reflection and decision.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I'm just now starting this one with my daughter -- we're working our way through them. I think I've only seen the movie once, when it came out, so it will be interesting to compare them again. I have a notoriously bad memory, and so only the vaguest recollections of what happens in each of the last three books. I read them over again each time a new one was coming out, so the earlier ones have been read more than the later ones.

I agree with Brian's assessment that Harry hasn't really done a lot before now -- one of my only complaints about the series was that Harry was highly overrated, just having people do things for him all the time. He does have to step up a bit more in this one.

 

[Boaz]

DZ, I hope you and your daughter have great memories together.

I also reread The Half-Blood Prince... When the DA is formed, Harry is extremely insistent that people understand he's been fortunate and had a ton of help. Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, MacGonagall, Hagrid, Lupin, Sirius, Barty Jr., Buckbeak, Dobby, Cedric, Neville, Fawkes, Lilly, Fre, George, Ginny, Luna, Tonks, Moody, Shacklebolt, and others assist Harry. Even a certain someone gives Harry vital information near the end of the series. He also had an owl, various brooms, an invisibility cloak, a secret map, a lucky potion, the stone, the pensieve, the Prince's potion book, the twin core wand... and the sword of Gryffindor are all props that Harry uses. But the point that Rowling is trying to make, through Dumbledore's explanations, is that the reason Harry has these friends and special items because he is loved. Riddle understood none of this and so has to resort to theft and coercion for assistance.

 

[Caledfwlch]

It's a shame we never see the true fate & comeuppance of Umbridge in the Books, or films, but, and I was very pleased to see it, JKR's official position on Umbridge, is that after the Second Wizarding War, she is sentenced to Azkhaban, though there is no information as to whether it's a life sentence, or a short one.