THE HARRY POTTER MOVIE: "Harry and The half-blood prince": death and distress
By Marcia Montenegro
[This is an evaluation of a movie, not a review, and is done for the purpose of pointing out anything in the movie that could be problematic for children from a moral and/or biblical viewpoint, and it is written primarily to inform parents. Therefore, not all aspects of the movie are discussed, and the plot is not covered. Please read any of the CANA articles on the Harry Potter books for further information. Thank you.]
Evaluation
The tenor of the movie throughout is very dark; except for a few scenes,
it even looks like it is twilight most of the time. This matches the
dark mood of the story. The movie initiates the viewer into this
darkness right at the beginning when hordes of creatures called Death
Eaters (who look like scary black ghostly streaks) attack crowds of
people in a city and cause a footbridge to fall into the river.
Other frightening scenes include a Hogwarts student, Katy, who is put
under an evil and life-threatening spell. Harry and his friends come
upon her lying in the snow. As they try to rouse her, she is suddenly
lifted into the air with an agonized look on her face, and then is
dropped abruptly and sickeningly to the ground. This is a scene that
would actually be disturbing to an adult, much less a child.
At another point, Ron mistakenly drinks some poisoned mead. He
collapses, groaning with foam at the mouth. This incident brings Ron
close to death, but he recovers. Harry also casts a spell from a spell
book on Draco, the student who opposes Harry and later tries to kill
Dumbledore. This spell causes Draco to fall in pain, bleeding all over
his body. Prof. Snape appears and performs magic to heal Draco. There
are other scenes when Harry, his friends, and others are in danger, such
as the scene at the Weasley's house when villainess Bellatrix Lestrange
and cohorts attack, setting fire to the Weasley home.
There is discussion of Horcruxes. A Horcrux is an object that holds part
of someone's soul. A wizard can split his soul, putting it in objects. Voldemort has split his soul into 7 pieces, which he has hidden in
Horcruxes. In order to split the soul, Harry is told, the person doing
so is required to commit murder.
In one scene, Harry must make Dumbledore drink a potion that causes
great pain and suffering to Dumbledore. Even when Dumbledore pleads that
he cannot drink anymore, Harry must continue to give it to him (in the
book, this scene is actually longer and more excruciating). Not long
after this, horrifying-looking skeletal creatures in a lake surrounding
Dumbledore and Harry climb from the water and begin to attack, pulling
Harry under the water. Dumbledore performs a spell to save Harry and get
rid of the creatures (these attacks in the book are more drawn out and
more distressing). These repulsive creatures are called Inferi (plural;
singular is Inferius) and are actually corpses controlled through dark
magic. Inferi is the Latin word to refer to the underworld of the dead
or to those who are dead or in the place of the dead.
This movie is based on the book that recounts Dumbledore's death, which
is shown very dramatically. Prof. Snape points his wand at Dumbledore
and gives the death curse, causing Dumbledore to fall to his doom. Harry
is not far away and witnesses this. This is probably the most horrific
scene because of the emotional impact on the young fans who admire
Dumbledore.
There is spell-casting, of course. Early in the movie, Harry performs a
spell to foil a Quidditch player so that his friend Ron makes a good
play. Casting spells is shown throughout the movie as though it is as
ordinary as having a snack or answering a phone. True to his history of
lying and cheating (this is more evident in the books than the movies),
Harry cheats by using a spell book for his Potions class that was used
previously, and contains answers and advanced magical spells from the
previous owner (who later turns out to be Prof. Snape). Having this book
causes Harry to win the first challenge in the class, and allows him
(albeit immorally) to do well in the course until he's persuaded by
Ginny to not use the book any more. But Ginny only persuades Harry to do
this because of the severe injury Harry caused to Draco when he cast a
spell on him taken from the book. .
Conclusion
I would not recommend this movie to anyone, especially to children.
Even the rather liberal Family Filmgoer in the Washington Post wrote
that this movie is "iffy" for those under age 10. Any positive values in
the movie, such as Harry's loyalty to his friends, his bravery, or the
desire to fight the villains, is sullied by scenes of violence, spell
casting (including by the "good" characters), and sorrow. The ending is
not uplifting at all. The movie closes with Harry, Ron, and Hermione
deciding to seek out the remaining Horcruxes in which Voldemort has
hidden bits of his split soul.
The overall tone of the movie is mournful and dark.
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