Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.

As I’ve said before, I have a hard time writing about Harry Potter.  It’s something that’s so personal for me that I’m unable to separate my emotions enough to talk about the things that mean so much to me, much less do a full on analysis.  In spite of that, however, there are some things I can’t resist bringing up, one of which is this scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (starting at 1:10, with the Piertotem Locomotor as just a bonus):

One of my favorite aspects of the book was how Neville and McGonagall acted as generals during the Battle of Hogwarts, with Neville representing the students and McGonagall the adults.  I wondered how this would translate to the film, because while both characters have big moments in the story (Neville killing Nagini and his “Dumbledore’s Army” moment in front of Voldemort, and McGonagall’s Piertotem Locomotor and confrontation with Snape), I thought it would be a challenge to convey their roles in the battle in the film.

I was wrong, however, as they managed to capture the dynamic between the characters in one, very short sequence, that also brought a big laugh and made some more meta connections with the rest of the series and the books.  I love seeing Neville and McGonagall talking battle strategy, as it seems perfectly in line with the characters as they are in the final book, despite the fact that the scene was invented by screenwriter Steve Kloves.  I like that the scene contains just the end of what feels like a much longer discussion, with Neville having suggested blowing up the bridge and having been surprised by McGonagall’s agreement.

Maggie Smith could not be more perfect in the film generally, or with her enthusiastic “Boom!” in particular.  Matthew Lewis has some of my favorite moments in the film, having grown into exactly how I imagined Neville Longbottom to be at this point in the story.  The writing of this small moment is top notch, and does several clever things.  Firstly, this moment is filled with callbacks to previous moments from the film series, specifically ones that never existed in the books and were just creations of the films.  McGonagall shows her flare for alliteration with “particular proclivity for pyrotechnics”, something that was created by Steve Kloves, most notably in Goblet of Fire when she warns Gryffindor’s not to behave like a “babbling, bumbling band of baboons” at the Yule Ball.  Also of interest is Seamus’s talent for causing explosions, which featured heavily all the way back in Sorcerer’s Stone as a recurring gag and made a brief appearance in Half-Blood Prince.

Even more interesting is the fact that they’re discussing destroying the bridge, which in and of itself was a creation of the films.  Alfonso Cuaron, director of Prisoner of Azkaban, wanted a new set/location that would have a different look and feel compared to what had been seen in the previous two films.  It turns out that all of the dialogue in this moment relates entirely to inventions of the films, yet it uses those film-centric references to communicate characteristics from the books.  It’s a scene that’s faithful in spirit to the book but is faithful in text to the films.  I’ve always felt that Steve Kloves deserved more credit than he received for the quality of the job he did adapting the books for the screen.

Of course, the scene is just a lot of fun, and is a light moment in a film that has been dark up til this point and is about to become downright tragic, but it’s obviously more than just that to me.  It helps that the scene is preceded by Harry putting Neville and McGonagall in charge of the castle’s defense (asking her to buy him time and telling Neville to “hold the fort”) and is immediately followed by Piertotem Locomotor, one of the most dramatic and badass moments from the book, and accompanied by Alexander Desplat’s phenomenal score.  Moments that are light to other people tend to be the ones that make me the most emotional, though I’m not sure I have an explanation for that except that they are the moments where characters shine out as individuals.  For me, this small moment is one of the defining ones for both of these characters, and it’s one that I felt the need to point out its importance.  Just don’t make me talk about Neville saying, “I feel like I could spit fire,” later on in the film, because I’ll just collapse into a blubbering mess.

What do you think?  Do you like the callbacks in this scene to film-specific moments from the series?  Can you imagine a better way to show McGonagall and Neville as generals?  Am I the only one who emotionally fixates more on the light character moments than on the big dramatic moments?  Are you as surprised as I am that I got through writing this only crying three times (not counting the number of times I watched the clip from the film)?  Let me know in the comments!