The first Harry Potter movie was a thing looked forward to by some fans and dreaded by others. Their fears were understandable. Film adaptations rarely live up to the expectations of fans of the book. For a start there is always the need to cut things out, for purposes of running time. Secondly, there is the fact that film makers always seem to want to do their own thing and may, in the first place, see the books differently to the fans. Thirdly, the film industry is something ripe with codes, conventions and philosophies that could ruin a book that’s not perhaps commercial. And fourth, British books have the added problem of often being Americanised, which changes the culture and a lot of the essence of the story. But with the first Harry Potter movie, The Philosopher’s Stone (also known as The Sorcerer’s Stone in the U.S. and á l’Ecole des Sorciers [at Wizard’s School] in France), these factors didn’t seem to be a problem.I have to admit that as an adaptation of the book The Philosopher’s Stone is my favourite of the films so far. The film makers were cautious and tentative, not knowing how the film would be received, and so stuck to the book as much as possible. Obviously things had to be cut, or the film would be five hours long (not that the real fans would have minded!) but they were very careful about what they cut. Codes and conventions of the movie business didn’t really prove a problem, and the story was not Americanised (thank you J.K. Rowling for only signing the rights over once this part had been agreed on).
I was absolutely thrilled when I first saw this film, and to tell you the truth time only makes me more fond of it. This is an adaptation that I can sit down to watch and not be mentally complaining about, “Oh that was changed” and “Why did they do that?” and “That was out of character.”
The cast of the movie was absolutely spot on in my opinion – from the trio themselves, to Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane being J.K’s own choice), to McGonagall, to Dumbledore. With the latter character, a lot of people didn’t like him but I did. Dumbledore is a character with two sides to him – the wise, stately and respectable side, and the a-little-bit-mad side. Richard Harris played the first side of him, and the current Michael Gambon plays the second. Now if only we could see both sides at once!
The film makers created a fantastical world. Not only was the casting perfect, but the sets were breathtakingly accurate and honed to the last detail (the Great Hall and Diagon Alley being the best – by the way, did anyone spot the table and chair on top of one of the roofs?) and the costumes were brilliant. The school uniforms were not as they were described in the books. Instead of plain black robes pulled on over the head, the students wore regular school uniforms with a kind of cloak with sleeves (a ‘clobe’) worn over the top, which was embroidered with their house colours and symbol. But at least the actors wore the robe part in those days, and the embroidery and house colours were a good touch. The kids looked smart and made Hogwarts appear as the prestigious school that it is, but without turning its students into snobs or making them any less identifiable to the audience.
The adult characters’ costumes were probably the best though. I loved Dumbledore’s long, elaborately embroidered robes, and the long flowing white beard and hair defiantly beats the tied grey beard of Gambon’s Dumbledore, and the dull grey robes Gambon wears is outshined by far by Harris’s costumes. And for some reason I love McGonagall’s hat. Hagrid’s moleskin overcoat was great, too, as well as Snape’s flowing black robes and cloak – very menacing!
Also, for the most part, the characters were in character. The adults were almost faultless, aside from the missing side of Dumbledore’s personality. In particular, Alan Rickman perfected the role of Snape, Tom Felton was thoroughly satisfying as Draco and Richard Griffiths great as Uncle Vernon. With the trio themselves, Hermione was the best. She was swotty, she was bossy, she was clever and she was caring. Emma Watson shined! Rupert Grint as Ron was also great at this point, though perhaps the one defect would be the lack of Ron’s trademark sarcasm (although it did appear a couple of times – “Kill us faster? Oh, now I can relax!”), and despite the fact that he had never acted before gave a very professional and funny performance. As Harry, Daniel Radcliffe was perfect as far as looking the part went. The characterisation of Harry was perhaps a little off in that we didn’t see as much of his stubborn, talk-back side as we could have. A fault that was corrected in later films. Dan’s acting performance was kind of half and half. He had good moments and not so good moments. His face expressions during the film kind of bug me a little. I’m torn between noticing the worldly depth of his eyes, and thinking that the rest of his facial features aren’t really expressive enough. His delivery of his lines, as I said before, had its good times and not so good times. However, these are both things that had improved greatly by the second film as well, which shows that the only problem was lack of experience, although he had had more of it than the other two. But then some people have it naturally and others have to perfect it.
There were a couple of bits in this film which were perhaps a little cheesy or were not made the most of, and some of the special effects were substandard – Quiddich was a little strained, although the magical beasts were fantastic. But all in all the film makers adapted the book in an extremely satisfying way. The soundtrack by John Williams was another of his works of genius. Hedwig’s Theme is now recognised by all, even those who have never seen the film. The fact that J.K. herself apparently had more input than most authors do into the adaptation of their work couldn’t have hurt, either. For a start, she made sure that the actor who played Harry, along with most of the other kids, was an unknown. This has been a smart move not only because it means that those kids are not tied down by associations with other roles (and so making people recognise them as themselves or other parts they’ve done rather than the character), but it means that the Harry Potter films have become a great way for hopeful young British actors to get one heck of a kick start in their careers.
I could go on and on forever on exactly why I like this first film, but I won’t. In short, though, I believe it deserved to break all the box office records that it did.