At last, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” opens in movie theaters tonight, for a country in need of some serious escapism. All aboard the Hogwarts Express.
The signs are promising. Amazing trailers. A thumbs-up from author J.K. Rowling. A director, Chris Columbus, who can work with child actors (“Home Alone”) and has the dark imagination the Potter books need (“Gremlins”).
Rowling had great creative control over the movie, down to the casting. It’s going to be fascinating to see Hogwarts and Gringotts and Quidditch and Nearly Headless Nick through her eyes, how an author cinematically envisioned her own work.
That all said, I keep thinking of two other classics that were adapted — very well — to the big screen: Michael Ende’s T”he Neverending Story,” and William Goldman’s “The Princess Bride.” Show of hands: How many of you have read “The Neverending Story” and “The Princess Bride”? (Columnist closes eyes and crosses fingers).
I’ve never done a survey. But asking around, the answer seems to be: Not enough. Many undergraduates aren’t aware there was a book by Michael Ende. A frightening percentage give me a funny look when I act vexed about this, as if to say: So what? The movie was good.
I don’t know if Rowling’s works will meet a similar fate, for generations who encounter the books and movies simultaneously. They may well not. Although his works have been cinematized, I don’t think generations of schoolchildren have stopped reading and loving Roald Dahl (a clear inspiration for Harry’s horrid aunt and uncle) and “The Witches,” “James and the Giant Peach” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
I also hope people don’t get lazy and surrender the burden of imagining Hogwarts Academy to Rowling. Reading isn’t supposed to be easy. While I know that “Sorceror’s Stone” describes Harry’s adversary, Severus Snape, as “a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin,” and Alan Rickman certainly looks and sounds badass in the trailers, I have to part ways with Rowling here. Severus Snape is short and balding and unimpressive, except for an impotent fury that he carries everywhere. He’s that perpetually frustrated, middle-aged high school teacher who never got what he thought he deserved. If I had to cast him, I’d pick Armin Shimmerman (Quark on “Star Trek Deep Space Nine”) or that hunchbacked dude from “Princess Bride” who was always shouting, “Inconceivable!”
But how are you supposed to imagine what they look like, after seeing the film? If you’ve seen the movie first, it’s very, very hard to read “The Princess Bride” and not see Andre the Giant’s face stamped over the giant Fezzik’s.
That’s not the end of the world. And I have read the books. So I am looking forward immensely to seeing the Muggles and the Slytherins (and, ultimately, the Black Riders and the Ents). But I don’t think I’d let my kids see these films. Not until they’ve read, or been read, the books.
And if you rank among the few who haven’t yet boarded the Hogwarts Express, I would advise you too to check out the “Harry Potter” books now. Some things are too good to be seen first on the silver screen.
