The film was 152
minutes and released on November 16, 2001. It was directed
by Chris Columbus. The screenplay was written by Steven
Kloves. The list of the cast is here.
The film which is directed
by Chris Columbus rarely engages or evokes the emotion
that the book is so famous for doing. The filmmakers focus
on how visual effects should be done, not allowing characters
to have enough time to interact with each other. Thus,
characterisation suffers in favour of special effects.
When actors miss certain emotions
or lines in the film, which characters in the novel are
suppose to show, minor errors may occur. The accumulation
of these minor details can create a noticeably different
experience between the two Medias. Thus, it is vital for
films to present their narrative power without losing
any novel's emotional intensity. The misrepresentation
can eclipse certain majour characters and viewers lose
interest and do not care about those characters(Philip
Nel).
The film attracts viewers'
attention and makes them wonder how the visual effects
were done but does put emphasis on how the story plots
really are. For example, Rowling uses great dialogues
to show the friendship between Ron and Harry. However,
in the film, the director focuses on special visual effects
such as the jumping chocolate frog (Philip
Nel). To view a great critic on the differences between
the film and the novel, please click here.
Moreover, Rowling writes the
book without focusing on a certain audience; on the contrary,
the filmmaker does focus on children as the majour audience.
Certain values that Rowling emphasizes in the novel do
not apply to the film. On the other hand, the screenplay
writer inputs his own humour into the film which may misrepresent
the characters differently from the author.
For example, in the novel, when Slytherin's team cheats
during the Quidditch match, there is a referee who punishes
the team. In the film, the director, Chris Columbus, attempts
to connect viewers emotionally with Harry's team by absurdly
extending the cheating and allowing cheaters to get away
with it. The distortion does mislead viewers' into the
different kinds of understanding of Rowling's novel (Philip
Nel).
Three main reasons why the
film needs to be faithful to the book are: preventing
conflicts, avoiding disappointment, and expanding imagination.
To see the full arguments, click here.
In the contrary, the reasons
why the changes need to be done are: better plots connection
and exaggerate visual effects. To see the full arguments,
click here.
Story Analysis
Reference