Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

OK, for the sake of the fans, let’s get straight down to it. Is this a good Harry Potter film? Yes. Better than the book? It’s certainly shorter. Does Harry get some new spells in? Prepare to be blinded. Do Hermione and Ron finally get together? Not really. Will I be looking to buy fresh tickets on my way out of the cinema? Undoubtedly…

Now maybe you’ll be able to sit still long enough to consider the rest of the review ;)

Much-loved franchises like JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books can be a golden accolade or a poison chalice for actors and directors alike. The Philosopher’s Stone demonstrated how by-the-book some productions can become. The Order of the Phoenix, however, was doubly dangerous for director David Yates because even the big screen was not going to be big enough for the massive tome Rowling released as the fifth installment in her school-boy wizard series. Yates’ triumph in condensing so much plot into so little time will probably be overlooked by an audience captured by the pace he’s managed to create. The key to his success has been concentrating on the single subject of Harry’s growing sense of isolation.

Loneliness is one of the more realistic elements of Potter’s developing character. In real life extraordinary events tend to isolate a person more than they elevate them. Daniel Radcliffe does an excellent job of portraying a young man increasingly aware there is more about his life that sets him apart than unites him with even his most supportive friends. The increasing stress he feels stems from the isolation God long ago identified as detrimental to the human condition. In an idyllic world, as yet unsullied by sin, our Creator still observed: “It is not good for man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18)

The Order of the Phoenix underlines this axiom. Separated from his friends and mentors, doubted and ridiculed, devoid of all information about the dark Lord Voldemort’s return, Harry’s character begins to fester. Rowling might be attempting to mirror the sense of isolation her aging readers may now be feeling as they encounter their own teenage angst. Whatever the case, our fledgling wizard’s life is now characterized by desperate feelings of misunderstanding and all too brief moments of connection. His growing sense of separation is only increased by the introduction of the stifling forces of conservatism.

Imelda Staunton joins the Hogwart’s cast as Professor Dolores Umbridge, a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who has been foisted on the faculty by an increasingly interfering Ministry of Magic. The establishment is in denial over the return of Voldemort, the dark wizard Potter has been battling for four films now, and has decided to stamp out the rumours. Professor Umbridge displays that unruffled, unflinching, unreasoning character that many have come to associate with absolute beliefs. It seems that fundamentalists are the new ‘Russians’ as far as Hollywood is concerned and they are never far from violence when their beliefs are challenged. Umbrige inflicts the most extreme punishments on Harry for simply trying to express himself because, she says, “…deep down you know you deserve to be punished.”

This is the second outlook the film attributes to Harry’s puritanical opponent – the assumption that individuals are naturally evil and only harsh discipline will be sufficient to drive it from them. The scriptwriters seem to have had 19th century religious schools in mind, but the philosophy has more to do with the ancient Greeks. Aesthetics believed it was possible to produce good by separating the body from everything natural; Christianity, however, has no such pretensions.

Harry’s nefarious uncle Sirius Black is placed in opposition to Umbridge as the mouth-piece of reason. “You are a good person to which very bad things have happened,” he tells Harry, explaining away his fears that he is turning into something truly horrible. The line smacks more than a little of an excuse for Harry’s – and our – temper tantrums. But at least Black follows it up with an appeal to own his faults and accept that he has the responsibility to choose. “The world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters [dark wizards]. We all have light and dark inside of us. It is the path we walk on that matters.” But Harry still isn’t sure if he’s walking into the light or a greater personal darkness.

Harry ultimately discovers the power to conquer his loneliness and resist evil in the company of his friends. Harry tells the accusing Voldemort, “You are the weak one. You will never know love, you will never know friendship. And I pity you”. But strangely at the moment of this confrontation his friends are actually powerless to help him and he has to be sustained by their memory alone. This is where Christianity provides a more solid support to take hold of. The isolation Jesus worked to overcome was not ultimately that which separates us from one another but that which we have chosen over a relationship with our Creator. Once this gap is bridged we’ll find that loneliness will never have the same power again. We may enter valleys that seem devoid of light and there meet our darkest oppressor, but we wont lack support for “… there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24)

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