Action. Reaction.

– Chabert

Details

Director: Christophe Barratier

Co-written by Barratier and Phillippe Lopes-Curval

Released March 17, 2004

Nationality French

Budget 5.5 million Euros

Revenue: Worldwide gross of over $83 million

Production Notes

Christophe Barratier wanted to make more things that had some connection to his childhood so looked for a musically driven movie to do this. 

The film is an adaption of La Cage aux rossignols.

Barratier had an emotional connection to the film.

Gerard Jugnot and him then collaborated to bring the film to life. 

Jean Baptiste Maunier was chosen for his amazing ability to sing and cast him as the “main” singer/actor for the movie. 

The other children chosen had very little to no acting experience.

Filming took place at Chateau de Ravel. 

Special effects such as fog and practical effects such as scorching walls made the school look more run down and added to its prison like facade.

Synopsis

The film begins with a composer, Pierre Morhange, doing his job at a concert and is informed of someone, his mother, passing away. Once home for the funeral a man, Pepinot (Didier Flamand) approaches him and they begin to reminisce about their school days. Pepinot presents him with a book that belonged to their old school prefect, Clement Mathieu (Gerard Jugnot). As they read it they remember exactly what happened through a flashback. Back in 1949 the new prefect, Mathieu, arrives at the school, Fond de l’Étang. There he quickly peruses the dilapidated environments of the school for troubled boys and meets one of the students by the gate of the school, a young Pepinot (Maxence Perrin). The boy says that he was waiting there for his father that said he would pick him up on a Saturday. Unbeknownst to Pepinot his parents were killed in the war, he just hasn’t been informed yet.

He meets the hard headed headmaster of the school, Rachin (Francois Berleand) who he quickly takes a disliking to and vice versa. As the caretaker of the school, Maxence (Jean-Paul Bonnaire) was opening a door the glass on its front shattered, injuring his eye. A prank by one of the students. He also meets the exiting prefect and is warned of the children’s troublesome personalities. Mathieu finds the culprit through his kind and caring attitude toward the children and decides to keep it to himself as the kids were being punished in mean and inhumane ways. He did, however, punish the kid by having him nurse Old Maxence back to health without revealing it was his fault. One day Mathieu discovers the kids singing vulgar songs about him and decides to use that to his advantage. He decides to nurture this aptitude for singing in the kids and in doing so teach them discipline. A perfect teaching plan for someone who used to be a musician and failed at it. Each boy is grouped according to their vocal range. Morhange, the one having the flashback, refused to sing however and mocked him instead. He is punished and sent to solitary confinement.

One day, while Pierre was mopping up the classroom, he spots lyrics on the board and sings them revealing his amazing voice. Mathieu hears this and gives him the part of lead vocalist and a solo. Pierre’s mother (Marie Bunel) arrives to visit, but as he is being punished he cannot be allowed to see her. Mathieu covers for him by telling her that he went to the dentist. Mathieu also develops a crush on the boy’s mother. Afterwards, an even more troubled, psychopath of a boy named Mondain arrives at the school to see how he functions in a group. The boy bullies the weaker kids and thrives on being a nuisance, even standing up to Mathieu and refusing to sing. At one point he steals a watch from one of the teachers and is put in solitary for two weeks straight. As the year goes on everyone is benefitting from the choir. Everyone, including the school, is in a much better state and even the headmaster has begun to play with the kids instead of constantly punishing them. At some point Mondain ends his solitary confinement by escaping and a large amount of school money goes missing. He is, of course, blamed and captured. Rachin slaps and beats him trying to get information out of him but the boy does not budge. He is then sent to the police and Rachin cancels the choir blaming Mathieu for the occurence. Mathieu, however, holds practice in secret in the boys’ sleeping quarters.

During a meeting with Pierre’s mother he tells her how good a singer he is and how he belongs in a conservatory. She also tells him how she has met a rich engineer, breaking his heart without her knowing of his crush on her. Mathieu, ever the kind trooper, fakes enthusiasm for her. After sometime, the school’s Countess is informed of the choir and wishes to see it. Mathieu prepares the boys and puts on the show. During the show, Mathieu gives Pierre back his solo after it was taken away for behaving badly. The Countess loved the show but Rachin took credit for it and the choir. Later on, Mathieu discovers that it was really a boy named Corbin that took the money for the choir and not Mondain. Even with this revelation, Rachin refuses to take him back from the police. During a day of vacation, Mathieu and Maxence take the kids on a hike of sorts and come back to find the school on fire. Mondain came back to get his revenge without anyone knowing. Rachin blames them not being there for the fire.

Even with the knowledge that their actions saved the lives of all the boys that day, Rachin still made the decision to fire Mathieu and suspend Maxence. The boys are refused a goodbye, and as Mathieu leaves he believes no one really cared at the end. Just then papers come flying out the window with farewell messages and the boys sing for their departing teacher. As the men finish the diary, Pierre narrates what happened next for him. He went to conservatory, his mother married the engineer but he later left them when she refused to send him to another boarding school, and Rachin was fired for his inhumane treatment of the boys. Pepinot tells that Mathieu continued teaching music for the rest of his life without ever winning fame. Pepinot then recounts how shortly after Mathieu was fired Pepinot followed him and begged him to take him along. Mathieu refuses but then stops the bus and takes him anyway. Pepinot got a father and the two left the school forever on a Saturday.  

Analysis

The Chorus is a heartwarming movie through and through. It is a movie that focuses largely on hope and what it can provide for a person’s life. Throughout the movie the kids are treated like scum because of their circumstances. Most of them were orphans and miscreants without a single person to love them. They were put in the school as a means to help them, but were treated like garbage. It took a fresh, new mind coming in to free them from their lives and this new mind gave the kids hope for the future. This is seen in the lives of Pierre and Pepinot. Mathieu was simply trying to teach them in his own way, but through music he gave these kids a future. Pierre especially benefited from it as he was a hidden talent works in music in the future. This movie emphasizes the effect one normal person can have on a whole society of people. When Mathieu arrived at the school was no better than a prison and its teachers simply wardens, but overtime his presence changed everyone. Mathieu did not achieve many things in his life. He came to the school as a failed musician and left as a failed prefect, but his actions, as small as they seemed to be, left a huge impact. 

Society also had an impact on the period of the movie. As the movie was set only a couple of years after World War 2 its effects are still raw in the minds of the characters. Most likely the majority of the kids are orphans because of the war and this is seen keenly in Pepinot’s development. The school also seemed to suffer from the war as France was no doubt still recovering and things like school and other commodities fell to the wayside.

The Chorus is of the Drama genre and at times feels like a musical albeit without the spectacular musical scenes of most. The movie was even adapted into a musical in 2017 by Barratier. A movie similar to it would have to be Dead Poets Society. They are pretty similar in most regards, but most especially in plot. Both have to do with teachers and their unorthodox teaching methods and both end with the teacher’s firing and the boys’ recognition of the teacher’s deeds for them. They were released years apart so I wouldn’t put it past Barratier to have taken inspiration from Dead Poets Society.

Citations

“Les Choristes (2004) – Financial Information.” The Numbers, https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Choristes-Les#tab=summary.

“The Chorus.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 17 Mar. 2004, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372824/.

Details

Directed by: Peter Jackson

Released 19 December, 2001

Nationality: American

Budget: 93 million USD

Revenue: 871 million

Production Notes

Work on the film adaptation began as soon as 1997. 

Alan Lee and John Howe became the main conceptual designers.

Both contributed to different parts of Middle Earth as they had illustrated for the books in the past.

Ngila Dickson was the main costume designer and created over 19,000 costumes along with 40 other seamstresses. 

Many areas of New Zealand were used for Middle Earth.

Many camera tricks were used in the making of this film as the characters in the book were all of differing and fantastical heights. 

Some were filmed separately and others were filmed using forced perspective to create the illusion that the much smaller Hobbits were interacting with men that tower over them. 

CGI was also used for things like massive battles.

Howard Shore helmed the score.

Synopsis

Our story begins in the land of Middle Earth with a Dark Lord named Sauron waging war against the other lands. He wields the One Ring of Power and uses its power to control all other Rings given to the kings of the other lands. Pushed back and about to falter, the kingdoms of men and elves face off in a battle. During the battle a Prince of Gondor slices Sauron’s finger off and with it the Ring. Sauron is destroyed as a result and the Prince takes the Ring for himself, seduced by its power. After being killed, the Prince loses the Ring and it is not seen until a hobbit named Gollum (Andy Serkis) discovers it and succumbs to its power and is altered physically. After an encounter with an adventuring hobbit named Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm), Gollum loses the Ring and Bilbo puts it on, discovering its power to render him invisible.

After years of concealing the Ring, Bilbo is about to have a birthday. His 111th birthday to be exact, far longer than any hobbit has lived. A large wizard named Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) arrives in the Shire to celebrate his old friend’s birthday. During a speech, Bilbo declares that he is going to leave now to have another adventure before his death. Bilbo puts on the ring and disappears in front of the whole town. Frodo (Elijah Wood), his nephew, goes back to Bag End to discover that the Ring has been left to him as well as Bag End and its wealth. Though not easy and clearly affected by the Ring’s power, Bilbo reluctantly gives up the Ring to him after Gandalf arrives. After Gandalf investigates the Ring he gives it to Frodo and gives him a mission to leave the Shire with the Ring. Frodo’s friend, Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin), accompanies him as he is a loyal friend. Gandalf continues his investigation and calls upon Saruman the White (Christopher Lee) for help only to discover that Sauron is now in league with Sauron and learns that the Nazgul, ringwraiths, have been sent to retrieve the Ring. They fight, but ultimately Gandalf is overpowered by Saruman and is confined in his tower. Sam and Frodo make their way to Bree, but are joined by two other hobbits, Merry Brandybuck (Dominic Monaghan) and Peregrin (Pippin) Took (Billy Boyd).

Once arrived they look for Gandalf but he does not arrive. Instead they meet a ranger named Strider (Viggo Mortensen) who swears to take them to Rivendell, a city of elves. On their way, the Witch-King, leader of the Nazgul, surrounds them and stabs Frodo, cursing him and putting him in danger of death and becoming a ringwraith himself. A figure comes riding in and turns out to be an elf named Arwen (Liv Tyler), Strider’s lover. She incapacitates the Nazgul by summoning a flood from the river that surrounds Rivendell and gets Frodo to safety. He is healed and witness the meeting of some of the leaders of Middle Earth including Gandalf, who escaped imprisonment. Elrond (Hugo Weaving) comes to the conclusion that the Ring must be destroyed in the fires of Mt. Doom in Mordor, where it was forged. Frodo accepts the mission to destroy the Ring along with his friends, Gandalf, a dwarf named Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), an elf named Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and two men one Boromir of Gondor (Sean Bean), and Aragorn i.e. Strider. Also revealed is that Aragorn is the true King of Gondor and heir to the Prince that lost the Ring. Bilbo, who was staying in Rivendell, gives Frodo his special sword Sting that glows in the presence of Orcs and Goblins.

The Fellowship of the Ring is formed and they make way through the Mines of Moria as there is no easier way to Mordor. Moria has changed and is now a dwelling place of Orcs and trolls. As they make their escape a Balrog confronts them and battle Gandalf. Gandalf sacrifices himself to give the others a chance to escape and is presumed dead. Aragorn then leads the Fellowship onward to Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and she warns Frodo that someone in the group will try to take the ring from him. After leaving, Boromir tries to take the Ring to save his homeland but fails to do so. Frodo decides to leave on his own and bear the weight of the Ring himself. The Fellowship is then attacked by Saruman’s Uruk army. Boromir is fatally wounded after fighting valiantly and watches as Merry and Pippin are taken captive. Aragorn slays his killer and watches his friend die. Unbeknownst to the others Sam had been following Frodo and goes with him on the quest, while the remaining members of the Fellowship take off to rescue the Hobbits. 

Analysis

Fellowship of the Ring is fantasy film through and through. To me it is the pinnacle of what a fantasy film can achieve within modern day. In this sense it carries a lot of what makes a fantasy film a fantasy. It deals with very easy themes such as Good vs Evil, Friendship and the use of Power. This is, however, far from a family film. It shows graphic scenes such as stabbings and killings, but never without necessity. Boromir’s death, as dragged out as it was, shows his perseverance and his reluctance to die, while at the same time showing his remorse for trying to take the Ring and for trying to harm his new friends. This opens up the theme of Friendship. Its literally in the title. In this film, fellowship is all there is. Every member of the group brings their own wit, their own skills, and their own personality. Each one of them feels different and has a different reason for being there. Whether it’s Sam’s loyalty, Pippin foolishness, or Gimli’s roughness, each one of them feels fleshed out. 

Perhaps one of the most prevalent themes in the film and throughout the series is the corrupting effects of power. Power and the One Ring are interchangeable or one and the same in Tolkien’s eyes. Whoever puts on the Ring is doomed to its corruption and this is exemplified in the characters and their choices. Gollum became a horrific creature after years of having the Ring, and Bilbo almost followed suit. His face contorted when trying to give up the Ring. Another example is Boromir and how he tried to take the Ring by force even though he thought it was for a good reason. 

Movies like Lord of the Rings would literally include most fantasy films. While not the first of its kind it most definitely became a model for ones that came after.

Citations

“Lord of the Rings: Production Costs and Global Box Office Revenue 2017.” Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/323463/lord-of-the-rings-films-production-costs-box-office-revenue/.

“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 19 Dec. 2001, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/.

“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) – Financial Information.” The Numbers, 19 Dec. 2001, https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Lord-of-the-Rings-The-Fellowship-of-the-Ring-The#tab=summary.

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good

– A lot of people in the movie

Details

Directed by Alfonso Cuaron

Chris Columbus becomes a producer

Released: June 4, 2004

Nationality: English 

Budget: 130 million

Revenue: 795.6 million

Production Notes

Filmed in an 18 month cycle

Columbus did not return citing family time

Guillermo del Toro was approached but refused to partake due to the happy nature of the last two films

Others like Shamaylan were considered but turned it down 

Rowling accepted Cuaron’s appointment

At one point he appointed each of the main child actors to write an essay on their characters as an autobiography but Rupert Grint did not turn it in as he felt Ron wouldn’t even do it.

Celtic feel to the sets 

CGI was used for Dementors and other new effects such as the Night Bus.

Final movie in the franchise to have John Williams as composer.

Synopsis

Harry Potter is back home with the Dursleys living his Muggle life and asks Vernon (Richard Griffiths) to sign his permission slip. He agrees but only if he behaves. Vernon’s sister Marge visits and promptly insults Harry, who takes it like a champ, until she insults his mother and father. Harry has a magic fit and blows up Marge like a balloon and she floats away into the evening sky. Knowing he’ll be blamed by the Durselys for doing it on purpose runs away. He sits by the curb only for something to snarl at him from the bushes. Harry sees a black dog and falls to the side as a magic bus arrives. The Knight Bus whisks him away to the Leaky Cauldron where Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy) is waiting for him. Fudge tells Harry that the ministry understands that his use of underage magic was an accident and that his aunt would be disinflated and her memories altered.

After reuniting with his friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), Arthur Weasley (Mark Williams), Ron’s dad, informs Harry that notorious serial killer Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) has escaped from Azkaban and most likely working for Lord Voldemort. Once on the train Harry and company find a car with a professor Lupin (David Thewlis) who is fast asleep. The train is stopped for inspection by dementors, Azkaban guards who suck souls,  looking for Sirius Black. One of them approaches Harry and begins to attack Harry and Lupin steps in and casts a spell, getting rid of the dementor. Harry then develops a fear of dementors. Once at Hogwarts, Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) tells the students that they will play host to dementors while they search for Sirius Black seeing how they think he might be after Harry. Throughout the opening ceremony, several things are announced including the appointment of Lupin to Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) as the Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Something astonishing as Hagrid never graduated from Hogwarts and was only recently only a game keeper for the school.

At his first ever class, he introduces the class and Harry to a hippogriff named Buckbeak, who promptly let’s Harry ride him. Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), however, makes the creature mad and it scratches him, putting Hagrid in trouble as Draco’s father is very powerful in the community. As the Gryffindor kids return to their dorms they find the painting of the Fat Lady that guards their entrance destroyed with scratch marks from what seems like a wild animal. Once found the Fat Lady tells everyone that Sirius Black did it and was in the school. The school is placed in lock down mode for a while but returns to normality when no one is found. During a Quidditch match, Harry is assaulted by dementors while looking for the golden snitch and falls a great height after one pushes him of his flying broom. Dumbledore saves him and is furious. Harry, looking for answers as to why Sirius would be after him, sneaks into Hogsmeade, a small village nearby where the students are allowed to congregate, and learns that Sirius was the one that gave up his parents to Voldemort and killed their friend Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall). He also learns that Sirius was and still is his godfather.

Harry decides to learn to defend himself from dementors as well and so Lupin teaches him how to cast a Patronus. After an altercation with Malfoy and goons, Harry, Ron and Hermione see Buckbeack be executed under the orders of the Minister of Magic who was contacted by Draco’s father. Ron’s rat Scabbers, who was recently returned to him by Hagrid, begins acting strangely and bites Ron. As he attempts to escape, Ron grabs him while near the Whomping Willow and the dog that visited Harry earlier grabs Ron by the leg and takes him under the tree. The tree turns out to be connected to a shack near Hogsmeade and the dog reveals himself to be Sirius in his animagus form. Lupin then shows up and seems to be friendly with Sirius to the point of hugging him. After some exposition and the reveal that Lupin was a werewolf by Hermione, Sirius reveals that he was wrongly imprisoned and that the true culprit was Ron’s rat. He then transforms Scabbers back into his human form, Peter Pettigrew.  After confirming the truth, Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) arrives and disarms Sirius and Lupin, who were about to kill Peter. Harry knocks Snape unconscious to learn just what happened. Lupin and Black explain and just as they were about to kill Peter Harry convinces them to give him to the dementors.

As they exit the shack, the full moon shines in the night sky and Lupin turns into a werewolf. He loses all his senses and begins attacking indiscriminately. Sirius turns back into a dog and fights him off, but Peter escapes in the chaos. Harry manages to save Sirius but are swarmed by dementors. A mysterious figure casts a Patronus at the edge of the lake just as the dementors were about to kill them both. Harry is convinced that it was his father and falls asleep. He then wakes up in the Hospital wing of the school only to find that Sirius has been captured and was about to receive the dementor’s kiss, in which a dementor devours his soul and renders him a vegetable. Dumbledore, seemingly talking in riddles, tells Hermione to do something and she pulls out a Time Turner. Using this, she and Harry turn back time to when Buckbeak was about to be executed and save him. They then draw wolf Lupin away from the group and Buckbeak drives him away. Once they find past Harry and Sirius being attacked by the dementors, present Harry waits for his father to arrive, but no one comes. He then realizes it was he who cast the spell and repeats it as he saw himself do so already. They go on to break Sirius out of his cage and ride away on Buckbeak. Sirius then uses the creature to flee from the school, but not before thanking Harry and Hermione. Lupin resigns as he doesn’t think the children’s parents would want a werewolf to continue teaching their children. Harry then sits down for a meal with his friends and receives a gift. A new broom from Sirius Black and a feather from Buckbeak.  

Analysis

Prisoner of Azkaban is where things start to take a turn for the Harry Potter franchise. The pervasive feelings of whimsy and magic of the previous movies are still present but vastly diminished. Themes of corruption and misuse of power are present here as well as dealing with things like murder. It is important to note that much like the audience, Harry is now no longer a child and has lived with knowledge of the wizarding world for quite a while. The veil he had as a kid has begun to fall in this film and begins seeing the corruption and other nasty things that can run behind the scenes even in a magically advanced society.

Prisoner of Azkaban belongs to the Magical Realism/Fantasy genre as does its sister movies. This one, however, begins to veer in a different direction. While the other two films were made to appeal to children in particular, Prisoner of Azkaban was made with teens in mind. This is shown in its subject matter and its overall feel. These teens in the movie still have normal issues such as bullying and acceptance. Other films in the same genre would be films and series like Twilight and The Hunger Games which came much later.  These movies spend time showing their protagonists going against what people think and trying to simply survive and make sense of the world around them. One interesting thing to make note of is the blueish tint the movie has throughout it. Previous Harry Potter movies had very warm colors throughout, but this one has cold colors. It’s a very depressing color choice but it works so well for what the movie deals with. The movie is full of deep blues perhaps signaling how the wizarding world is changing and the coming storm of the future plot.

Citations

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1449887233/.

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 31 May 2004, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304141/.

McGregor, Lewis, et al. “Why Do Filmmakers Color Grade Moonlight to Be Blue?” The Beat: A Blog by PremiumBeat, 23 Aug. 2017, https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/why-color-grade-moonlight-blue/.

If you die down there, you’re more than welcome to share my toilet.

-Moaning Myrtle

Details

Release date: November 15, 2002

Director: Chris Columbus

Nationality: English

Budget: $100 million

Revenue: $878,979,634 worldwide

Production Notes

Chris Columbus once again helms the movie, although Frank Oz was approached

Stuart Craig returned to design new sets and a myriad of other magical elements for the new film.

Filming began in November 2001 in many places from the first film such as Privet Drive and compilation of places for Hogwarts. Kings Cross was also used once again. 

Francis Nolan, a linguistics professor, created the fictional snake language Parseltongue for the movie.

Pro Tools was used for the Sound design.

John Williams returned for the orchestral composition of the movie and was helped by William Ross. 

Synopsis

Young Harry Potter finds himself once again with his extended family, the Dursleys as his school year is about to begin. While Vernon(Richard Griffiths) tells Harry to behave as he is about to make a big sale, he sends him to his room to pretend he doesn’t have a young ward in his home. Harry complains about not receiving any letters from his new friends Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint). Dobby then shows up in Harry’s room revealing himself to be a house-elf, i.e. wizard slave, and tells him he will be in danger if he returns to Hogwarts that year. In order to ensure that he stays put, Dobby (Toby Jones) drops a cake with magic on Vernon’s client and Vernon subsequently blames and punishes Harry for his alleged deeds. During the night, Harry hears a car in the distance that turns out to be his friend Ron and his brothers whom Harry had met the year before. The flying car is revealed to have been modified by their dad and they took it to save Harry from his entrapment. In the morning, the Weasley family take Harry to buy his school supplies in Diagon Alley where he accidentally teleports to the wrong store. Hidden, Harry sees his nemesis Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) and his father Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) enter the store to drop off some seemingly dark objects.

After Harry gets situated he runs into Hermione who is also buying supplies. Once reacquainted they all go to a book signing hosted by famous wizard Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh) and are confronted by Draco and his father. Lucius puts a book into Ginny’s (Bonnie Wright) cauldron (Ron’s little sister) but no one seems to notice other than Harry. Once that happens they all go to platform 9 and 3 Quarters but Ron and Harry are locked outside. Scared they might miss the train and their chance to attend Hogwarts the kids take the magical flying car and chase after the train. They are also promptly seen by a couple of Muggles, humans with no magic.They manage to land the car in the Whomping Willow which turns out to be a sentient tree that tries to squish them and Ron breaks his wand. The car, sentient as well, kicks the boys out and disappears into the forest. Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) yells at them and threatens them with expulsion but Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) gives them only detention.

After his detention session with his new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Lockhart, Harry hears voices and follows them only to find Filch’s (David Bradley) cat petrified. A message looms overhead where the cat was hanging saying that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened. Later that week the kids are taught about the Chamber, the staff unable to keep it a secret from all the prying eyes, and was said to have been created by a founder of Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin, who has ideas about Muggle and Wizard relations. Slytherin believed in a pure blood race and detested those who had mixed blood. He raised a Basilisk and placed it in the chamber in order to purify the school of those Mudbloods, but had since been thought to have been a myth as it had not been opened in years. In order to get more information, the trio begin to brew poly juice potion, which allows them to turn into anyone they have genetic material for, and do so in a haunted bathroom. The potion, however, would take a month to complete. At a certain point Harry ends up in the hospital wing of Hogwarts after suffering a Quidditch injury and Dobby appears yet again revealing he locked him out of the Platform earlier that year, Harry furious sends him away. Lockhart began a dueling club shortly after and instructed the children on the art of battle. He fought with Snape but immediately lost in a flamboyant manner as if he planned to do so. Draco and Harry are then made to duel but Draco conjures a snake and Harry is forced to talk to it so it wouldn’t hurt a Hufflepuff student. This act leads to the student body viewing Harry as the one who is opening the chamber. Once the potion is ready, Harry and Ron disguise themselves as Draco’s posse and find out a girl was killed when the Chamber opened fifty years before. After turning back they find out Hermione messed up her potion and was turned into a cat girl and was sent to the hospital wing.

Harry later on stumbles upon Tom Riddle’s diary, a student that used to attend Hogwarts, and speaks with it. The diary shows him what happened when the Chamber was last opened and how Hagrid was blamed for what happened with the girl. Tom accuses Hagrid and a large spider crawls out of Hagrid’s box. Harry returns to his room on a later date only to find it ransacked and the diary missing. News also comes that Hermione has also been petrified. As the boys question Hagrid back in present day, he is visited by Professor Dumbledore and Minister of Magic, i.e. Magic Prime Minister, Cornelius Fudge. The boys sneak out as Hagrid gives them a clue to follow the spider. Hagrid is then taken to Azkaban, wizard jail, as the Ministry thinks its the same spider causing the students petrification. The spider reveals to the boys that he and Hagrid were both innocent and that the Basilisk was causing the petrifictation and then promptly tries to feed the boys its children. They are saved by the now feral car and it goes back to its new wild life. Harry and Ron visit Hermione and find something in her hand, a piece of paper with details on how to avoid instant death at the hands of the monster. Everyone petrified so far was lucky enough to have only seen the monster’s reflection, as direct eye contact with its eyes causes instant death. Harry and Ron then overhear that Ginny has been taken into the Chamber and will most likely die there. The school staff volunteer Gilderoy Lockhart as the one to go in to the Chamber and he agrees only to be found by Ron and Harry to be fleeing. He reveals himself to be a fraud and that he has been charming people with magic in order to pass of their deeds as his.

They force him into the Chamber, but Lockhart manages to get Ron’s broken wand. As he is casting a spell to erase their memories, it backfires and erases his own memory. Due to a collapse of the Chamber’s cave system due to the impact of the charm Harry is forced to go alone and finds the girl. Tom Riddle then appears revealing himself to be the Heir of Slytherin and the one who opened the Chamber now and fifty years ago. He also reveals himself to be Lord Voldemort albeit a younger incarnation. After sicking the Basilisk on Harry, a phoenix named Fawkes that Harry met earlier in the year flies in with the Sorting Hat. Fawkes arrived just in time and blinded the monster so Harry could look at it. The Sword of Gryffindor then appears from within the hat and Harry uses it to kill the Basilisk by stabbing it in the mouth, but gets poisoned in the process. Harry then uses the same fang that poisoned him to destroy the diary and Tom Riddle as well, reviving Ginny and vanquishing evil once again. As he succumbs to the poison, the phoenix Fawkes cries into the wound healing him completely and flies everyone out of the Chamber. Back in Dumbledore’s office, Dumbledore reveals the sword’s true nature and allegiance to loyal Gryffindors and Lucius walks in. Harry and Lucius have a battle of words and Dobby comes out from under Malfoy revealing himself to be enslaved to their family. Harry accuses Lucius of placing the book in Ginny’s things but he denies it after Harry returned the broken diary to him. Dobby opens it to find a sock effectively freeing him from servitude and promptly defends Harry from Lucius. Afterwards, everyone terrified is saved thanks to Madam Pomfrey’s Mandragora juice and Hagrid comes back from jail to the applause of everyone. 

Analysis

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a fictional work with allusions to real life problems. Chamber of Secrets is a children’s movie through and through but it is definitely more grown up than the first entry in the franchise. Chamber of Secrets touches upon many real world problems such as discrimination. In fact, this is the first movie where this is really touched upon. This can be seen right off the bat when Lucius ridicules Arthur for associating with Muggles and mixed blood and also when Draco calls Hermione a Mudblood. This has strict allusions to race issues in real life and mostly those views held by Nazis and the like. The white, blonde purebloods are painted as the snobbish villains here. Of course, this also leads into the racial purity debate among the character’s of that world. Some of those prejudicial sentiments can relate to those we saw in the years leading up to WW2 and a bit after. Tom Riddle being a handsome, young man that could easily persuade people has allusions to Hitler and his viewpoints as well as his overall charisma.

Chamber of Secrets is of the Magical Realism/Fantasy genre. The film is a strictly magical but it really does have its realism far more than the first film. Other films in the same genre would be films and series like Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia. This is still, however, a continuing investigation into the wizarding world. This is only Harry’s second year in the world and is still learning about it. However, he stumbles upon the dark shadow cast by the person that killed his family and tries to make sense of it throughout the film. The film also touches on some Good vs Evil, albeit in a more murky manner, and the importance of just being accepting of others. 

Chamber of Secrets is a sequel. It builds upon and continues the story without doing too much differently. In fact, both Chamber of Secrets and the Sorcerer’s Stone pretty much follow each beat for beat. Hero arrives, explores world, tries to adapt, uncovers secrets, and defeats evil and survives. It’s not until Prisoner of Azkaban that the story really starts to take off, but Chamber of Secrets does good in expanding the world and introducing the audience to the main argument of the entire series. 

Citations

“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1433110017/.

“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 13 Nov. 2002, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295297/.

Hi I am Matthew Padilla and I’m a student at FIU. This is a place for my ramblings on certain films, but also an assignment for my FIL3006 class. Enjoy!