The Baltimore Sun recently published their review of what they considered to be the best movies of 2004, focusing, in particular, on the screenwriters of these films.
They focus on
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, for a part of the article. It was chosen as one of their top ten movies, calling it "A studio-made special- effects fantasy with the depth and multiple hues of a location masterpiece like The Black Stallion. And then there's the crystalline script."
The review focused on mainly on the scriptwriters of each film chosen, but the longest section was devoted to
Steve Kloves who penned PoA, the movie.
Quote:
"Chinatown it ain't," commented the modest Kloves about his script for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. "But here it is," he said, mailing it off six months after I first requested it. I was curious to read it, partly because the director, Alfonso Cuaron, had won a huge share of the credit for the leap the Potter series took with its third movie.
As soon as I got it, I turned to the scene that had affected me more than any other: a revealing talk between Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his rather worn-looking professor of defenses against the dark arts, R.J. Lupin (David Thewliss). Everything I had experienced in the theater that added depth and poignancy to the story was there in dialogue and description on the page.
"The first time I saw you, Harry, I recognized you immediately," confesses Lupin. "Not by your scar. By your eyes. They're your mother Lily's; yes, I knew her. She was there for me at a time when no one else was. She was not only a singularly gifted witch but an uncommonly kind woman. She had a way of seeing the beauty in whoever she met, even - and perhaps most especially - when that person couldn't see it in themselves."
With a writer like Kloves, brilliance doesn't always lie in extraordinary language (though his Wonder Boys script abounded in it). For Harry Potter, he placed plain words in the right order to open up new worlds or closed chapters of history."
However, to this fan that piece of dialogue sounded disjointed particularly as Harry was discussing hearing his mother's dying screams and how the dementors affect him which really seem to be bear no relation to whatever Lupin's thoughts on Harry's mother were -- no matter how beautifully the words were written.
You have to register (for free) to read the entire article.
Source:
The Leaky Cauldron 
2004: "The Year of the Screenwriter" 
Ottery vs. The Universe... round one. *bell rings* Knockout! 
