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ruperts_babe · #1 (**permalink**) 06-13-2004, 12:00 PM

A teacher is touched by Prisoner -

Summary:
A review by a teacher who was touched by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Article:

Thanks to Wizardnews for the link

Quote:

"I didn't really have any idea I'd respond to the film this way," says author Mavis Jukes, wiping away a flood of tears as the end credits roll on the unexpectedly moving--and surprisingly satisfying--Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, based on the book by J. K. Rowling, which Jukes has never read.

"But," she says, somewhat recovering her composure, "I will thank this writer and the people who made this film for the rest of my life, because for once someone has portrayed teenage kids with respect and appreciation, showing the power they can have to act with courage and integrity. Just for that reason alone, I'd love for every kid in the eighth and ninth grade to see this movie. It's very powerful."

No kidding. For the record, Jukes isn't the only one who's all choked up. Blame the final 30 minutes of Azkaban (imagine an especially sly, above-average Hallmark card, but with magic and mayhem and mystical flying beasts), and the well-crafted cinematic moment when Harry discovers that he's a much more powerful wizard than he'd ever believed himself to be. It is a sequence of events that, according to Jukes, actually made her skin crawl.

The author of numerous award-winning fiction books for children (Blackberries in the Dark, Like Jake and Me, Expecting the Unexpected, No One Is Going to Nashville, Cinderella 2000), Jukes has also created a bestselling series of influential and very funny health guides for teens and preteens, including It's a Girl Thing: How to Stay Healthy, Safe and In Charge; The Guy Book: An Owner's Manual; and Be Healthy! It's a Girl Thing: Food, Fitness and Feeling Great. She ostensibly knows what makes kids tick and what gets under their skin, but she was unprepared for the way this new Harry Potter film got under her own skin.

"It was amazing and weird, that sensation I had at that precise moment in the film," she says. "It was like the hair standing up all over, my skin got all prickly, it was like my skin actually crawled. I guess that really happens to people, but I've only read about it. So there's another surprise--my first official skin-crawling moment happens at age 56, in a Harry Potter movie, when Harry figures out that the power he thought was centered in another is actually coming from himself."

The whole "discovering the power within" thing is a theme that's been explored in stories since the beginning of time. But the way it plays out in Prisoner of Azkaban is very effective.

"For kids," Jukes points out, "this can be a pretty astounding revelation. I think Harry's magical powers are a metaphor for his inner strengths. Kids don't know how much power they can have, or how to use their strengths. I think the reason you and I reacted so emotionally to that scene is because it reminds us of what it was like to discover our own inner power--that whatever-it-is, that whatever-it-takes--that comes from inside us, that makes it possible to do what we sometimes doubted we could accomplish."

"But what exactly is that 'power' that we're talking about?" I ask. "Assuming Harry's magic is a metaphor, what's it a metaphor for?"

"The 'power' makes it possible for him repel the most negative, scary, terrifying, threatening imaginings--of course, in the movie they're not imaginings, they're real," Jukes muses. "So I guess the power is . . . the power is . . . What is that power? It's probably something corny like 'thinking positively' or 'believing in yourself.' People sing sentimental songs about it--you know, 'The hero lies in you,' that kind of thing. But on a personal level, there are no words attached to it, no words that describe it. Inner power is inner power.

"And when you have it, when you've experienced it," she says with the smile of experience, "it really almost is like magic, isn't it?"

Metroactive Movies

KAZ · 06-13-2004, 12:11 PM

AWW bless

Swizzlestick · 06-13-2004, 12:16 PM

Wow, an emotional lady, but she has a point, she obviously loves and understands children very much, teenagers too! Wow, she really must be a genius actually.....

LittleMissChriss · 06-13-2004, 12:57 PM

*sniff* I think I am too emotional.

helenjayne · 06-13-2004, 01:19 PM

Aww bless His little cotton socks

:flowersmile: :flowersmile: I liked this film but theydid cut a lot of things out so i was abit peeved off and the fact that i saw it at eleven oclock at night at i didnt get out till 2 so theyu go i need to go and see it again its so good ive got a boyfriend who works at the pics i get a free ticket :flowersmile:

candise · 06-13-2004, 01:30 PM

ahh bless her

hunniebee16 · 06-13-2004, 02:08 PM

i loved it . i almost cried to when harry found out that siruis black betrayed his parents and he tells hermoine that he is gonna kill him really emotional ,and the hipogriff flying lesson that is my all time favorite part in any harry potter movie beautiful

EID LLIW NOR · 06-13-2004, 03:43 PM

It was awesome movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hoh4twins · 06-13-2004, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ruperts_babe@Jun 13 2004, 04:34 AM
*

"But," she says, somewhat recovering her composure, "I will thank this writer and the people who made this film for the rest of my life, because for once someone has portrayed teenage kids with respect and appreciation, showing the power they can have to act with courage and integrity. Just for that reason alone, I'd love for every kid in the eighth and ninth grade to see this movie. It's very powerful."*

i agree! There's so much of courage and determination in everyone, only that they don't realize it. I'm my own example

EID LLIW NOR · 06-13-2004, 03:57 PM

How...........cool............

danix87 · 06-13-2004, 04:46 PM

Quote:

because for once someone has portrayed teenage kids with respect and appreciation, showing the power they can have to act with courage and integrity.

That is true the books make me want to have more courage.

daniel'schick · 06-13-2004, 04:47 PM

well, the only thing i was thinking about that was emotional while i was watching the movie was that Harry wanted to see his dad so much and kept saying "he'll be here, any minute." that's what i thought was sad but now that i look back on it, it is very powerful thinking that Harry really did conjure up such a powerful spell when he thought he couldn't do it and he thought it was his dad. and he saved his own life and Sirius's. (and in the book, Hermione too.)

sparklyjazz · 06-13-2004, 05:31 PM

I was, erm, *misty* at the end of the movie. I didn't full out sob or anything. It was a great movie-- and I agree with the teacher in the post, kids that are around junior high age should go see it. They'll love it, and it has some lessons to be gained from it.

lightstar1154 · 06-13-2004, 06:00 PM

I didn't cry, but I usually don't unless it is really sad.

I think that is great that the movie touched someone like that, and she is right, yet another reason we love JKR: She portrays teens like teens, and gives us some credit.

Later Aligators...

baby_bunny · 06-13-2004, 07:02 PM

aww... reading this makes me wanna cry *sniff*

M.Mcgonagal01 · 06-13-2004, 07:50 PM

Hmm well thats an absolute positive review hehe. Yeah well for me I know the power is round and within us so it was no biggie, for me it was it was seeing for once a flesh a blood family tie to harry's past and knowing that at one time He was deeply loved, by his parents. Basically it was Thewlis performance and oldman's along with the kids. It was great seeing a teacher who loved what he was doing, and how he truley cared for harry and his parents, that was touching.