Prisoner of Azkaban observations
Sep. 22nd, 2004 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickenAfter seeing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for about the sixth time now (thankfully we have a second-run theatre which only charges $1.99 per person per showing, at all times of day), I am finally ready to pose a few questions and/or make some observations.
There are lots of obvious things that people have already discussed, such as the brilliant queer wolf/dog Remus/Sirius love that Cuarón brought to light more explicitly than Rowling ever dared. Specifically, people have pointed out that this plays out most clearly in the Shrieking Shack (hugging, "arguing like an old married couple"), and during the tranformation under the moon ("this heart ..."). Of course there is also the general 'outcast werewolf as a metaphor for the marginalization of gay men' (and of queer people in general in the teaching profession and in life).
However, there are several small points related to this that I would like to discuss, evidence that seems less obvious but is no less compelling, at least in my opinion.
These points are based only on the film, and not on events or evidence in the book, since I read the book a trillion years ago and can no longer remember all the differences between it and the movie (yes, I MUST read it again).
There are lots of obvious things that people have already discussed, such as the brilliant queer wolf/dog Remus/Sirius love that Cuarón brought to light more explicitly than Rowling ever dared. Specifically, people have pointed out that this plays out most clearly in the Shrieking Shack (hugging, "arguing like an old married couple"), and during the tranformation under the moon ("this heart ..."). Of course there is also the general 'outcast werewolf as a metaphor for the marginalization of gay men' (and of queer people in general in the teaching profession and in life).
However, there are several small points related to this that I would like to discuss, evidence that seems less obvious but is no less compelling, at least in my opinion.
These points are based only on the film, and not on events or evidence in the book, since I read the book a trillion years ago and can no longer remember all the differences between it and the movie (yes, I MUST read it again).
- On the bridge, Lupin describes Lily and James to Harry, as he knew and cherished them. For a long time, the obvious heterosexual reading of this scene -- that Remus loved Lily, and/or she, him -- kind of galled me in the face of my obstinate belief in Remus' gayness. However, this time around it occurred to me that Lily's willingness to understand and believe in a person that no one else believed in, a person who could not even believe in or love himself, could be read as the sympathy that many a straight girl feels for the special gay man in her life. Often, this woman will be the only person in that gay man's life in whom he can confide and who loves him truly unconditionally and with no messy strings attached. This is a stereotype to the point of being almost mythic, and therefore seems like a plausible reading of their friendship. Following on that, "James always being in trouble" is said with such fondness as to make 'trouble' seem like the most laudable behavior imaginable in the Mooney/Padfoot/Wormtail/Prongs clan.
- The quidditch broom which Sirius sends to Harry can only be the result of a Remus/Sirius partnership, since (in the movie) Harry only told Remus, and not Sirius, about his broom being destroyed, so that Remus and Sirius would have had to discuss the matter together (and yes, I seem to remember that this point is not valid in the book's world, where Sirius did learn of the broom mishap directly from Harry).<å/li>
- I had another couple of points concerning the map, and concerning James' desire for Sirius to make his transformation permanent, but I am tired now and do not remember them.