Don't Cry Out Loud

Emotions are a big part of movies. There are those movies that make us laugh, those that get the adrenal glands pumping, those that make us think, and those that make us cry. Today’s roar will focus on movies that bring about a salty discharge from the eye. For guys, it is probably the sports movie with the kid who will never play Division 1 football, or the action driven flick where the hero says goodbye to his wife as he rushes off to save the planet from a giant meteor. For gals, it is the best friend movie, where two girls grew up in the same town and the best friend develops cancer only to die leaving behind a child. Either way, we put ourselves through the emotionally ringer time and time again and call it entertainment. Today, I give you what I consider to be tear worthy films.

5) King Kong (1933) I was nine when I saw this for the first time and I was enthralled by Faye Wray and Bruce Cabot, but the big hairy ape had me at his first roar. When he dies at the end of this movie, I was forever moved and could not understand why anybody would shoot something so cuddly.

4)Braveheart (1995)Has there ever been a movie that makes you hate the English more than Braveheart? Freedom!!!!!

3)The Fox and the Hound (1981) This is Disney right? This is supposed to be upbeat with songs and happy endings, right? No. Two childhood friends forced to be enemies and the story goes from there. The ending of this movie provokes tears that literally spit from my eyes. I think I need a tissue just thinking about it.

2) Schindler’s List(1993)/Hotel Rwanda(2004)Movies about mass genocide are enough to get me going, but throw in Liam Neeson (Oscar Schindler) and Don Cheadle(Paul Rusesabagina) and you have two of the finest movies on the subject ever made.

1) Field of Dreams (1989)Are you serious? To have a catch with your deceased father once again makes me cry like a baby. Crying is actually not a good word to use, it is more like sobbing. If you build it, the tears will come.

Snape Bitten

It is no secret that the Half-Blood Prince is the most important book in the series. It is the chapter where the events that will set the tone for the future of the world of Hogwarts hang in the balance. It is where the one of the most iconic book characters of all time meets certain doom. It is where director, David Yates must rise to the occasion and put a movie on screen that carries the sexual angst and raw emotion that exists in the book. The Half-Blood Prince is where David Yates must prevent himself from making a film word for word remake of the novel. He must create his own film while keeping the source close to his heart. Yates has succeeded in making the best looking Harry Potter to date and yet, there is something missing. Chunks of the story where not told and things added for “Hollywood effect.” This is not a detriment to his Harry Potter, but it takes some getting use to as we watch for the two and half hour running time.

The Half-Blood Prince is about a lingering fear that the world as we know it, will fall into darkness. It is about an unfinished war that was started by adults and must be finished by their children. The tasks are insurmountable at times and our protagonist, Harry, is not the tortured soul he once was. He is now accepted that it is he that must save the people he loves. It is he who must convince everyone that James and Lilly Potter did not die in vain. This is Harry’s story. He has grown and so have his friends and even they know that they must finish what has been started so long ago. There is wonderful, even effortless interaction between Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), and Ron Weasley(Rupert Grint). Yates seems to make this part of the Half-Blood Prince work to his advantage. The characters like the fans of the series have grown into late teens who suffer from raging hormones and identity crisis’. This is where this movie works best, when its characters have time to go into exposition about the events surrounding an oncoming doom.

This Harry Potter is stylistically better than the previous five and Hogwarts looks aged. The magic and wonder of just going to the school is gone. The school has become a symbol for wizards and witches to defend against the mounting armies of Voldemort. It cannot be said enough, this movie carries the feeling of foreboding throughout. It is becoming a dark and lonely place as the lines are divided between good and evil.

Yates has improved greatly as a director. This is now his third Harry Potter film and he is set to do the final film (two parts). Like Rowling, he has improved as the series has moved forward. However, he has taken some liberties with the stories and true fans of the novels may not be delighted by his deletion of key parts, but it is important to remember that film is its own medium. The seventh (and eighth) film should prove to be a monumental swan song for Yates as well as his cast. When the credits role in 2010 the Phoenix will cry yet again as our beloved Harry Potter says goodbye.