two New Harry Potter trailers, one for us, one for them
The Internet has erased borders for us serious cinephiles who get our movie info online -- American fans buy DVDs from Hong Kong of movies that won’t open in the States for a year, or never; European fans get the scoop on movies open in the States that they won’t have a chance to see for months; that kind of thing. So we’re the ones who might wonder, perhaps, why a Hollywood studio would feel the need to create two different versions of a trailer for an upcoming film... like the just-released domestic and international trailers for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, opening July 13. Aren’t we all just one big happy geeky family, us movie lovers?
Online, sure. But movies don’t get to be the kind of blockbusters the Harry Potter films have been -- and this one is sure to be the biggest yet, if the trailers are a fair peek at it -- without drawing in everyone and their grandmother, including the vast majority of moviegoers for think the IMDB is some obscure government agency that monitors the calcium content of cheese, perhaps. So taking a look at the differences between the international Phoenix trailer and the one intended for American audiences is an interesting exercise in seeing what Warner Bros. thinks will attract folks to this flick, and it’s not quite the same thing outside the United States as it is within.
The trailers aren’t all that dissimilar -- and certainly if you’re a big Harry fan and are as psyched as I am for the film, you’ll want to watch both about five times each. There’s a lot of focus on Dolores Umbridge -- boo, hiss -- is the new “high inquisitor” of Hogwarts; the wonderful Imelda Staunton looks like she’s having a blast, so to speak, as the villanous new headmaster. Ralph Fiennes as the wraithlike, noseless Voldemort is even creepier in the few glimpses we get of him in the trailers than he was in Goblet of Fire... and he was absolutely horrifying there. (Funny how the lack of a nose is so damn disturbing.)
There’s a war a-comin’ between the good wizards and the bad -- that is the selling point of both trailers, and both are an intense and gripping few minutes of teasing. But the domestic trailer is far more Harry-centric; it’s all about him rallying the kids when it becomes clear the grownups either can’t do anything or, like Umbridge, are on the wrong side. “Every great wizard in history has started out as nothing more than what we are now,” says Harry to his friends and peers. “If they can do it” -- “it” meaning “rise up on our own to greatness” -- “why not us?” That’s the heart of the domestic trailer, the idea that Harry will save the world, or at least try, but that line is truncated down to almost nothing in the international trailer, becomes just so much background noise. The international trailer is far less centered on Harry, far more about everyone banding together to save the world... and it’s far more explicitly political, too. “Tyranny will rise,” the ominous voice of the announcer intones. That line is nowhere in the domestic trailer.
What does it mean? I’ll leave that as an exercise to the globally aware geek to determine for him- or herself.
(Technorati tags: Harry Potter, movie trailer)
comments
posted by TheGaucho (Wed Apr 25 07, 12:50AM)
Tyranny has already risen in the US, so you don't need the warning anymore, could that be it? ;-)
posted by MaryAnn (Wed Apr 25 07, 8:44AM)
I think it has more to do with the view the rest of the world holds regarding the U.S. these days.
posted by TheGaucho (Wed Apr 25 07, 10:02AM)
MaryAnn, I've got nothing against the USA or its people. Every single American I know is a nice person and I do know a lot of them, trust me. However, although I think W can be a nice enough man to knock back a couple of beers with, I don't think he's got the brains to be the president of your wonderful country - and the company he surrounds himself with is simply awful.
So I really hope the next one will do a better job and keep a keen eye on 'the rest of the world'.
Cheers from The Netherlands!
posted by MaryAnn (Wed Apr 25 07, 10:55AM)
TheGaucho, I'm not saying people outside the U.S. aren't entirely justified in feeling as they do about the action of the U.S. in recent years.
I don't think W would be a nice man to knock back a few beers with. And I really am astonished that anyone would think that their drinking buddy would make a good president, though that seems to have been the case in the last two presidential elections.
I love my country, too, which is why I'm so angry at how it has been hijacked since 2000. And I fear that too few Americans recognize the tyranny rising here.
posted by TheGaucho (Fri Apr 27 07, 2:20AM)
What I cannot fathom is why W was RE-elected. The first time may have been dodgy to begin with, but okay, maybe he did win in a legitimate way after all. But, surely, after his first term, people should have known better? The way he has used 9/11 for his own political agenda is just sickening. It was never about the victims - it was about his rich cronies and the honour of his father.
Makes you want to puke.
Anyway, history will not be kind on him, and that is a good thing.
posted by MaryAnn (Fri Apr 27 07, 3:35PM)
Makes me want to puke, too. The fact that Bush got reelected really makes me fear for what this country has become.