By Curt Schleier

The producers of HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF PHOENIX are to be congratulated on a number of significant accomplishments.  PHOENIX is the fifth film in the series and David Heyman and David Barron have managed to hold the cast together. If this were an American production, the young actors would have been hold-outs for money when they weren’t out clubbing at night, getting embarrassing pictures (or videos) posted on the web and getting arrested for drink and drugs.

The biggest scandal involving the young Harry Potter stars was when young Daniel Radcliffe appeared on stage buck naked.  That was less scandal than a matter of young Radcliffe stretching, and by stretching of course I mean stretching artistically.

Another significant accomplishment is getting some very talented (mostly British) actors to take key and often continuing roles.  Many are considered among the pantheon of the world’s finest actors, and yet they don’t give the impression that they’re slumming.  They took HARRY POTTER as seriously as they take HAMLET.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they resisted the temptation to make each succeeding film in the series BIGGER AND BETTER AND MORE SPECTACULAR.  They stayed true to the book.  And though they brought in different directors, each (potentially) with a vision of his own, the newcomers stayed true to and honored J. K. Rowling’s words.


PHOENIX is the darkest of the films to date.  Lord Voldemort (Ralph Finnes), he whose name should not be mentioned, is gathering the forces of evil.  In fact, the film begins with an attack on Harry in a suburban subway (or underpass to you non-Brits) and picks up speed from there.  The Order of the Phoenix, a group founded years ago to fight him, is concerned.  Many of its members, including Harry’s father, have fallen victim to Voldemort.

Although the Dark Lord is the main enemy, Harry’s problems are exacerbated by Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy), the minister of magic.   For strategic reasons, Fudge refuses to acknowledge that Voldemort has returned.  He plants stories in the press suggesting that Harry – the papers call him Harry Plotter --is lying.  This causes his classmates to doubt his version of the death (at the end of GOBLET OF FIRE) of Cedric Diggory.  So, in addition to the normal pains and stresses of adolescence, Potter increasingly faces his own isolation.

To make matters worse, Fudge installs an ally, Delores Umbrage (Imelda Staunton), at Hogwarts and she immediately makes changes in the curriculum that lessen Dumbledore’s (Michael Gambon) influence.  Fudge believes that Dumbledore wants his job, and this is an effort to rein him in.  But the changes at the school from practical magic to theoretical also leaves the students less prepared to fight Voldemort when he comes.

And, of course, he does come, in a climactic battle that makes it clear that the known universe is not big enough for the both him and Harry.  There’s another death, as well, leading to what will (in about two films) be a final clash between good and evil.

The film works surprisingly well on the small screen.  I wish though the DVD producers had been a little more inventive in terms of special features.  Your only choice is selected scenes.  Big deal.


A number of logical possibilities come to mind, including an interview with Rowling or perhaps screenwriter Michael Goldenberg on the difficulties of condensing a 900-plus-page book to the screen.  Or interviews with the actors.  Or any number of things just to let us know that they put as much thought into packaging the DVD as they did the film. 

Well, if not as much thought, at least some thought.