Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire is the fourth installment within the 7 book/8 movie franchise that is Harry Potter. With a maturing returning cast, this segment is darker than any of its former books.
Goblet of Fire begins significantly creepier than the three books and films prior. The book is also considerably longer than the first three, packed full of information and detail, a lot of which was left out of the film adaptation. The Screen Writer Steve Kloves has commented previously that there were talks of adapting the book into a two part movie, however they “couldn’t figure out a way to break it in two” resulting in a slightly different story but maintaining the main plot.
Within the first scenes of the film we are given a glimpse into the danger that the Dark Lord and his followers create. Previously the three films have shown Voldemort to be more of a danger solely to Harry, we have not seen this mass terror that the Death Eaters create anywhere before now.
We are offered a number of rich scenes during this particular movie. The characters are maturing and becoming fully fledged teenagers, hormones are running riot especially during a turbulent festive season when the students are invited to attend the Yule Ball with dates. When searching for dates Harry comments to Ron: “Why do they always travel in packs?” a classic boy comment but something I am sure most men wonder. Girls do tend to stick together and have close friendships with each other. Certainly when I was at school girls would have their group of best friends that they would hang out and be exceptionally close with; Hogwarts is no exception, neither is Beauxbatons. This is a true reflection of the muggle world entering the magical world. These scenes make the characters even more relatable to the audience, as we have all been in that awkward situation at school at that age, especially in the muggle world with prom and school dances. At the Ball itself, we see Ron slowly admitting some feelings towards Hermione, when speaking to Harry he implies that she wouldn’t have been able to find a date when in fact she attends with the most popular boy Victor Krum completely proving Ron’s assumption to be wrong. Immediately, I notice Ron is a lot ruder than Harry is towards the pair. Ron purely insults Krum, whereas Harry just observes the situation and frankly is not that bothered. This is one of the first moments, we the audience are shown that Harry only cares for Hermione as a sibling, Ron’s feelings go a lot deeper than that. This is a classic love triangle situation, and does provide some romance and light hearted humour to an otherwise quite dark story. We soon learn that actually Hermione isn’t all that interested in Krum and mainly just watches her study. Something I am sure Ron, probably isn’t too jealous about!?
The lake scene really portrays Harry’s moral compass. He refuses to leave the four hostages under the lake, even though realistically no harm will come to them. He chooses to sacrifice his win, in order to help the hostages. This really shows how much he cares and how badly he wants to be a good person. The other competitors don’t think twice of grabbing what is theres and going away again. They don’t stop and assist Harry other than Diggory who merely points out that time is running out to Potter. This could also denote that Harry doesn’t have much time overall until something bad is going to happen to him as we find out later in the movie. Realistically, Harry could have grabbed Ron and returned to the finish point, even when threatened he still chooses to act the hero, grabbing the last remaining hostage when he realises nobody else is coming for her. Harry then goes on to sacrifice himself to save Ron and Gabrielle, he pushes them to the surface whilst he is dragged to the bottom of the lake by the mur-people. This is a true reflection of a moment within the last book/film when Harry sacrifices himself to save everyone from more hard and accepts he is ready to die when he meets Voldemort. Ironically, Voldemort is rebirthed at the end of the fourth book and film and tries to kill Harry, yet again!
The graveyard scene, in my opinion is one of the darkest scenes of the franchise so far. Apart from seeing glimpses of it in Harry’s dream, we the audience are now present in a spooky graveyard where the sky is as dark as the events occurring below it. The cloaked figures who turn out to be Death Eaters look similar to dementors, creatures that we have already met and have been shown how bad they can be. We have also witnessed the Death Eaters terrorising the Quidditch World Cup camp harming muggles in the process. They represent darkness and fully obey their leader Voldemort by returning to his call immediately. The Dark Lord himself, is almost as ugly as his actions, he dons black cloak like robes, however not ones we are familiar with in the magical world, they are also extremely un-muggle like. His clothing signifies just how un-human he really is. He tortures Harry before dueling and attacking him, he shows no mercy for the 14 year old boy. We are reminded in this scene, just how suddenly death can occur. Voldemort orders Wormtail to kill Diggory upon seeing him, having no use for a ‘spare’. This takes us back to the very beginning of the story, where innocent people were killed to fuel the Dark Lord’s power.
Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire signifies the start of the second Wizarding War, and symbolises how bad things are going to get. Cedric’s death marks symbolises the many innocent lives lost, during the second war with the Dark Lord. This segment ensures you will return for the 5th installment of this thrilling franchise.
You Are Just As Sane As I Am 