live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
Though when David Yates was finishing Harry Potter and the two part Deathly Hallows installments, one deleted scene could have added world of closure to Harry Potter's life at Number 4 Privet drive. When Harry Potter is leaving his childhood home in the finished film, it all seems very quick and emotionless. But with just a few minutes of deleted dialogue added back in, it could have given audiences the closure Harry needed from the Dursley's and his childhood home.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Head for the burrows. We'll rendezvous there. On the count of three! Hold tight, Harry
0:07
This is probably how you remember Privet Drive in Deathly Hallows Part 1. The iconic location
0:12
served as a backdrop for a scene where Harry and his friends escape from Death Eaters. While it's
0:16
a thrilling, albeit contrived, sequence, it wasn't exactly the send-off Harry's childhood home
0:22
deserved. One of the most memorable bits of Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the Polyjuice scene
0:26
and subsequent Death Eater chase that takes place on Privet Drive. But it isn't the only scene that takes place there
0:32
At the very beginning of the movie, we do get a glimpse of the Dursleys packing up and leaving their home
0:37
while Harry watches in silence. In A Bizarre Choice, this moment is vastly overshadowed
0:41
by the intercutting of both Ron and Hermione's farewells to their loving families
0:46
Ron turns his back to the warm glow of the family kitchen and knows he won't be sitting down to dinner with them that night
0:51
Hermione obliviates her entire existence from her parents' memories, intending to never return
0:56
Both characters are allowed an emotional goodbye that feels appropriately grim, while Harry, our titular main character, is relegated to glancing out a window
1:04
and standing passively on the lawn. If you were left feeling as though something was missing from this scene
1:09
your instincts would be correct. Writer Steve Close and director David Yates initially planned on including
1:15
two additional scenes between Harry and the Dursleys before they fled their home in fear of Voldemort
1:20
They shot a little under three minutes of footage and even included some in the behind-the-scenes promotional material for the DVDs
1:26
And yet, it never made it into the finished film, which is a shame. On the release in 2011, part one of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was met with mixed reactions
1:35
Reviewers over the years have levied two chief complaints about the movie. The first is its over-inflated two-and-a-half-hour runtime
1:42
but the larger and more important critique is the lack of story or narrative importance
1:46
If Yates had decided to include these two deleted scenes, those precious minutes would have made a negligible difference in the runtime But they would have had a massive effect on the quality of the movie and the narrative overall The first scene comes in the form of a short and simple conversation between Harry and his aunt Petunia played by the incredible Fiona Shaw It begins with Petunia
2:05
standing alone in the empty living room after her entire life has been packed away. Harry comes down
2:10
the stairs and pauses in the hallway in a shot that uses the wall as a physical and metaphorical
2:15
barrier between him and his aunt. Harry is the one who steps past that barrier, as Petunia laments
2:20
having to leave her house she's lived in for over 20 years. But the real emotional gut punch
2:25
comes from this line. You didn't just lose a mother that night in Goldrick's horror, you know
2:32
I lost a sister. Petunia's comment is a powerful reminder that Voldemort's influence extends beyond
2:37
Harry and the ramifications of his actions were felt across wizarding and muggle lines. Not only
2:42
that, but this is a humanizing moment for a woman who has otherwise been portrayed as a shrieking
2:47
evil shrew for the entire run of the series. I was the only one to see her for what she was
2:53
A freak! Shaw's stellar delivery tells us that as difficult as their relationship might have been
2:59
Petunia loved her sister. She might even regret the lost chance to reconnect. While it by no means forgives her treatment of Harry
3:05
it adds depth and context to the character in her final moments on screen
3:10
That little flicker of humanity is especially appreciated since neither Harry or the audience has ever had a reason to see the Dursleys
3:16
as anything other than inhuman monsters. What happened? I swear I don't know
3:22
It also emphasizes that, despite their hatred and animosity towards Harry, the Dursleys are his family
3:28
Harry spent his entire young life in their care, and once they leave, he may never see them again
3:32
That point is illustrated even further in the second scene left on the cutting room floor
3:36
This scene focuses on Harry Melling's Dudley. While Harry watches his uncle and cousin load up the car
3:41
Vernon offhandedly remarks that, This isn't just goodbye, boy, is it? This is farewell
3:46
While he seems perfectly happy to leave it at that Dudley asks for clarification Up until that moment he had assumed that Harry was coming with them When it becomes clear that Harry is going to remain at number four Privet Drive Dudley decides to walk back over to his cousin and give him a proper goodbye
4:01
While shaking hands and exchanging awkward smiles, Dudley says, I don't think you're a waste of space
4:07
Harry thanks Dudley and even calls him Big D as an affectionate
4:11
and unintentionally hilarious nickname before they go their separate ways. Dudley's moment here is one of the more elegant demonstrations of a running theme throughout the Harry Potter franchise
4:20
which is the idea that the circumstances you're born into don't have to dictate the life you lead
4:25
Having miserable and hateful parents doesn't mean you can't rise above those influences and become a happier, brighter person
4:32
Dudley shows real growth as a character by literally crossing the threshold and meeting Harry where he's at
4:37
similar to the way Harry did with his aunt. It's worth mentioning that Dudley's goodbye is in the book
4:41
but the conversation between Harry and Petunia was created for the movie
4:45
For this reason, fans often latch onto Dudley's scene and dismiss Petunia's
4:50
but both would have been equally meaningful inclusions for all the reasons we just discussed
4:54
and because they serve a greater purpose. They helped to wrap up a conflict that was set up at the very beginning of the series
5:00
namely Harry's complicated relationship with his family. The tension and outright hostility between Harry and the Dursleys
5:06
is such a massive and important aspect of both the books and movies
5:10
The opening of 2001 Sorcerer's Stone describes the Dursleys as and leads into a scene of an 11-year-old Harry being ruthlessly mistreated by all three members
5:21
of his immediate family. That mistreatment runs throughout the series, and all three Dursley
5:26
actors do an excellent job in making us absolutely despise them. The house itself becomes a symbol of
5:32
abuse, and it's also where Harry got his first real taste of magic. It's where he grew up
5:37
and not all the memories are bad ones. This is a level of nuance that's deserving of screen time
5:42
So you think that after fans spent a decade with these characters and this location they would get a proper resolution but they don Bafflingly Deathly Hallows Part 1 chooses to gloss over any sort of catharsis we may have experienced from their final moments together All those years of torment are reduced down to
5:58
a few seconds of unemotive staring and never thought about again. This is an outright affront
6:03
to Harry's journey of healing and self-discovery. In the final version of the film, he is denied
6:08
closure on one of his most meaningful and traumatic life experiences. Not only is this unsatisfying
6:13
from an emotional perspective, but it's a failing of the narrative. Though the deleted scenes don't
6:18
completely solve this issue, they do go a long way to address it. If they think for a moment you know
6:22
where I'm going, they'll stop at nothing. Do you think I don't know what they're capable of
6:27
While we don't have a definitive answer as to why they ultimately cut these exchanges
6:32
it likely had something to do with the source material. In an effort to showcase more of the
6:36
quest for the Hallows and to wring more money out of Potterheads, the final book in the series was
6:40
cut into two movies. When you expand one book into multiple feature-length films, there are bound to
6:45
be major complications as far as structure and pacing are concerned. You can say a lot of things
6:50
about J.K. Rowling's writing, but she does understand basic structure. Rowling wrote
6:54
Deathly Hallows as a single story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Splitting that story
6:59
in half caused a lot of unnatural bloating in what is already a pretty somber, meandering final
7:05
installment. But against Hallow's best interest, the decision was made. So to make part one as
7:10
satisfying as possible, Yates, Clothes, and film editor Mark Day scrambled to create a third act
7:15
out of thin air. As Yates told Collider back in September of 2023, we noodled part one to bits to
7:20
try and feel that the end of the movie had an escalation when, in fact, it's jazz hands. There's
7:25
not much going on at the end of the second half of the movie. Whether you agree with Yates
7:29
assessment of the film is up to you, but the fact remains that while special attention was paid to
7:34
building up the end of the movie, the first act suffered. Worse still, Harry's story suffered
7:39
A hugely important thread in his personal narrative was left hanging, and an additional three minutes
7:44
could have made all the difference
#Movies
#Drama Films