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A ministry of the ChildCare Action Project: Christian Analysis of American Culture (CAP Ministry) A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Christian Ministry. www.capalert.com/ Entertainment Media Analysis Report A service to His little ones through you in His name by His Word MAR29033  with COMPARATIVE of the six Potter films (2009), PG [R-PG*] (2hr 22min) The #1 Christian entertainment media analysis service on the Internet. We give you OBJECTIVE tools NO ONE ELSE CAN to help YOU make an informed decision for yourself whether a film is fit for your family. Over 1200 analyses for parents, grandparents, pastors, youth leaders and more. |
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(While the Scriptural references are certainly not subjective, my commentary may be and sometimes is somewhat subjective.)
 ... "one of the slickest ways to make some of evil look good" ... "now part of the fuel for the teen drinking problems" Cast/Crew Details Courtesy Internet Movie Database Production (US): Warner Bros. Pictures, Heyday Films Distribution (US): Warner Home Video Director(s): David Yates Producer(s): David Barron, David Heyman, Tim Lewis, Lionel Wigram Written by: Steve Kloves, (screenplay) J.K. Rowling, (novel) Cinematography/Camera: Bruno Delbonnel Music: Nicholas Hooper Film Editing: Mark Day Casting: Fiona Weir Production Design: Stuart Craig Art Direction: Andrew Ackland-Snow and crew Viewed on Warner Home Video DVD  This film analysis is sponsored by the generosity of E&HP. In this sixth cinematic installment of the Potter phenomenon, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) becomes the target of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) in his attempts to thwart the pending attacks of Voldemort. Dumbledore enlists Potter to "woo" the newly re-assigned Professor Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) to pick his brain ... literally. Since Professor Slughorn was one of the teachers of Tom Riddle before Riddle became Voldemort, Slughorn has key memories that Dumbledore needs. When Voldemort was Tom Riddle, he split his soul into seven pieces and hid the pieces in various objects such as a book, a ring or a locket. Each object housing a piece of Riddle's soul is called a Horcrux. In doing so Voldemort cannot die as long as one of the seven Horcruxes remains intact. The only way to kill Voldemort is to destroy all seven Horcruxes (is there now any doubt what the next Potter installment will be about?). The deep horror of it is, besides complete corruption of God's Word about the soul, Riddle had to murder seven people to split his soul into seven Horcruxes. The reason Dumbledore wants Potter to get close to Slughorn is that a memory of Slughorn's which Dumbledore has bottled is a lie. Dumbledore needs the true memory about Hocrux magic and Riddle's use of it -- a memory strong in Slughorn's brain. The following Summary/Commentary contains a long "sermon" folks. Witchcraft, sorcery and wizardry are of a complex surrealistic order and are of great temptation for some. Please give that which follows your somber attention. With a final score of 51, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a R-PG, folks. That means this film, rated PG by the once-useful Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), earned a CAP Final Score in the range of scores earned by R-rated films (54 and below out of 100) in the comparative baseline database of film analyses. The final score of 51 places this film at the high end of scores in the range of scores earned by R-rated films but in that range nonetheless. Out of the more than 1200 films we've analyzed for you so far there have been very few that earned R-PG, but this one surely is. R-PG? Has anyone seen Red Dawn (1984)? In it Patrick Swayze as Jed told Matt (Charlie Sheen), "Matt! RPG!" Jed, the leader of the Wolverines, an adolescent military-styled civilian counterforce to the invading Communists, ordered Matt to launch a RPG at the invading Russians. "RPG" means Rocket-Propelled Grenade. Something dies when a RPG explodes. The "R-PG" influence of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince may "explode" some day during the moral development of children who watch it, killing some of their parent-taught and Bible-taught teachings and values. Especially in the area of the perception of and degree of embracement of witchcraft and sorcery by the child(ren) thus distancing themselves from God's Holy Word and inherently from God Himself. They may end up thinking just like the characters in the film: that magic is good if it used for good whether by a witch or an angel. Wrong! Neither the user nor the use of magic determines whether the magic is good. The source of the magic does. "Magic" exists. Maybe not like the "magic" in Potter films and others like them which make magic seem so desirable to the vengeful human heart, but magic exists. How do you think Jesus raised the dead [John 11:43], healed the sick [Matt. 8:15-16], made the lame walk and the blind see [Matt. 21:14]? It was by Holy "magic", which may be better understood as Holy power, i.e., the power of God. On the flip side, how do you think Satan placed the demons in the two men in Gergesenes which Jesus cast out into the swine (and how do you think Jesus cast the demons out of the men with a single word, "Go") [Matt. 8:30-32]? How do you think Satan was able to display the world and its riches to Jesus when he tempted Jesus [Matt. 4:8]? This "magic" is indeed real. If the power given to man [Matt. 9:8] is from God it is good. The user or the use of Holy power may, whether intentionally, corrupt God's intent in giving His power but it is still from God therefore it is good. If it is not from God it is not good, even if the one wielding the unholy power uses it for noble purposes and deeds. If someone uses evil magic for good purposes, the user is still embracing Satan since unholy magic can come only from Satan. The powers portrayed as possessed by the characters of this film were witchcraft, sorcery wizardry and so on which are not from God. How could God, who cannot sin, give to someone that which He condemns? Even if the power is used for what we perceive to be goodness, if the power is not from God it is not good. I suspect I've said that quite enough now. The story in the film was not of good versus evil. It was evil versus evil, one of the slickest ways to make some of evil look good. One more thought on the subject -- there is no such thing as a "good witch." This and all other films like it are demonic examples of violations of Isa. 5:20 which warns of woe for those who call evil good and good evil. If all the witchcraft, sorcery and wizardry content of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were ignored by the CAP analysis the film would have earned a final score of 71 which would have placed it close to the bottom of the scoring range (68 to 86 out of 100) earned by PG-rated films. Maybe the MPAA does not consider content such as sorcery and witchcraft as offensive since they rated it PG ... but God does. There is clear and inarguable mockery of Scriptures concerning the Bible-established appellations for Jesus. Each of the previous Potter films have been stepping stones building up to this. Luke 23:35 assigns the appellation of "the Chosen One" to Jesus just as "the Holy One" [Mark 1:24]. (Other appellations include "the Bright and Morning Star" [Rev. 22:16] and "the Prince of Peace" [Isa. 9:6]). Jesus has always been the Chosen One ... until now. Harry Potter is now the Chosen One (yes, the film capitalizes both words of the term). Heaven help us. If you can muster the critical thinking necessary to fathom the subject, understand that this is just one more way that Satan leads our youth not so much not to believe in Jesus but into "away from Jesus", "other than Jesus", "apart from Jesus", "set Jesus aside for a moment" etc. Anything to draw the mind and heart away from love of the One who spent three days in Hell so you and I would not have to spend one moment there ... a little at a time ... slowly ... methodically ... relentlessly. I may have sat through one too many films but it was a chore to sit through Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It is 2 hours and 22 minutes long excluding the intro material and the rolling credits. And as far as entertainment goes, subjectively speaking, it was little more than connective material between the previous Potter films and the next one. This is already longer than I had hoped so I will not load this report down with a detailed summary of the plot and story but I will offer one more item of value -- a comparative of all six Potter films. This says more than 1,000 words. And only the CAP Movie Ministry can give this to you. Among other things, many other things, the comparative below reveals Rowling is consistent. At least, in combination with the filmmakers, she is.  Wanton Violence/Crime (W) - 15 out of 100 Violence appeared in several forms: a woman screeching she killed someone; graphic physical brutality of Potter, graphic brutalization of a young girl, battles of wizards with bloody results, attempted murders of adolescents and by adolescents. This is not a tame or safe film, mom/dad. The brutality demonstrated against Potter was cold and evil, at least as graphic as that we used to see in R-rated gangster films. The graphic brutalization of the young girl was upsetting. She was thrown around on the ground, levitated and dropped. With the level of technology of today there was noting left to the imagination. No experiential maturity was needed to fathom the extent of likely harm to the girl. Any parent who has seen their child fall like this knows the pain: both that of the child and their own. Such programming, even in fantasy, is not good for anyone let alone impressionable youth. God has spoken quite sternly about violence. That which such violence communicates to the observer, in His Words, corrupts. [1 Cor. 15:33] God speaks darkly of violence 56 times in the Old and New Testament of the KJV. [Prov. 16:29] A little bit of factoid not incorporated into the scoring. Remember Igor Kakaroff (Predrag Bjelac) of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? "Evil" translates from kakov. "Kakov" ... "Kakaroff?" Alliteration in names is used often by Rowling but this is one that makes the intent espeically clear. Impudence/Hate (I) - 58 out of 100 Though not incorporated into the scoring of the content found by this investigation area I found it quite peculiar of the writer to use the name "Nymphadora" since "nymph" is short for nymphomania, which is uncontrollable or excessive sexual desires in a woman. I thought the writer's use of "Nymphadora" might have something to do with "nymph" but the character had no relationship to, appearance of nor announced affinity for bugs. I suspect the intent of using "Nymphadora" is subjective enough but not enough to be objectively clear. Implication and/or suggestion can, at times, be more infleuntial than unambiguous expression. One such example of ambiguous implcation is when Sexual Immorality (S) - 91 out of 100 Though not incorporated into the scoring of the content found by this investigation area I found it quite peculiar of the writer to use the name "Nymphadora" since "nymph" is short for one who is a victim of nymphomania which is uncontrollable or excessive sexual desires in a woman. I wondered if it might have something to do with "nymph" but the character, Nymphadora Tonks (Natalia Tena) had no relationship to bugs nor was she portraying a spirit of nature which inhabits rivers or woods. I suspect the intent of using "Nymphadora" is clear. To the point. Objectively the only matters of a sexual nature in the entire show were a pair of teens sneaking off to seclusion to make out, an anatomical reference, a group of teens making out in the hallways of the school and Cormac McLaggen (Freddie Stroma) wanting to be introduced to Hermoine "to get to know her on a first name basis ... ya know what I mean" with a wink in his eye. I almost included a passionate kiss between Weasley and his girlfriend but that is all it was notwithstanding the passion demonstrated. If it had been one of those gaping face kisses typical in Hollywood for-teens flicks it would have earned its rightful place in the scoring distribution. But alas their faces were not seen during the kiss and "gaping-face" could not be determined Drugs/Alcohol (D) - 60 out of 100 Unfortunately, the writer and/or filmmakers just had to shove some booze into the mix. Not only was booze displayed it was given to adolescents. Further, two of the adult characters were seen drunk. Now comes "butterbeer." Butterbeer is a Tudor concoction made from egg yolks, sugar, nutmeg, butter ... and beer.[1] It was freely available the adolescent population of this film. There was no mention in the film whether the butterbeer had any alcoholic content but neither was there any mention of the alcoholic content of the wine or the mead (fermented honey and water) offered by Professor Slughorn to a gathering of Hogwarts students, adolescents all. If one does an internet search on "butterbeer recipe" one will get thousands of pages. All the pages I viewed showed butterbeer as an alcoholic drink and most of them associated the butterbeer with Harry Potter™. One of those pages even asks "Does Hogwarts have a teen drinking problem." [1] Wikipedia: The Harry Potter Universe. The world of alcohol has now invaded the children in Harry Potter™ And your kids will be "drinking it up." Though I did not observe it in the film of the fifth book, in the book the house Elf Winky apparently gets very drunk on butterbeer. So, there is no doubt that butterbeer is an alcoholic beverage -- given to children in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Hogwarts does have a "teen drinking problem." Gotta get as much of the "worldly pleasures" as possible into these "kids' shows", right? Gotta get those kids acquainted with the "real world"[2] as soon as possible whether mom/dad likes it or not, right? Fer cryin' out loud, that is what kids want in their entertainment diet, right? Just like any other block of entertainment targeted at adolescents that demonstrates alcoholic consumption, Harry Potter™ is apparently now part of the fuel for teen drinking. And, in addition to God [Eph. 5:18], the American College of Physicians (ACP) has something to say about that. [2] I say "real world" as an insult to the thinking that watching movies educates youth in the real world. It takes a l-o-t more than watching movies to learn about and how to manage the real world. It takes ... the real world. "Try the evening news if you want to see the real world!" Does the evening news show someoone slicing up human flesh? Movies do. Does the news show even a sanitized view of the sliced up body or do the reporters just "report on it?" Verbally only. How many people in your life do you know on a first-name basis who have committed murder? Robbed a bank? Beat up an old lady to steal her money? Raped a young child? Five? No? Four? No? One? None I'll bet." So how "real world" are the movies after all? A 2002 study by the ACP revealed that adolescent exposure to drinking in and as entertainment undeniably leads to abuse of alcohol among underage viewers. The finding entitled Relation Between Parental Restrictions on Movies and Adolescent Use of Tobacco and Alcohol reports that of 4544 youths from grades 5 through 8 of fifteen Vermont and New Hampshire middle schools (90% of the youths were under fourteen years old) only 16% were completely restricted in their entertainment diets. Within the ACP study population, the prevalence of having tried alcohol without parental knowledge was • 46% for those with no viewing restrictions • 16% for those with partial viewing restrictions • four percent for those with complete viewing restrictions. The researchers selected R-rated movies because they assumed R-rated movies typically present more drinking than movies of other classifications. This assumption is no longer true. The researchers were not aware of the matter of R-13 proven by this ministry in 2000 with which Harvard University researchers agreed four years later. The bottom line? The focus is that the emboldening influence of adolescent exposure to drinking (and smoking) in and as entertainment is undeniable regardless of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) classification. Offense to God (O) - Zero out of 100 This investigation area found content to be so thick with violations of His Word that to even try to summarize it here in narrative discussion would be futile. Please look to the itemized listing in the Findings/Scoring section for a complete accounting of the content applicable to this investigation area. I will, however, point out one instance of mockery of the Crucifixion of Christ. Evil curse powers were portrayed as brutally tossing a young girl about on the ground then levitating her and dropping her about twenty feet. During the seconds she was levitated she was placed in the classic position of Christ on the Cross. There is no honor of our Lord in this film. Why should there be and why shouldn't it mock Jesus. It is a film of witchcraft, sorcery, wizardry and a dark "lord." Whom do you suppose best fits the "dark lord" title? Something to think about if you become trapped into the Potter phenomenon. Murder/Suicide (M) - 88 out of 100 As in other Potter installations, murder is a climactic presence in the story. First some demons/witches cause uncountable deaths by collapsing a city footbridge over a river (ostensibly the Themes), <<< SPOLIER >>> Hagrid is burned to death (unseen) by a witch and the Half-Blood Prince, Severus Snape, loyal to Voldemort, murders Dumbledore by zapping him with high-voltage magic, knocking Dumbledore off a high-rise floor to plummet to his death on the floors of Hogwarts. Shortly after that scene was a scene of the Hogwarts trio looking over the land ... a perfect "super hero" setting for continuation of this evil with the trio as the main force of evil to fight the evil of the dark lord. SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION(S) If needed to focus or fortify, applicable text is underlined or bracketed [ ] or bold. If you wish to have full context available, the Blue Letter Bible is a convenient source. If you use the Blue Letter Bible, a new window will open. Close it to return here or use "Window" in your browser's menu bar to alternate between the CAP page and the Blue Letter Bible page. CHAPTER/VERSE ***Selected Scriptures of Armour against the influence of the entertainment industry*** As always, it is best to refer to the Findings/Scoring section -- the heart of the CAP analysis model -- for the most complete assessment possible of this movie. |
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 Wanton Violence/Crime (W) - 15 out of 100 Impudence/Hate (I) - 58 out of 100 Sexual Immorality (S) - 91 out of 100 Drugs/Alcohol (D) - 60 out of 100 Offense to God (O) - Zero out of 100 Murder/Suicide (M) - 84 out of 100 SIDEBAR NOTE: For some time I have had an uneasy and foreboding "appreciation" for the artistry of the Potter™ phenomenon. Background, settings and talents of the cast are indeed noteworthy -- too bad the writers/filmmakers, etc. had to use sin to express the artistry and talents. To add to the uneasiness with the Potter plague I recently found out that Radcliffe announced his support of the homosexual agenda. That his serendipitous role-model professional position has been emboldening youth to embrace witchcraft, wizardry and sorcery for years is bad enough but to top that off with the star portraying the quintessential warlock being one of those who conform to the modern splash of politically correct "It ain't' good enough no matter what 'it' is" social poisitions broke the camel's back. Now I can expect the entertainment icon to not only teach by example that evil magic is acceptable and noble, I can expect him to teach kids the same about choosing to practice homosexuality being acceptable, typically at an age before they can even spell it, before they should be any kind of "sexual." Yes, I spelled "poisitions" the way I wanted it spelled. It is a small step to the word I wanted it to say. If you have trouble figuring that out, let me know |
| There are some in the entertainment industry who maintain that 1) violent programming is harmless because no studies exist that prove a connection between violent entertainment and aggressive behavior in children, and 2) young people know that television, movies, and video games are simply fantasy. Unfortunately, they are wrong on both accounts." And "Viewing violence may lead to real life violence." I applaud these associations for fortifying 1 Cor. 15:33. Read the rest of the story. From our years of study, I contend that other aberrant behaviors, attitudes, and expressions can be inserted in place of "violence" in that statement. Our Director - Child Psychology Support, a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist concurs. For example, "Viewing arrogance against fair authority may lead to your kids defying you in real life." Or "Viewing sex may lead to sex in real life." Likewise and especially with impudence, hate and foul language. I further contend that any positive behavior can be inserted in place of "violence" with the same chance or likelihood of being a behavior template for the observer; of being incorporated into the behavior mechanics and/or coping skills of the observer. In choosing your entertainment, please consider carefully the "rest of the story" and our findings. |
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