Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. Today, I’m going to be discussing and
breaking down the differences between the fateful duel between Voldemort & Dumbledore
inside of the ministry atrium. This duel happened in the order of the phoenix,
and it’s arguably the most impressive looking duel on-screen that we’ve seen to
date. It was a duel of epic proportions- good against evil, light against dark-
and it totally overshadowed all of the boring stalemates that Harry had with Voldemort. However,
one thing that is completely worth mentioning is that their duel was represented very differently
from book to film. The film adaptation certainly took some liberties with the contents of the book,
and, rather than staying true to the picture that the book had initially painted for us,
it mixed things up-most likely for increased cinematic and dramatic effect. But, in doing so,
they actually portrayed the characters in a very different light than we had expected-
and it was honestly quite inconsistent with what we had initially read in the books.
If you only saw the film- you might be wondering:
Why couldn’t Voldemort end Dumbledore right then and there?
In the book, their skirmish of course breaks out when a helpless Harry,
who is in mortal danger, is saved by Dumbledore - who arrives just in the knick of time.
“'I have nothing more to say to you, Potter,' he (Voldemort) said quietly.
'You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!'
Harry had not even opened his mouth to resist;
his mind was blank, his wand pointing uselessly at the floor.
But the headless golden statue of the wizard in the fountain had sprung alive,
leaping from its plinth to land with a crash on the floor between Harry and Voldemort. The
spell merely glanced off its chest as the statue flung out its arms to protect Harry.
'What -?' cried Voldemort, staring around. And then he breathed, 'Dumbledore!'
“Voldemort raised his wand and another jet of green light streaked at Dumbledore, who
turned and was gone in a whirling of his cloak. Next second, he had reappeared behind Voldemort
and waved his wand towards the remnants of the fountain. The other statues sprang to life. The
statue of the witch ran at Bellatrix, who screamed and sent spells streaming uselessly off its chest,
before it dived at her, pinning her to the floor. Meanwhile, the goblin and the house-elf scuttled
towards the fireplaces set along the wall and the one-armed centaur galloped at Voldemort,
who vanished and reappeared beside the pool. The headless statue thrust Harry backwards, away from
the fight, as Dumbledore advanced on Voldemort and the golden centaur cantered around them both.”
In the film however this part is completely taken out. Dumbledore simply shows up using
the floo network, and walks toward Voldemort. He then says to Voldemort:
"It was foolish to come here tonight, Tom. The Aurors are on their way —"
"By which time I shall be gone, and you will be dead!" Voldemort responds
And those lines are actually consistent from book to film.
These are also the lines that indicate the proper beginning to their duel-
each man immensely confident that they will be the one to overpower the other.
Back to the book:
“Dumbledore flicked his own wand: the force of the spell that emanated from it
was such that Harry, though shielded by his golden guard, felt his hair stand on end as it passed and
this time Voldemort was forced to conjure a shining silver shield out of thin air
to deflect it. The spell, whatever it was, caused no visible damage to the shield, though a deep,
gong-like note reverberated from it - an oddly chilling sound.”
'You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?' called Voldemort,
his scarlet eyes narrowed over the top of the shield. 'Above such brutality, are you?'
'We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom,' Dumbledore said calmly,
continuing to walk towards Voldemort as though he had not a fear in the world,
as though nothing had happened to interrupt his stroll up the hall.
'Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit”
'There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!' snarled Voldemort.
'Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things
much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness – '
In the film however, Dumbledore and Voldemort instantly enter in to a magical power struggle.
With one flick of their wands, Dumbledore’s red jet of light met Voldemort’s green jet in mid air,
and the two held their ground as sparks flew and the room began to fall to pieces-unable to
contain the sheer magical power being produced. The pair appear to be completely evenly matched.
There isn’t much talking, like in the book, and I think that this is a particularly important piece
that they left out, as I think that their discussion reveals to us just how powerful
Dumbledore truly is. Throughout their duel, the books continuously describe Dumbledore’s
nonchalant attitude toward everything going on. Here he is, faced head to head with one of the
darkest and most powerful wizards of all time- but..he’s so calm. There are a few lines from the
above passage that suggest to me, that Dumbledore is not even remotely worried about losing.
When he walks toward Voldemort, it’s constantly reinforced that he’s ‘calm’, and that he ‘had
not a fear in the world’. Dumbledore’s demeanour toward Voldemort during their duel
was even described ‘as though they were discussing the matter over drinks’.
I think that one of the reasons that the films left this out was because one-sided battles aren’t
fun. Dumbledore, at least as far as the books are concerned, is by far the most powerful wizard
of all time. Not only was he magically talented, but he also possessed the elder wand during their
duel. If we are to go by strictly the books, Voldemort was completely outmatched. However,
this wouldn’t have been as visually interesting on screen, and showing Voldemort in such a vulnerable
state really takes away from his character. He’s supposed to be this dark presence- the dark lord,
a fear-inspiring figure that no one is safe from- but that doesn’t work when one of the
main characters on the protagonist’s side walks toward him like he’s having a picnic. So, in that
respect, I sort of understand why they omitted that portion of the text from this scene. However,
I’m not sure that they should have eliminated the dialogue completely, which they did.
Back to the book:
“Another jet of green light flew from behind the silver shield.
This time it was the one-armed centaur, galloping in front of Dumbledore,
that took the blast and shattered into a hundred pieces, but before the fragments had even hit the
floor, Dumbledore had drawn back his wand and waved it as though brandishing a whip.
A long thin flame flew from the tip; it wrapped itself around Voldemort, shield and all.
For a moment, it seemed Dumbledore had won, but then the fiery rope became a serpent, which
relinquished its hold on Voldemort at once and turned, hissing furiously, to face Dumbledore.”
Once again, this massively differs from what we saw in the film.
First of all, there were no statues being manipulated in the film version of their duel.
Not in any way shape or form. Next, Dumbledore never seems to use any sort of ‘fiery whip’
like spell on Voldemort. The only part of this that does match the film is the fiery serpent,
which DOES attack Dumbledore, and WAS Voldemort’s doing.
“'Look out!' Harry yelled.
But even as he shouted, another jet of green light flew at Dumbledore
from Voldemort's wand and the snake struck
Fawkes swooped down in front of Dumbledore, opened his beak wide and swallowed the jet of
green light whole: he burst into flame and fell to the floor, small, wrinkled and flightless. At the
same moment, Dumbledore brandished his wand in one long, fluid movement - the snake, which had
been an instant from sinking its fangs into him, flew high into the air and vanished in a wisp of
dark smoke; and the water in the pool rose up and covered Voldemort like a cocoon of molten glass.”
This part is particularly interesting, because it actually seems to paint Dumbledore
in a little bit more of a vulnerable state and I think that it suggests that Dumbledore was
perhaps too confident at the beginning of the duel. In the film adaptation,
at no point does Dumbledore need Fawkes’ to show up and save him from one of Voldemort’s
attacks-but what the text shows us is that, had Fawkes not been there,
Dumbledore would have either been hit with avada kedavra OR the fiery snake spell, as both were
being directed at him at once. I feel that this is of particular importance, as it MAY even
indicate that Dumbledore was the loser of their duel. Fawkes blocked a spell from hitting him,
and, unless Dumbledore really didn’t need Fawkes to do that, it suggests that he may have been the
loser. It’s curious that the film adaptation would have left this out, but once again,
I think that they may have intentionally showcased Voldemort and Dumbledore on fairly equal ground.
After this happens, the end of the duel in both the book AND film is fairly anticlimactic.
In the book:
“For a few seconds Voldemort was visible only as a dark, rippling, faceless figure,
shimmering and indistinct upon the plinth, clearly struggling to throw off the suffocating mass.
Then he was gone and the water fell with a crash
back into its pool, slopping wildly over the sides, drenching the polished floor”
And in the film, after Dumbledore defends against Voldemort’s barrage of glass being
flung toward him, Voldemort simply disappears and possesses Harry.
So, as we can see, this duel is massively different from book to film,
and I feel that he major differences can be summed up as follows:
1. Dialogue: There is a distinct lack of dialogue in the film adaptation of their duel,
and it deprives the viewer of the sense of confidence that Dumbledore felt when entering.
2. Avada Kedavra and the statues: In the books, Dumbledore is blocking Voldemort’s constant
barrage of killing curse attacks by using statues. However, in the film adaptation Dumbledore seems
to be defending against Voldemort’s killing curse with his own jet of red light, which contradicts
everything that we know about the spell. The killing curse is supposedly unblockable,
and Harry can only defend against it using expelliarmus because of special circumstances.
So, the fact that Dumbledore is simply using whatever magic he wants to defend against it,
doesn’t actually make a lot of sense.
3. Dumbledore being saved: As we saw above, Dumbledore ends up being saved
by Fawkes in the book. This doesn’t happen at all in the film, and it’s interesting
that they’d leave this out, as it may have actually meant that Dumbledore
was the loser. That is, IF he needed Fawkes to bail him out- maybe he didn’t.
4. Dumbledore’s Demeanour: In the film, Dumbledore is sort of painted as a bit weak,
frail and old when entering in to the duel. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as
we can clearly see in the dialogue from the text that Dumbledore was very strong and confident.
So- why couldn’t Voldemort kill Dumbledore? The truth is, whether you go by the book or
by the film, Dumbledore was still far too powerful to be an easy target to Voldemort.
However, if Voldemort had been the one in the possession of the Elder Wand at the time,
then things may have just ended up differently.
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Until next time
Remember
It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies,
but just as much to stand up to our friends.