Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows P2
Short takes
Not suitable under 12, PG to 14 (Violence; Disturbing themes and scenes)
Age
4
5
6
7
8
9
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11
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16+
This topic contains:
- overall comments and recommendations
- details of classification and consumer advice lines for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows P2
- a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows P2 completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 18 July 2011.
Overall comments and recommendations
Children under 12 |
Not suitable due to violence and disturbing themes and scenes |
Children 12-14 |
Parental guidance recommended due to violence and disturbing themes and scenes |
Children 15 and over |
OK for this age group |
About the movie
This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.
Name of movie: |
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows P2 |
Classification: |
M |
Consumer advice lines: |
Fantasy themes and violence |
Length: |
130 minutes |
ACCM review
This review of the movie contains the following information:
A synopsis of the story
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
Part 2 commences where Part 1 ended. We find Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron
Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) searching for the
remaining three Horcruxes (objects that contain a part of Voldemort’s soul).
With the help of the goblin Griphook (Warwick Davis), the friends enter
Gringotts Bank where they steal a cup originally belong to Helga Hufflepuff,
one of Hogwarts founders. Harry also learns that a tiara belonging to Rowena
Ravenclaw and Voldemort’s pet snake Nagini are the remaining two Horcruxes.
At Hogsmeade, Harry is befriended by Dumbledore’s
brother Aberforth (Ciaran Hinds), who assists in getting the friends into
Hogwarts Castle. After a confrontation with Professor Snape (Alan Rickman)
Harry, assisted by the students of Hogwarts, begins to search the castle for the
tiara. However, Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) offers the students and teachers of
Hogwarts an ultimatum - give up Harry or suffer the consequences. He gives them
one hour to hand over Harry, giving Harry one hour to find and destroy the
tiara. At the same time, Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) and the remaining
Hogwarts teachers create magic barriers surrounding the castle in a bid to fend
off Voldemort’s army of Death Eaters.
Eventually the barrier fails and the Death Eaters
attack the castle. However, Ron and Hermione manage to destroy Helga
Hufflepuff’s cup and then manage to locate Rowena Ravenclaw’s tiara. Despite
being attacked by Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), they are able to destroy it.
The search for the final Horcrux leads to a
showdown with Voldemort and some important discoveries for Harry.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
commences where Part 1 ended. We find Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley
(Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) searching for the remaining
three Horcruxes (objects that contain a part of Voldemort’s soul). With the
help of the goblin Griphook (Warwick Davis), the friends enter Gringotts Bank
where they steal a cup originally belong to Helga Hufflepuff, one of Hogwarts
founders. Harry also learns that a tiara belonging to Rowena Ravenclaw and
Voldemort’s pet snake Nagini are the remaining two Horcruxes.
At
Hogsmeade, Harry is befriended by Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth (Ciaran
Hinds), who assists in getting the friends into Hogwarts Castle.
After a confrontation with Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) Harry, assisted by
the students of Hogwarts, begins to search the castle for the tiara. However,
Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) offers the students and teachers of Hogwarts an
ultimatum - give up Harry or suffer the consequences. He gives them one hour to
hand over Harry, giving Harry one hour to find and destroy the tiara. At the
same time, Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) and the remaining Hogwarts
teachers create magic barriers surrounding the castle in a bid to fend off
Voldemort’s army of Death Eaters.
Eventually
the barrier fails and the Death Eaters attack the castle. However, Ron and
Hermione manage to destroy Helga Hufflepuff’s cup and then manage to locate
Rowena Ravenclaw’s tiara. Despite being attacked by Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton),
they are able to destroy it.
The
search for the final Horcrux leads to a showdown with Voldemort and some
important discoveries for Harry.
Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.
The supernatural; self sacrifice; death; loss of a loved one; immortality
Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.
Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part
2 contains intense action violence, battle scenes, killing, death and dead
bodies, blood and gore, and emotional trauma. Examples include:
- Throughout the film we see images of
Hogwarts students with bruised and swollen faces that we are told are the
result of punishments inflicted by Hogwarts teachers.
- A dragon causes mayhem as it escapes from
its confinement, destroying buildings and setting fires. Fire from the dragon’s
mouth engulfs a goblin.
- A brief image of the foyer of Gringotts
bank shows a large number of dead, blood-smeared goblins.
- Harry and another wizard that discuss the
death of Dumbledore’s sister, accusing Dumbledore of being responsible for her
death.
- Snape threatens students in a sinister
manner, saying that they will be “severely punished” should they be found
helping Harry Potter.
- Harry tells a hall full of Hogwarts
students and teachers that he saw Professor Snape murder Dumbledore. Snape fires
a bolt of energy at Harry but it is deflected by a second teacher who stands in
front of Harry to protect him.
- Students hold their hands over their ears
in a state of horror and distress as they hear Voldemort’s voice inside their
heads. The voice demands that Harry Potter is to be handed over, or those who
oppose will be killed.
- An army of Death Eaters stand on a cliff
overlooking Hogwarts Castle. They scream and charge at the castle in a frenzied
manner, but when they reach a certain point they start to disintegrate and
vanish. The Death Eaters firing bolts of energy at a protective energy dome
covering the castle and sections of Hogwarts Castle are seen on fire and in
ruins with large pieces of stone falling to the ground.
- Giants attack Hogwarts castle with spiked
maces, and smash stone statues.
- A group of older Hogwarts students running
away from a magical firestorm climb up a series of high book cases with the
fire licking their heels, and one student falls to his death into the
fire.
- After one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes is
destroyed, Voldemort clutches at his chest as though in pain. When one of his followers
shows concern, Voldemort kills the man with a curse.
- The final epic battle between Hogwarts
students and teachers and Voldemort’s Death Eater Army features the castle on
fire and in ruins, battle between giants and other magical creatures, bolts of
lighting being fired in all directions, giant spiders and vampires attacking
the castle.
- A man with blood on his mouth leans over
the body of a young girl with blood on her neck.
- After the battle the grounds of Hogwarts
Castle resemble a battle field battle
with rubble scattered all over the ground, patches of blood, blood smeared
bodies, and people splattered and smeared with blood having their wounds
bandaged. People kneel over the dead bodies crying in a distressed state and
two uncovered dead bodies lie on stretchers.
- Flashback scenes show Voldemort killing
Harry’s mother. The death is inferred, and we see a small infant distressed and
crying.
- Professor Dumbledore tells Professor Snape
that Harry must die and that Voldemort must be the one to kill him.
- A flashback image shows a distraught
Professor Snape crying as he holds Lilly Potter’s dead body in his arms.
- Hagrid is restrained by ropes binding his
chest and arms.
- Voldemort, facing off with Harry, shouts a
death curse in a frenzied manner and a beam of green coloured energy shoots
towards Harry. When we next see Harry he is lying motionless on the ground and
a woman pronounces him dead.
- Voldemort fires a bolt of energy from his
wand at a Hogwarts student and the student is flung backwards to lie
unconscious on the ground.
- During a wand fight between two women both
firing bolts of energy. Eventually one of the women is hit and takes on a
petrified appearance, then turns to ash.
- A giant snake leaps at a young man who
severs the snake’s head with a sword, the snake’s body disintegrating.
- In the final fight between Voldemort and
Harry, Voldemort’s face and body slowly disintegrate with his face and eyes
turning to stone and his flesh turning to ash and lifting from his body in
flakes. Harry’s face is blackened, covered in ash and smeared with blood.
Material that may scare or disturb children
Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent
scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb
children under the age of five, including the following:
- Floating ghost-like figures called
Dementors that float through the air dressed in long swirling, black
robes.
- The goblins are dwarf-like with long pointy
noises and ears and sharp teeth.
- An albino dragon that is chained up with
the chains leaving bloody cuts around its neck.
- Voldemort is a menacing character with pale
skin, a bald head with vein-like marks running across it, and a face that has
the characteristics of a snake, with no nose and black eyes.
- Voldemort’s companion is a scary snake with
a mouth full of sharp fangs.
- Giant stone statues resembling armoured
medieval knights come to life.
- When Hermione and Ron destroy one of
Voldemort’s Horcruxes, we see a large pool of water rise up, transform into Voldemort’s
face, and pursue them.
- The Death Eaters are swirling black
vapours.
- The giants are brutish creatures with a
variety of bones piercing their lips and faces.
- Small flying creatures that resemble evil
fairies with scary faces.
- Vampires and giant spiders attack Hogwarts
- An image of Voldemort as a blood covered
foetal form with evil adult characteristics lying under a table. We hear that
the thing is dying and that nothing can be done for it.
- While in a treasure vault, Harry Ron and
Hermione are nearly buried alive when the treasure in the vault begins to
multiply and fill the vault.
Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.
Children in this age group are also likely
to be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.
Children in this age group are also likely
to be disturbed by some of the above-mentioned scenes
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.
Younger children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the above-mentioned scenes
Product placement
None of concern
Sexual references
None of concern
Nudity and sexual activity
There is some sexual activity in this
movie, including:
- a brief, but passionate kiss between Ron
and Hermione
Use of substances
There is some use of substances in this
movie, including:
-
Harry, Ron and
Hermione drink butter beer.
Coarse language
There are some coarse language and putdowns
in this movie, including:
- stupid, bloody hell, bloody fools, like
hell, shut up, blithering idiot, lunatic, swine, bitch
In a nutshell
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
is a fantasy adventure suited to an adolescent audience. Parents should note
that this film is very dark with a continuous feeling of menace and many images
capable of scaring and disturbing younger children. The Australian
Classification Board issued a media release warning parents to heed the M
classification. The film is long and the plot is rather confusing.
The main message from this movie is that evil
must be fought against regardless of the personal cost or sacrifice.
Values in this movie that parents may wish
to reinforce with their children include:
- Selflessness/self sacrifice: Many of the
film’s lead characters are willing to sacrifice body and soul to protect others
and fight against evil.
- Courage: Harry and many of his friends repeatedly
display courage by standing up against wrongdoing and refusing to capitulate to
Voldemort’s demands.
Parents may also wish to discuss the manner
in which Harry and his friends fought against the prejudice and discrimination shown
by non-magical people and how the issues of prejudice found in the Harry Potter
films and books parallel situations in the real world.