Harry Potter and chessboard psychology

So, why does anyone become a death eater? Is it because they feel excluded from the "we" that is society? Are they smarting under a perceived sense of injustice? Are they laid low by the inhuman lack of subsidies for funny haircuts? Or could it be that they are simply total bastards?

There are times – like when you have overdosed on the local paper’s milksoppy explanations of the world’s ills (forget personal responsibility; it’s all society’s fault apparently) – when watching a fantasy film like the last Harry Potter gives you a certain satisfaction. The world is neatly divided into good guys and bad guys. The Evil Figurehead is plain vile and would have been a problem even if the government had banned snake-keeping, running around noseless, mentioning offensive words like "mudblood" in public and other Evil Figurehead practises. And as for his Cackling Hordes, they are… well… Cackling Hordes. End of story.

In the long run, though, I’m not that fond of the fantasy universe with its Dark Side and Good Side. Partly, it’s the cod mythology dimension I don’t like. What was C.S. Lewis thinking? Aslan’s a lion, that’s the cool thing about him (the only cool thing, in fact – he’s rather pompous). He’s not the Messiah, just as little as the Doctor is, not to mention Harry. We’ve already got one of those. The main drawback from a villain-lover’s perspective, however, is that great villains are not pure evil. And the Evil Figurehead has to be just that, which precludes him from any sympathy we might feel. As for his minions, they are tainted by the fact that they work for him. What kind of schmuck would actually want to promote a Reign of Darkness and Horror? Give over.

But this is a genre failing, and not something to criticise the Harry Potter films specifically for. Actually, there is some nuancing in the shape of double-agent Snape who’s not wild about Harry, but who is still prepared to Do The Right Thing when required. As for the Malfoys, they just clear out before the final showdown, clearly thinking that discretion is the finer part of valour. Ironically, the only one with any gumption seems to be the mum, and she’s not going to let her scrumptious boys lose their necks for Voldemort.

I must say, by the way, that Ralph Fiennes does a fine job as Voldemort. His tone of pained regret – as if he were saying "sorry chaps, but this being evil business is what I do" – is oddly convincing. It is a mystery why Fiennes is apparently best not only in villain roles, but in villain roles where there is not a hope that anyone will root for him. He sleepwalked through "Maid in Manhattan", and I have it on hearsay that he was not that electrifying in "The English Patient" either. But give him a monster, as in "Schindler’s List" or the Harry Potter films, and he leaves you shivering in your seat. Why is that nose missing, though? Voldemort looked quite fetching when he was young, judging by the films’ flashbacks: obviously this splitting your soul lark does nothing for your looks. No doubt it is fully explained in the novels.