New York Times Article on Amount of Alcohol Use in Half-Blood Prince
HBP Film
Posted by: sue
July 29, 2009, 11:38 AM
A columnist for the New York Times has written a piece that asks "Does Hogwarts have a drinking problem?" in relation to what they seem to feel is rampant drinking that takes place in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The article starts out by claiming "parents may be surprised by the starring role given to alcohol. In
scene after scene, the young wizards and their adult professors are
seen sipping, gulping and pouring various forms of alcohol to calm
their nerves, fortify their courage or comfort their sorrows."
The author of the piece continues: "Previous Harry Potter movies have shown drinking, but this one takes it to a new level. In one scene, Harry, Ron and Hermione order butterbeers at the pub, and Hermione ends up with a frothy mustache. While it’s never been entirely clear whether butterbeer is alcoholic, it seems to have an effect on the normally uptight Hermione, who acts tipsy walking home as she throws her arms around the boys.As
the mother of a 10-year-old Harry Potter fan, I was taken aback by the
reaction of the young people in the theater. They snickered at
Hermione’s goofy grin and, later, guffawed when an inebriated Hagrid
passed out. While I don’t think my daughter fully understood what was
going on, I wondered how other parents, educators and addiction experts
would react.
Liz Perle, a mother of two teenage boys and the
editor in chief of Common Sense Media, which reviews books, movies and
Web content aimed at children, said she was bothered by so many scenes
showing alcohol as a coping mechanism. “Hermione is such a
tightly wound young lady, but she’s liberated by some butterbeer,” she
said. “The message is that it gives you liquid courage to put your arms
around the guy you really like but are afraid to.”
..."Overseas audiences may respond differently to the drinking scenes. In
England, the legal drinking age is 18, but 16-year-olds can order
alcohol if they’re eating a meal. (Even by those standards, the
teenagers in the movie were flouting the law: during the pub scene, no
food was served.)
A response from Warner Bros "said the drinking scenes were “open to different interpretations. 'One
of our main objectives in bringing the Harry Potter films to the screen
has been to remain as faithful to their original source material as
created by J. K Rowling,” the company wrote in an e-mail message,
adding that the wizarding world “should not be held to the same
standards as the real world.' "
282 Comments
430 Points
That is SO stupid! Drinking was hardly featured, and when it was, it was as it was in the books. Hermione ‘drunk’ was just a fun way to show her, and when I watched the movie, I didn’t even get the feeling that she was drunk, maybe that’s because I didn’t hear what they sad. But still.
11990 Points
Actually the inferi were what I would worry about showing to young folks. Nightmares anyone?
329 Points
They’re so annoying, it’s not like they’ve really drank anything. Can’t they just stop being such pains? come on. It’s not like they did drugs and stuff like that.
189 Points
Me thinks the author doth exaggerate – alcohol is not in scene after scene of HBP (and butterbeer doesn’t count). And I find her description of Hermione rather insulting; as if young girls will see this and think the best way to get closer to the boy they like is to consume vast amounts of alcohol?!
63 Points
Just the media finding some other asinine B.S to whinge about, nothing new.
29 Points
Funny how they needed to keep butterbeer in the movie to “remain as faithful to the source material as created by J.K. Rowling” but didn’t see a need for…say, Dumbledore’s funeral!!!!
1839 Points
Oh please! Yes, alcohol is present, but I certainly didn’t feel like it was even CLOSE to the “OMG concern level.” I am an “older” HP fan & did not feel the use of alcohol in this film in anyway condoned alcohol in excess or promoted drunkeness. You know, to be honest, it wasn’t even something I particularly noticed.
It amazes me the way some folks have to always find SOMETHING to harp about. I suppose all the blood, guts, & horrific violence that many parents allow their children to watch is OK, as long as they don’t pick up a glass of wine on the way to the murder! Crikey.
64 Points
The whole Hermione getting drunk thing didn’t even happen in the books, and WB is like, “We want to remain faithful to the material…” way to try to defend yourselves! And butterbeer can’t be that alchoholic anyway, because Lupin gave it to Harry in Third Year. But Harry Potter doesn’t focus on drinking too much. Stupid New York Times.
67 Points
This stupid woman doesn’t understand that the main theme of the book/movie is addiction (hbp book, felix felicis, love potion,) !
879 Points
They were drinking butterbeer when they were thirteen! They make a big deal out of it now I think it doesn’t matter when you are a wisard!
288 Points
Good thing they don’t read the books and realize how wizards metabolize chocolate or they’d be carping about that too! Obsessing over butterbeer is just silly. IMHO, of course. I wonder why wizards like pumpkins juice so much. You think there’s more there than just vegetable squeezings? Hummm? Perhaps that needs looking into also. ;p
747 Points
First and foremost Herminone was not drunk!!!! One butterbeer would not do that. Herminone has hugged Ron and Harry for the past seven years. She does not need to get tiptsy to do so. This women should get her facts in order before putting pen to paper. I think this was a gross misuse of her position to voice her opinion, based on her lack of knowledge of “cannon”, in the paper. If the NYT’s would like to give space to the fandom of HP so that they can rebutt her editorial that would be nice. Lady, be a parent and view the movie, book, play, concert, etc before you let your “child” see it. Then you would not have to voice an opinion at all. Oh, by the way, I am a mother.
2573 Points
I find this hilarious! There are scenes of Death Eaters and Inferi and they’re worried about alcohol.
10839 Points
its ridiculous … thats all i have to say… all they want is to talk bad about harry….
8736 Points
I didn’t know Hermione was drunk at first to be honest, people are making a big deal out of something that was just put there to be funny. This is exactly why the movie shouldn’t have been PG, people complaining about it’s influence on young children. Everyone knows the books weren’t targeted at kids passed the third, study up on things before you go and complain about it.
It makes giggle to be honest.
That is SO stupid! Drinking was hardly featured, and when it was, it was as it was in the books. Hermione ‘drunk’ was just a fun way to show her, and when I watched the movie, I didn’t even get the feeling that she was drunk, maybe that’s because I didn’t hear what they sad. But still.