Before you press play
Watch if
You want to see the three of them on their own, without the school and without Dumbledore, working it out for themselves.
Wait if
You need a story that resolves, because this is the front half of one, or you watch in a bright room on a screen you cannot turn up.
For six films Hogwarts was Harry Potter's (Daniel Radcliffe) home. Privet Drive was an address. Then Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) is killed by Snape at the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is the first film in which Harry does not go back to school at all, because there are Horcruxes to find, and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) are going with him. Half-Blood Prince was the busier film, and most of what happened in it was setting this one up.
What Deathly Hallows Part 1 is actually about
This is the film in which the wizarding war stops happening around Harry and becomes the whole story. Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) wants the wizarding world, and by the end of this film he very nearly has it. The prophecy from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix says the one person who can stop him is Harry, and that one of them has to kill the other, so everything the good side does here is about keeping that one person alive: Hermione casts Obliviate on her own parents in the first few minutes so the Death Eaters cannot use them to reach her, the Dursleys are sent away for the same reason, and the Order puts fourteen people in the air to move one boy.
The argument between Harry and Ron over whether Harry should go on alone is where the film says what the war is for. Harry tries to walk out so that nobody else dies for him. Ron's answer is that Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson) and George were fighting Voldemort and would have fought him whether Harry existed or not, because he has to be stopped, and Harry is simply the one who can finish it. Then Ron says the two of them would not last two days without Hermione, and tells Harry not to repeat it.
The adults are still out there, the Weasleys, Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), the rest of the Order, but after the attack on the wedding the three of them cannot go near any of them without bringing Death Eaters along. So for most of the film they are on their own.
The break-in at the Ministry of Magic
It is usually the Death Eaters who break into places. This time it is our trio breaking into the Ministry of Magic, because the Horcrux they are after is round Dolores Umbridge's neck: Mundungus Fletcher (Andy Linden) stole it from Grimmauld Place and she took it off him as a bribe. Our Polyjuice Potion expert is back in business, the plan is a good one, and it lasts about as long as plans ever do in these films.
This is the thing the early films did that the series had stopped doing: a mystery, a plan, and the three of them working it out on the move. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets both ran on it. The stakes are higher now, because the building they are sneaking through has a courtroom in the basement where Muggle-borns are being tried for stealing the magic they were born with.
Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) is barely in this film, and the little she gets is worth it, because Harry finally gets to hit her with a Stupefy and the sentence she once made him carve into his own hand. She deserved an Avada Kedavra and got a Stupefy. She is running the Muggle-Born Registration Commission now, and her Patronus is a cat, which puts her next to Minerva McGonagall (Maggie Smith), who can turn into one. One of them can be a cat; the other just keeps them, and sends people to Dementors.
Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy and the Death Eaters
The villains have a pecking order now, and watching it is bleaker and funnier than it used to be. Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) opens the film by being asked for his wand in front of the whole table, because Voldemort's own wand cannot hurt Harry, and he is quizzed on its wood and its core like a boy at a shop counter while he hands it over. By the end he is in his own drawing room, talked straight over by Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter), hoping that delivering Harry will buy back the favour he has lost.
Bellatrix is the most devoted follower Voldemort has, and Helena Bonham Carter plays every scene she is in as though he is her god.
Everyone else at that table looks afraid of him. She looks like a believer. Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) gets one scene in this entire film, and in it he gives Voldemort the correct date for moving Harry, and Mad-Eye Moody and Hedwig are dead the same night because of it.
What Dumbledore leaves behind
Dumbledore's riddles are there because of who is in the room when the will is read. He leaves Ron a Deluminator, Hermione a book of children's stories and Harry the first Snitch he ever caught, and explains none of it, and a plain sentence would have saved everyone months of walking.
The Death Eaters have people inside the Ministry before the opening scene is over, and the will reaches Harry through official Ministry hands, so anything written plainly would have been read by the wrong people first. Dumbledore leaves three unremarkable objects instead and lets whoever is holding each one work out why it was chosen for them, and only the Snitch is actually sealed, by the flesh memory of Harry catching the first one in his mouth. The rest is left in the open, where only the right person would think to look twice.
He also leaves Harry a sword that was never his to give, which the Minister says out loud, and which has gone missing anyway. That is a hint, filed where the Ministry would be obliged to read it out to Harry whether it wanted to or not.
What the Deathly Hallows actually are
The Deathly Hallows are three objects out of a wizarding children's story: a wand that cannot be beaten, a stone that brings back the dead, and a cloak that hides its wearer from Death himself. Together, the story says, they make whoever holds them master of death. The film tells the story as a few minutes of animated silhouettes, and those few minutes look like nothing else in the series.
The title names the Hallows and not the Horcruxes, and this film does not explain why. The Hallows matter in the next one, and anyone who found them confusing here should hold on, because the payoff is coming.
Emma Watson as Hermione Granger
The script gives Hermione the most to do, and Emma Watson does all of it well. She packs, she puts the protective enchantments around each hiding place, and she works out that the Sword of Gryffindor can destroy a Horcrux because it went through a basilisk back in Chamber of Secrets. Ron is right that the other two would not last two days without her.
The best thing she does is almost thrown away. They have just apparated out of an attack on a wedding and are standing in a London street in their good clothes, so she pulls ordinary ones out of a handbag she can hold in one palm, and something heavy crashes about inside it while she does. "That'll be the books," she says, mildly put out that nobody else thought to pack an emergency library.
Rupert Grint gets the harder part. Ron spends the film listening to a radio read out the names of the dead, waiting to hear one of his own, while wearing a locket that feeds on exactly that fear, and Rupert Grint lets you see it wearing him down without ever asking for sympathy.
Why Deathly Hallows was split into two films
The split gets called a money grab, and the studio was not sorry about the money, but this film has to find the Horcruxes, work out how to destroy them, introduce a second set of magical objects, run a political collapse, stage half a dozen escapes and keep a friendship coming apart through all of it. One film would have meant cutting most of that. Even at two parts there is not enough room.
The opening is the proof. The Minister for Magic stands alone at one end of a hall the size of a cathedral, tells the country that the Ministry remains strong, and the film cuts straight to headlines about murders, disappearances and Death Eater numbers rising. The Ministry falls before the film is half over, and the new Minister is a man who was sitting at Voldemort's table in the opening scene. The setup for all of that runs about twenty seconds.
The same shortage of room shows in what gets dropped. In the book the name "Voldemort" has been jinxed, so saying it aloud tells the hunters exactly where you are. The film keeps the danger and never explains the rule, so when the three of them flee the Lovegood house and are caught almost before Hermione has started the enchantments, the Snatchers look like the luckiest men in Britain.
Does the camping section drag?
Sometimes, and it should. The three of them have one Horcrux, no idea how to destroy it and nobody they can safely reach, and you sit in that with them. A version that cut to them solving it would be a cheat, and the same people complaining about the tent would be complaining that they never saw the work.
Daniel Radcliffe plays Harry as flat and listless for long stretches, an odd risk for the lead of a blockbuster and the right one. Harry has run out of ideas, and the performance lets him look it.
Is Deathly Hallows Part 1 too dark to watch?
As a story, no. As a picture, it depends on your screen. A lot of this film happens at night, in winter, outdoors, with very little light, and on a good screen with the contrast set properly it is spectacular. The wide shots put three small figures at the bottom of an enormous landscape and hold there, sometimes for longer than is comfortable.
On an ordinary television with the brightness where it came out of the box, you will lose things that are happening in the background. You will need to cast Lumos Maxima on your screen, otherwise some of what is going on will not be properly visible.
Three and a half bulbs. Glowing. It is a much better film than Half-Blood Prince, because things happen in it and they happen for reasons, and it gets through the part of the story where nobody knows what to do next without cheating.
Hedwig's death. One of the most painful deaths in the series happens in the first half hour and gets no funeral. Everyone comes to get Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) out of Privet Drive, six of them drinking Polyjuice to look like him so the Death Eaters will not know which one to attack, and the Death Eaters are waiting anyway, because Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) gave them the date. Hedwig dies in the air trying to protect Harry, she has been with him since the first film, and nobody goes back for her; the film never mentions her again.
Mad-Eye Moody. Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson) dies because the man next to him lost his nerve. Mundungus Fletcher (Andy Linden) panics, disapparates and leaves Moody alone on the broom, and Moody is killed. Back at the Burrow, Harry is questioned at the door before anyone will let him in, and Moody gets about a minute of grief before the story moves on.
Harry's wand against Voldemort. Harry survives the flight without casting a spell, and that matters later. Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) takes the wand of Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) because his own cannot hurt Harry, the first of several humiliations Lucius swallows in this film. In the air, with Harry doubled over from his scar, his wand fires by itself and destroys the borrowed one, and the question of why is left for Part 2.
The locket, and what it does to Ron. The locket is how the film shows what Voldemort does to people: it finds what a person already fears and turns it into a lie he is ready to believe. It once belonged to Regulus Black, Sirius's brother, ordinary spells do nothing to it, and the three of them take turns wearing it, so whoever wears it gets worse, and the fear pressing hardest on Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) is his family: most of them are in the Order, one brother has already been hurt, and he listens to the radio for their names. So Harry shouting that the locket is lying does nothing, because the fear underneath is Ron's own.
Ron walks out. Ron leaving is a stupid thing to do, and he is allowed to be stupid without being made the villain. He has been carrying more than the other two, and the locket found exactly where to press.
The silver doe and the sword. The sword is a loose end the film leaves on purpose: a silver doe Patronus leads Harry to a frozen pool with the Sword of Gryffindor lying at the bottom, and neither whose Patronus it is nor how the sword got there is explained until Part 2. Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) has already worked out why the sword matters, because it went through a basilisk in Chamber of Secrets and basilisk venom is one of the few things that can destroy a Horcrux.
Ron comes back. Ron pulls Harry out of the pool and destroys the locket, and the two of them make up without Ron ever quite apologising, the way two boys would. The Deluminator turns out to have been the way back: it carried Hermione's voice to him and led him to where they were, so Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) gave Ron a way home to his friends.
Xenophilius Lovegood sells them out. The betrayal at the Lovegood house is easy to forgive, because Xenophilius Lovegood (Rhys Ifans) does it to get his daughter back. He explains the Deathly Hallows and then summons the Death Eaters, since they took Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) for what he had been writing in support of Harry, and Harry understands him almost at once while Ron is still calling him a traitor. The three of them apparate out and are caught by Snatchers almost immediately, and the jinx on the name "Voldemort" that would explain how goes unmentioned.
Malfoy Manor. The worst thing that happens to any of them in this film happens on a rug in a drawing room. Hermione has hit Harry with a stinging jinx so that his face is swollen past recognition, and Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) cannot bring himself to say it is him. Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) carves the word Mudblood into Hermione's arm with a knife, because she wants to know how they got a sword she believes is in her vault, and the boys listen from the cellar and cannot reach her.
Dobby. Dobby dies, and Harry buries him by hand. Dobby (Toby Jones) gets everyone out, Bellatrix throws her knife as they disapparate, and he dies on the beach at Shell Cottage telling Harry what a beautiful place it is to be with friends. Harry begs somebody to help, and Hermione, who has an answer for everything else in this film, has nothing for a knife; then he digs the grave himself, without magic, and after his parents, Sirius and Dumbledore he has learned to expect this.
The Elder Wand. The film ends on the villain winning. Voldemort breaks into Dumbledore's tomb and takes the Elder Wand, the unbeatable wand from the Tale of the Three Brothers, because Grindelwald told him where it was and because his own wand cannot touch Harry's. That is the last image of the film.
Bright Bulbs
- The Ministry break-in brings back the plan-and-improvise fun of the early films, and this time it is our trio doing the breaking in.
- Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) has more to do than anyone else here, enchantments, research and escapes, and does all of it well.
- Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) serves Voldemort out of devotion where every other Death Eater serves him out of fear.
- Hedwig sacrifices herself for Harry in the first half hour, and the film does not stop for a second to mourn her.
- Several of the quiet stretches have no music at all, a brave choice in a series built on one famous theme.
- Ministry propaganda, from the Magic Is Might statue to the pamphlet on Muggle-borns, tells you what the government has become without a line of dialogue.
Dull Bulbs
- Godric's Hollow is beautifully shot and emotionally weightless, and the scare at the end of it is a jump scare and nothing more.
- There are a few stretches that feel like filler, and a ten-hour series would have carried them better than a film can.
Shattered Bulbs
- The film never explains why saying "Voldemort" out loud summons Snatchers, so anyone who has not read the book just sees villains with implausible timing.
Cast
- Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter
- Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley
- Emma Watson as Hermione Granger
- Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange
- Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort
- Alan Rickman as Severus Snape
- Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore
- Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy
- Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge
- Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour
- Rhys Ifans as Xenophilius Lovegood
- Brendan Gleeson as Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody
- Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid
- John Hurt as Garrick Ollivander
- Richard Griffiths as Vernon Dursley
- Fiona Shaw as Petunia Dursley
- Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew
- David Thewlis as Remus Lupin
- Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley
- Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood
- Warwick Davis as Griphook
- Toby Jones as Dobby
- Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy
- Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy
- Simon McBurney as Kreacher
- Nick Moran as Scabior
- Peter Mullan as Corban Yaxley
- David O'Hara as Albert Runcorn
- Dave Legeno as Fenrir Greyback
- Domhnall Gleeson as Bill Weasley
- Clemence Poesy as Fleur Delacour
- Hazel Douglas as Bathilda Bagshot
- Andy Linden as Mundungus Fletcher
- Guy Henry as Pius Thicknesse
- Carolyn Pickles as Charity Burbage
- Julie Walters as Molly Weasley
- Mark Williams as Arthur Weasley
- James and Oliver Phelps as Fred and George Weasley
- Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom
- George Harris as Kingsley Shacklebolt
- Natalia Tena as Nymphadora Tonks
- Harry Melling as Dudley Dursley
- Frances de la Tour as Madame Maxime
- Kate Fleetwood as Mary Cattermole
- Steffan Rhodri as Reg Cattermole
Related
- Who is R.A.B. in Harry Potter? Regulus Black and the real locketRegulus Black replaced the locket with a fake. Harry’s search for the real Horcrux runs from a family house to Umbridge’s jewellery.
More from Harry Potter
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- Chamber of Secrets explained: who opened it and why Hogwarts blamed HagridLucius supplies the diary, Riddle controls Ginny and Hagrid takes the blame. Hogwarts’ old mistake becomes cover for a new attack.
- Sorcerer’s Stone ending explained: how Harry gets the Stone and beats QuirrellHarry’s intentions unlock the mirror and Lily’s love stops Quirrell. Hogwarts has a clever safeguard and a troubling habit of leaving children exposed.
More from Harry Potter
Sorcerer's Stone
Chamber of Secrets
Prisoner of Azkaban
Goblet of Fire
Order of the Phoenix
Half-Blood Prince
Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Deathly Hallows: Part 2
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