Harry Potter and the War in Iraq?

Reading through a Newsweek article on the making of the third Harry Potter movie ("Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"), and ran across a rather interesting quote from the film's director, Alfonso Cuaron ("Y Tu Mama Tambien", "A Little Princess") comparing characters in the Harry Potter story with current (or recently former) world leaders.

Cuaron's outspokenness is also new to the franchise. Does the evil wizard Voldemort still remind him of George W. Bush, as he said recently? "In combination with Saddam," he says. "They both have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people. I read books four and five, and Fudge - Rowling's slippery Minister of Magic - is similar to Tony Blair. He's the ultimate politician. He's in denial about many things. And everything is for the sake of his own persona, his own power. The way the Iraq thing was handled was not unlike the way Fudge handled affairs in book four."

What's scary is he's really not that far off, when you think about it, though the way I see it has a bit of a reversal to it. In reality, Bush and Blair - who were on the same side, unlike Fudge and Voldermort - were apparently manipulating things to make Saddam seem like even more of a threat than he may have been. Fudge, especially in the most recent book - "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" - Fudge is trying to manipulate things to make people think Voldermort really isn't a threat at all. But I would have to agree with him about Bush. Short-tempered, petty, demanding absolute fealty from his "subjects", and pretty good at not admitting his own failures.

Too bad Harry's not American-born and 35 - the Democrats could use him!

Posted by thorswitch at July 27, 2003 10:25 AM | TrackBack