Daily Dialogue — May 17, 2013
“There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too treacherous to pass but they learned in the magical arts, the three brothers simply waved their wands and made a bridge. Before they could cross, however, they found their path blocked by a hooded figure. It was Death and he felt cheated. Cheated because travelers would normally drown in the river, but Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the three brothers on their magic and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him. The oldest asked for a wand more powerful with any existence so Death fashioned him a wand from an elder tree that stood nearby. The second brother decided he want to humiliate Death even further and asked for the power to recall loved ones from the grave so Death part a stone from the river and offer it to him. Finally Death turned to the third brother. A humble man, he asked for something that would allow him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death. And so it was that Death reluctantly handed over his own cloak of invisibility. The first brother traveled to a distant village while with the Elder Wand in hand, he killed a wizard with whom he had once quarrels. Drunk with the power that the Elder Wand given him, he bragged his invincibility. But that night, another wizard stole the wand and slit the brother’s throat for good measure. And so Death took the first brother for his own. The second brother journeyed to his home when he took the stone in turn in thrice in hand. To his delight, the girl he once hoped to marry before her untimely death appeared before him. Yet soon she turned sad and cold for she did not belong in the mortal world. Driven mad by hopeless longing, the second brother killed himself so as to join her. And so Death took the second brother. As for the third brother, Death searched for many years but was never able to find him only when he attained a great age that the youngest brother shed the Cloak of Invisibility and give it to his son. And then he greeted Death as an old friend and went with him gladly, departing this life as equals.”
— Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), screenplay by Steve Kloves, novel by J.K.Rowling
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is recounting a legend, courtesy of alexmatu. Today’s suggestion by Aarthi Ramanathan.
Trivia: According to David Heyman, the work print of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” was at 5.5 hours long, and the shooting script was close to 500 pages, which justified the decision to split the movie into two.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary from Aarthi: “A very traditional way to tell a story, but uses the visual parameters of a movie within a movie. The visuals accompanying this sequence is what makes this a very ‘haunting’ revelation to the storyline.”
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