There are numerous the explanation why “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Hearth” is without doubt one of the extra controversial films within the sequence (though it carried out fairly nicely in /Movie’s official rating of the franchise.) It is a movie that struggles onerous to suit its 750+ web page supply materials right into a single film, and it is the one the place Ron comes off wanting like a complete jerk. One of many largest complaints, nevertheless, is one thing way more petty: what is going on on with the hair?
Nearly each male character on this film has lengthy hair for seemingly no cause. It will be one factor if it was simply Harry, whose guide counterpart had a well-documented tendency in the direction of lengthy messy hair, however why Ron? Why Neville? Why the Weasley twins? (Solely Seamus and Dean had been spared from the pattern.) And extra importantly, why do not they’ve hair this lengthy in another film? “Goblet of Hearth” begins in 1994 — was there one thing occurring that yr in British tradition that would’ve led to this? Had been all of the nation’s barbers on strike?
The precise cause for the change was far sillier. As Daniel Radcliffe (who performed Harry) defined within the 2021 “Return to Hogwarts” documentary:
“My one bone to choose with [director] Mike Newell is that yearly after we left for the movie … they stated ‘do not lower your hair over the summer season. We’ll lower it after we get again and we’ll determine what we wish to do.’ And me and Rupert [Grint] each dutifully grew our hair for months after which got here in. He [Newell] was like ‘oh yeah, nice!’ And we had been like ‘no, you are not leaving us like this? We’re imagined to be turning into youngsters and relationship women on this movie. That is [pointing to hair] not what it is going to be, is it?’ So I believe we had been fairly devastated as we realized that it was.”
Rupert Grint did not just like the hair both
Warner Bros
Radcliffe’s story really differs a bit from a preferred rumor concerning the film. The story normally goes that the director was merely not conscious that the children had been informed to develop their hair out over the break, and that it was his job to determine on a brand new coiffure for them. I’ve all the time been confused by that clarification — looks as if the entire drawback may’ve been solved by some primary communication from one of many tons of of individuals concerned within the manufacturing — which is why Radcliffe’s model of occasions feels extra plausible. It makes extra sense that Mike Newell merely most well-liked lengthy hair.
Aalthough Newell thought the actors’ hair seemed nice, Rupert Grint (who performed Ron) shared Radcliffe’s sentiments. “My hair in movie 4 is certainly one of my largest regrets,” he stated in a 2021 podcast interview. “Shoulder size, I had my hair down right here, and I used to be like ‘I do not know.’ I believe everybody really had a part of type of having this actually lengthy hair.”
That final sentence captures a standard protection of the “Goblet of Hearth” hairstyles: numerous guys with usually brief hair do typically have a part the place they develop it out, so it is becoming that there’d be that one yr the place Harry and Ron undergo that part.
In additional protection of the lengthy hair…
Warner Bros.
You may also make the case that the lengthy hair mixes nicely with the looser, carefree instances the gang is in for many of this film. The remainder of the “Harry Potter” films are outlined by the rise of returned fascist Voldemort, whose reign of terror coincides with the return of a lot shorter, conservative-coded hairstyles for all the primary characters. It looks like “Goblet of Hearth” is capturing the vibes of the freewheeling ’70s whereas the a lot darker “Order of the Phoenix” throws everybody into the stricter, shorter hairstyles of the ’50s.
The opposite protection of the “Goblet of Hearth” hairstyles is that the lengthy hair helps disguise the ageing of the actors. There is a cause why so many actors taking part in highschool characters are styled with a equally lengthy, bangs-heavy haircut: it helps cowl up the actor’s maturing hairline. Even when a man’s not balding, it is quite common for his or her hairline to recede upwards a bit of their early maturity. That is typically one of many clearest indicators of a man’s age as he transitions from mid-teens to early twenties, and it is the primary factor a stylist would wish to cowl up.
It is no shock that it was solely with “Order of the Phoenix” that the jokes about Harry getting outdated actually began to take off in popular culture. The brief hair in “Phoenix” known as consideration to the truth that Radcliffe was now noticeably a number of years older than his film counterpart, a proven fact that grew to become more and more onerous to disregard because the franchise went on. It wasn’t an enormous deal in fact — the children’ ageing on “Stranger Issues” at the moment is way extra awkward — however it undoubtedly helps redeem the lengthy “Goblet of Hearth” hairstyles.
That lengthy hair might have seemed a bit awkward and messy, however it’s come to characterize a lighthearted, extra childlike time within the characters’ lives. Like most components of the early “Potter” movies that the later films did away with, it is onerous to not look again on the lengthy hair fondly.
