Fairy tales evolve … and Snow White’s story is no exception. Just this year Hollywood has given us two new takes on the erstwhile princess and her vain stepmother. The second of these, Snow White and the Huntsman, is a clever and entertaining modern take on the themes at the (still-beating) heart of this medieval fable.
Making his feature-length film debut, director Rupert Sanders has created a fantasy world that evokes the dreamy realism of Sofia Coppola or Terrence Malick. Diffused lighting, shifting focus, and handheld camera work were all used to good effect, making this adventure movie, in moments, beautiful.
Beauty—its power, the quest for it, and also our definition of it—is the thematic axis on which Snow White’s story turns. Here Snow’s mother pricks her finger on an impressive red rose that is bravely blooming in the middle of winter. As blood drips from her hand she wishes for a beautiful daughter. She wishes upon her child the requisite black hair, ruby lips, and pale skin, but (going beyond appearances) wishes as well for her to receive the strength and courage of that red rose. Her wishes come true. As Snow White is born and grows into a girl, she is adored by all for her love and compassion. She is a strong source of light and life, a blessing to all.
Evil queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) also bears the legacy of her mother’s ideas about beauty. In a flashback Ravenna’s family and village are sacked. We see her desperate mother casting a fateful spell on the young girl that will give her the power to retain her youthful bloom of beauty. “Your beauty is all that can save you,” she whispers to the terrified child. By the time we meet the queen (perhaps hundreds of years later) we see that her physical splendor has thrown her into the path of men with utilitarian uses for her beauty. Rather than saving her, Ravenna’s cynical understanding of beauty twists her into a death-dealing madwoman bent on giving the world “the queen it deserves.”
What a difference a mother’s lessons about beauty can make.
After dispatching Snow White’s father with a blade on their wedding night, Ravenna locks the young princess away in a castle tower, a mercy that suggests who Ravenna might have been under different circumstances. Years pass until her mirrored oracle (made even stranger here with outstanding special effects) informs the queen that she must kill the fairer Snow to beat death once and for all. Only through the shedding of Snow’s fair blood can the queen be saved or stopped. In the end, the distinction is a fine one.
But this is just the beginning of Snow White’s tale. Not a moment too soon the princess (Kristen Stewart) seizes an opportunity to escape her prison. While Stewart could stand to expand her range of facial expressions beyond her trademark agape mouth and nervous lip bite, she still pulls off the film’s lead surprisingly well. The role of Snow White is a good fit for Stewart’s wide-eyed mien. Sander’s Snow White is a savior, an archetypal Christ-figure down to the power wielded through her innocent blood. (The only explicitly religious reference is a moment in which Snow whispers the Lord’s Prayer in her prison.) This theme lends gravitas to Snow’s flight from Ravenna and eventual return to face her.
The Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) is sent by the queen to track Snow down. He soon changes his allegiance though, and together they make their way to join those loyal to the dead king. As you might hope, they meet dwarves along the way. Archetypes abound, as do special effects that are mostly impressive, and sometimes comical, as in the case of a couple fairies. Ravenna’s scenes are particularly visually stunning, with grand costumes and dark rituals that suggest evil even without explicit explanations.
Despite a few holes in the screenplay, Snow White and the Huntsman has something for everyone—daring escapes, swordfight, heroes, trolls, social critique, magic, an exciting castle siege, and love of all stripes. It might just be the second true crowd pleaser of the summer (after The Avengers, also staring Chris Hemsworth). The pacing is uneven, but it left me fearful only that the movie would be over too soon. The door was left cracked slightly open for a sequel, and if the same director and screenwriters were behind it, I’d be line for a ticket.
Talk About It
Discussion starters- “When a woman stays young and beautiful forever, the world in hers,” according to Ravenna. Do you think this is true in our world? Why or why not? If yes, does this drive some older women to undercut younger women? How does this happen? How is this dynamic (the fear of younger beauty) to be avoided?
- Snow White and the Huntsman stumble into a village where all the women have scarred themselves, ostensibly cutting away their beauty, in a bid to avoid the queen’s wrath. We’re familiar with the idea of people taking extreme measure to be more beautiful, but are there ways that women (and men?) work to avoid dealing with the pressures of being beautiful?
- Compare and contrast the way the movie presented the bodies of Snow White and Ravenna. How was their beauty represented on the screen?
- In what way(s) did Snow White both save and stop Ravenna?
The Family Corner
For parents to considerSnow White and the Huntsman is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action and brief sensuality. Some scenes are downright gross, as when Snow White wades through a sewer, and the queen materializes in an oil slick that is also made up of ravens. There are also battle scenes with people impaled and burned. Treat the 13 in the PG seriously.
Photos © Universal Pictures
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