Alex Bailey
In 'Snow White and the Huntsman,' Chris Hemsworth's huntsman is sent to
kill Kristen Stewart's Snow White, but they bond instead.
It often seems as if the movies were made for fairy tales — and, more than ever, fairy tales are filling up the multiplex.
From the silent era through the heyday of Walt Disney to this Friday’s “Snow White and the Huntsman,” the interplay of darkness and light, magic and reality in folklore — along with lessons to be learned and evil to be vanquished — have fit Hollywood like Cinderella’s slipper.
The only thing missing, one could say, is Kristen Stewart roaring at forest monsters and wielding one helluva sword.
Well, scratch that one off the list, too: It’s just one highlight of the new “Snow White,” an action-adventure retelling of the 1812 Brothers Grimm fable most associated with Disney’s 1937 version — the first full-length animated feature and the recipient of an honorary Academy Award.
But forget about dwarfs singing “Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho,” and certainly ignore the recent “Mirror Mirror,” which starred Julia Roberts. Stewart’s flick, co-starring Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth and directed by TV commercials auteur Rupert Sanders, has more serious issues in its quiver.
“There’s just something so not fairytale-esque about this film,” Stewart has said. “And yet, it’s so worthy of that phrase, ‘fairy tale.’ It really does take you somewhere that is otherworldly.”
This “Snow White,” she assures, “lives in a very dangerous place.”
Hemsworth, for his part, has taken to comparing the film to Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
“While it is family-friendly, this is a more adult version than what we’re used to,” the “Avengers” co-star has said. “It’s darker, but grounded in reality.”
In the movie, Stewart’s Snow White is the stepdaughter of Ravenna (Theron), an evil queen who’s obsessed with youth and beauty, consumed with anger and filled with hatred for the late king’s beloved only child, Snow White, considered “the fairest in the land.”
When Ravenna sends Snow White into the forest, she secretly hires the mercenary huntsman Eric (Hemsworth) to kill the girl and return with her still-beating heart. But after meeting up with seven thieving dwarfs (played, in a CGI/live-action combo, by Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane and Nick Frost, among others), Snow White and the Huntsman develop a bond. He trains her in battle so that she might end Ravenna’s cruel rule, which involves remaining immortal by sacrificing maidens and eating songbirds.
Since Hollywood’s interest in fairy tales and classic children’s stories was reignited in 2010 — when “Alice in Wonderland” and “Tangled” ranked as the second- and 10th-highest-grossing films of that year — 2011’s “Red Riding Hood” and this spring’s “Mirror Mirror” have cast a pale spell. But “Snow White” is galloping in on a wave of buzz, and arriving in January is “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters,” starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton.
From the silent era through the heyday of Walt Disney to this Friday’s “Snow White and the Huntsman,” the interplay of darkness and light, magic and reality in folklore — along with lessons to be learned and evil to be vanquished — have fit Hollywood like Cinderella’s slipper.
The only thing missing, one could say, is Kristen Stewart roaring at forest monsters and wielding one helluva sword.
Well, scratch that one off the list, too: It’s just one highlight of the new “Snow White,” an action-adventure retelling of the 1812 Brothers Grimm fable most associated with Disney’s 1937 version — the first full-length animated feature and the recipient of an honorary Academy Award.
But forget about dwarfs singing “Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho,” and certainly ignore the recent “Mirror Mirror,” which starred Julia Roberts. Stewart’s flick, co-starring Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth and directed by TV commercials auteur Rupert Sanders, has more serious issues in its quiver.
“There’s just something so not fairytale-esque about this film,” Stewart has said. “And yet, it’s so worthy of that phrase, ‘fairy tale.’ It really does take you somewhere that is otherworldly.”
This “Snow White,” she assures, “lives in a very dangerous place.”
Hemsworth, for his part, has taken to comparing the film to Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
“While it is family-friendly, this is a more adult version than what we’re used to,” the “Avengers” co-star has said. “It’s darker, but grounded in reality.”
In the movie, Stewart’s Snow White is the stepdaughter of Ravenna (Theron), an evil queen who’s obsessed with youth and beauty, consumed with anger and filled with hatred for the late king’s beloved only child, Snow White, considered “the fairest in the land.”
When Ravenna sends Snow White into the forest, she secretly hires the mercenary huntsman Eric (Hemsworth) to kill the girl and return with her still-beating heart. But after meeting up with seven thieving dwarfs (played, in a CGI/live-action combo, by Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane and Nick Frost, among others), Snow White and the Huntsman develop a bond. He trains her in battle so that she might end Ravenna’s cruel rule, which involves remaining immortal by sacrificing maidens and eating songbirds.
Since Hollywood’s interest in fairy tales and classic children’s stories was reignited in 2010 — when “Alice in Wonderland” and “Tangled” ranked as the second- and 10th-highest-grossing films of that year — 2011’s “Red Riding Hood” and this spring’s “Mirror Mirror” have cast a pale spell. But “Snow White” is galloping in on a wave of buzz, and arriving in January is “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters,” starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton.
That will be followed by Sam Raimi’s “Oz: The Great and Powerful,”
starring James Franco, Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz; Bryan
Singer’s “Jack the Giant Killer”; producer Guillermo del Toro’s
stop-motion animation version of “Pinocchio,” and Angelina Jolie in the
live-action title role of “Maleficent,” Sleeping Beauty’s nasty-sexy
witch nemesis.
“Fairy tales appeal to us because they hark back to a time in which anything is possible,” says Paul Levinson, chairman of the communications and media studies department at Fordham University and former president of the Science Fiction Writers of America.
“And, if they’re presented onscreen in a convincing way — that is, not in a wink-wink, cynical way — they’re still an extremely important part of our popular culture. There are clear-cut villains and heroes and heroines, and we always long for that.”
As for what’s driving the trend now, film historian Leonard Maltin, author of “Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons,” says it may not be the zeitgeist so much as good old-fashioned lucre.
“Nothing succeeds like success,” Maltin says, “so when ‘Alice in Wonderland’ made $330 million-plus at the box office, studios said, ‘We’ve got to make some of that!’ But did audiences go because of how Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter was sold, or because of Tim Burton? There may have been a misreading of that movie’s success: It may just have been that movie, and not a retelling of fairy tales, that excited people.
However, as Levinson adds, “Turning Snow White — a character generally thought of as passive and defined by her purity — into a strong warrior is a very smart choice.”
Even the usually one-note Huntsman character gets a modern makeover: Hemsworth says he brought a “Western gunslinger, loner-type of hero” vibe to the film, and kept Harrison Ford’s portrayals of Indiana Jones and Han Solo in mind as role models.
Stewart — in, amazingly, her first non-indie film after being Bella Swan in four “Twilight” films, including the final installment, “Breaking Dawn, Part 2,” coming in November — also had tough parameters for her character.
“I would say that [she’s] true to all of the things you’d associate with her. She’s a good person, very compassionate, with a connection to the earth. It’s just that we put her in situations where it’s really difficult to maintain those qualities!”
Or, as Hemsworth succinctly sums up: “It’s kind of like ‘Snow White’ on steroids.”
“Fairy tales appeal to us because they hark back to a time in which anything is possible,” says Paul Levinson, chairman of the communications and media studies department at Fordham University and former president of the Science Fiction Writers of America.
“And, if they’re presented onscreen in a convincing way — that is, not in a wink-wink, cynical way — they’re still an extremely important part of our popular culture. There are clear-cut villains and heroes and heroines, and we always long for that.”
As for what’s driving the trend now, film historian Leonard Maltin, author of “Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons,” says it may not be the zeitgeist so much as good old-fashioned lucre.
“Nothing succeeds like success,” Maltin says, “so when ‘Alice in Wonderland’ made $330 million-plus at the box office, studios said, ‘We’ve got to make some of that!’ But did audiences go because of how Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter was sold, or because of Tim Burton? There may have been a misreading of that movie’s success: It may just have been that movie, and not a retelling of fairy tales, that excited people.
However, as Levinson adds, “Turning Snow White — a character generally thought of as passive and defined by her purity — into a strong warrior is a very smart choice.”
Even the usually one-note Huntsman character gets a modern makeover: Hemsworth says he brought a “Western gunslinger, loner-type of hero” vibe to the film, and kept Harrison Ford’s portrayals of Indiana Jones and Han Solo in mind as role models.
Stewart — in, amazingly, her first non-indie film after being Bella Swan in four “Twilight” films, including the final installment, “Breaking Dawn, Part 2,” coming in November — also had tough parameters for her character.
“I would say that [she’s] true to all of the things you’d associate with her. She’s a good person, very compassionate, with a connection to the earth. It’s just that we put her in situations where it’s really difficult to maintain those qualities!”
Or, as Hemsworth succinctly sums up: “It’s kind of like ‘Snow White’ on steroids.”
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