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| And yet who do we see dominating the movie poster? Yeah, that's right, not either title character. |
I'm not the only person who thought that the primary title character of this particular film didn't fill her lovely leather boots very well. Most of the reviews I read before going to see this movie remarked that Chris Hemsworth ended up carrying the story, and after seeing the film, I agreed with everything that was said both about his performance as well as that of Charlize Theron. At the end of the film, my friend and I agreed that while we understood what was driving both the Huntsman and the Queen, Snow White was a bit of a mystery to us. She started the film locked in a tower, managed to escape, find her way to friendly territory, and ended up riding to war at the end of the story, but we never got a really clear grasp on why it was she was doing these things. Revenge just didn't seem to sit well on her -- there was never a moment in the film where we all said, "Yes, this is what Snow will go and beat down the Queen for." She was never moved to a moment of great agony or suffering -- or at least, a moment where Stewart convinced us she was suffering.
One could argue that spending your teenage years locked in a tower is about as close to suffering as you'll get, but I would have liked to see a monologue from Snow while she's in the enchanted forest or something, telling someone about what it was like being locked up all those years. We got quite extensive backstory about the Queen (which made me pity her more than Snow White for at least five minutes of the film before she went and brutally murdered someone else) and the Huntsman even put in his (somewhat unconvincing) backstory about how his wife died. (I would have liked a flashback to explain that more.)
What I absolutely loved about the film was its texture. There were some really wonderful sets and locations on display, and apart from Snow's strangely helpful escape outfit (who on earth locks someone up in a tower with leather leggings and large spangly sleeves?) the costume department did a wonderfully robust job outfitting the cast. I really loved the costumes for the women on the water, the people who rescue Snow and the Huntsmen from the Swamp. On first glance, I thought every woman in that village was crying, until a closeup shot revealed that what I had thought were tear-trails on their faces were actually scars, carved there so the queen couldn't take their beauty from them.
The other thing that made me enjoy this film a little bit more than I might have otherwise was the series of learning moments it inspired in me afterwards. As I was watching this story about a pair of women with very different goals in life, one of whom is being driven to extreme measures to maintain her beauty because her mother told her once beauty was the only thing that would save her, I was struck by how that character, and the darkness that she stoops to, could be used to talk to women of all ages about what measures we resort to in order to keep the world's eyes on us. Before the story begins, the Queen was powerless and in a terrible situation -- her village was being overrun by a raiding party -- and her mother, seeking to save her daughter, casts a spell on her that will keep her beautiful, and allow her to enslave the hearts and minds of men. It seems to me that this spell is actually the Queen's undoing rather than her making, since for the rest of her life she finds it impossible to trust men. Her great and terrible magical power leaves her powerless to form real bonds of love with anyone, male or female, a skill that Snow White (we assume) does have and one that even the Queen admits makes Snow a stronger, more formidable opponent.*
*A stronger, more formidable opponent who does the unspeakably stupid and throws her shield away before going into battle. Really now, Snow, did you not watch Eowyn in Return of the King while she slays the Witchking? Shields are damn useful when you're fighting supreme evil. Also, where is your helmet? Eowyn had a helmet and a "Fwoosh-look-at-my-awesome-hair-moment" and she turned out all right.
The other teachable moment I got out of this film was the importance of purpose-full characters. Not purposeful, all characters in a story are purposeful, but purpose-full, full of their sense regarding what they are supposed to do for the story. The Queen, throughout the whole film, was purpose-full. A great and terrible purpose, as Loki might say, but purpose nonetheless. She was bent on remaining beautiful and remaining in power. Snow White, on the other hand, had this destiny that she didn't seem to ever take by the horns. Maybe this was Kristen Stewart's acting, or lackluster work by the director -- I'm not sure. When she was trying to rally her troops into battle, I was too distracted by the fact that she ripped off a Shakespeare speech to understand or personally buy into what she was saying. (For he that dies today shall be my brother? Really now.) It sounded like a stolen Shakespeare speech, not something that character would say. I would have liked to see the role done by Emma Watson or Saorise Ronan, because I feel like both of those ladies can play characters filled with the same kind of great and terrible purpose the Queen embodies throughout the film.
This realization helped me a lot with the story I'm working on right now. Whatever's happening in the story, I need to make sure my characters are full of their purpose -- that they're not simply there to be the title character and look good in a dress, but to carry the story and make the reader draw into the action with them. Several reviewers, and even some of my friends, commented on how this version of Snow White was profoundly better than most princess dramas because the princess spends a good deal of time in the muck with a weapon in her hand, and that we should praise her for being a 'strong female character'. I never got the sense that she was a strong female in any sense, apart from being able to ride in plate armor, and it's because she never seemed full of purpose to me. Because she never seemed to truly step into the circumstances surrounding her, she lost a little bit of what would have made her strong to me. A lot of what being 'feminist' means to me, personally, is a sense of focus and decision-making around where you are in life, and allowing that power of choice (around all things -- where to live, what job to take, whether to have kids or a job or both) to go to other people as well. And I didn't really see Snow White making a lot of her own decisions. (Merida, now, Merida looks like she makes her own decisions. I'll get back to you on that film when I finally see it.)
I also realized the importance of a good ending. Snow got her crown at the end, (which didn't seem to fit her very well, another fact I found funny) but they never resolved anything with the Prince or the Huntsman, two elements that were introduced and then never brought to a conclusion. (Why bring them up if you won't do anything with it? Chekov's gun, anyone?) I think that coronation scene was the moment for a rousing speech, or at least standing up, or doing something defiant like raising that strange looking staff she was carrying. But nothing happened. She sat. The previously closed doors closed again and the credits rolled. There was no "And they lived happily ever after" or a voiceover from the huntsman explaining how life in the kingdom went after that, or even "The End" and I think the movie would have benefited from any of those things.
So the moral of the story is this -- Don't live solely for beauty's sake. Take life's trolls by both horns and shout convincingly at them. Always have a reason for your actions, remember it from time to time, and revisit and revise when necessary. And remember, as Mary Anne Radmacher says,
Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.”
As for my tomorrow, it will be spent trying to write more of my three hundred page fanfic. Good grief...
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