by Tiffany Logue
News editor
Courtesy photo
Cast of “Snow White and the Huntsman.”
In 1937, Walt Disney produced “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” which became popular for children.
Recently, Rupert Sanders has directed a fresher version of the Snow White fairy tale, “Snow White and the Huntsman.” The film opened in theaters on June 1 and made $56.2 million its first weekend, according to Yahoo! Movies.
Along with “Snow White and the Huntsman,” Tarsem Singh directed another version of Snow White that came out in March. Singh’s version stars Julia Roberts as the Queen (“Eat Pray Love”) and Lily Collins (“Priest”) as Snow White.
Singh’s version, “Mirror Mirror,” is directed more towards children and is rated PG. Sanders’ version is rated PG-13.
“Snow White and the Huntsman” offers a fresh, interesting twist on the old fairy tale. This was a great idea that would have been more successful if Snow White had been played by a different actress.
Sanderss’s version of Snow White stars Kristen Stewart from the “Twilight” series as Snow White.
Stewart was not good enough for the part. She is not the greatest actress in the world. Many critics have agreed that Stewart is a poor actress. However, I think her acting skills would be fine if her emotions were shown more on her face.
However, if you do not include her lack of emotions, I felt that Stewart was not pretty enough for my ideal image of Snow White.
Snow White was supposed to be known throughout the land for her beauty and be more gorgeous than the queen.
“Snow White and the Huntsman” had Charlize Theron (“Hancock” and “Æon Flux”) play Ravenna, the queen and witch.
As the story goes, Ravenna asks, “Mirror, Mirror on the wall whom is fairest of them all?”
The mirror tells Ravenna that she is the fairest for a while but later says that Snow White is fairer than Ravenna.
The mirror lied. Theron is definitely more beautiful than Stewart.
As in the Disney version, the queen sends the Huntsman to kill Snow White. However, in Sander’s version, the Huntsman teams up with Snow White instead of just letting her go.
Chris Hemsworth (“Thor” and “The Avengers”) plays the Huntsman well. The Huntsman is more than able to take care of himself and Snow White. He displays his abilities throughout the movie.
In Sanders’ version, the Huntsman agrees to take Snow White to Duke Hammond. Vincent Regan (“Clash of the Titans” and “300”) plays the duke.
Snow White gains assistance not only from the Huntsman but from her childhood friend William, played by Sam Claflin from “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.”
William and the Huntsman become attracted to Snow White.
The movie also includes the classic fairy tale scenes such as the woods attacking Snow White as she runs away from the castle, the seven dwarfs aiding her and Snow White eating a poisoned apple.
However, “Snow White and the Huntsman” works all of the events into the movie in a different way than “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” did in 1937.
The new presentation of these events in the story was refreshing because it made the movie seem different from the cartoon.
The new presentation made “Snow White and the Huntsman” seem to be a different story altogether. They helped this story not be the cliché that we have all heard since we were children.
For example, everyone who has seen “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” knows Snow White lives with the dwarfs. However, while Sanders includes them in his version, Snow White does not live with the dwarfs.
The final complaints I have about “Snow White and the Huntsman” involve Stewart as well. However, these about story details instead of actress choice.
One complaint is the clarity of Snow White knowing who awakened her from her sleep after she eats the apple.
Seeing as both the Huntsman and William are attracted to her, they both kiss her.
After she awakens, Snow White never acknowledges that she knew which man was the one who saved her.
While the audience knew which man awakened Snow White, she never shows that she knew which man’s kiss awakened her. Snow White never admits to even being curious how she woke up.
This is am important part of the movie. However, Sanders’ version does not show her having a conversation to the man who woke her up about his kiss.
I kept waiting for the romantic type ending. That ending was not shown at all. It was kind of a “let down.”
The final problem I had with the movie was that Snow White spends the entire movie leading up to the fight with Ravenna. When she gets to this scene, there is no great showdown.
Snow White does not do any fighting really.
Ravenna does all the fighting for the two of them.
As for the fight scene itself, it was not a satisfying brawl given the hype of the conflict between the characters.
Despite the problems with “Snow White and the Huntsman,” I found the movie to be an entertaining and successful retelling of the fairy tale.