Snow White and the Huntsman

Shew... let's just start by saying: what a film... Such a great film that I saw it twice on the big screen and will certainly buy it for my collection. And between you and me I think I am a little obsessed by the beauty of this film.

I don't need to give anyone a synopsis on the story line, unless you were born in the Jungles of Borneo without any contact to the outside world as you were raised by wolves, you will know the Basic Story. All you need to know (because Disney wasn't clear) is the Snow White (Kristen Stewart) was born the Princess of Tabor, daughter to King Magnus (Noah Huntly) and Queen Elanor (Liberty Ross), she had hair as black as night, skin as fair as snow and lips as red as blood (life is all about the details). Queen Elanor died (of some unmentionable disease - probably Syphilis knowing the Royals) and King Magnus was left widowed and heart broken, and as any normal man would do hopped up and married the first captured prisoner of a weird fantastical non-human army after ummmm... a month (give or take). This damsel in distress turned out to be the mighty, beautiful but oh so whitchy Ravenna - AKA man hater and kingdom thief after one too many break ups and one night stands - (Charlize Theron). Ravenna kills the King after a very disturbing monologue while he is trying to do his thang in the marriage chamber. She then proceeds to take over the kingdom, imprisoning Snow White in the highest tower of the tallest spire and ridding the Kingdom of all things furry, pretty and young. Ravenna has an obsession with age and beauty as this is the key to her magic, and she is over 100 years old, so her with her AMAZING mirror constantly scour the land for "fairest of them all". Then one day, the dreaded mirror tells Ravenna that Snow White is the fairest of them all (obviously, even though she is in rags and hasn't bathed for years), and if Ravenna has her heart she will never need to suck the life out of poor defenseless girls. So Ravenna sends her creepy, Willard hair styled, Loci persona brother to go and get Snow White, and low and behold, Snow White manages to escape. Cue the shiny white horse waiting for her and into the forest, where she meets the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) as well as a band of Merry Dwarves, some scarred Lesbians, AWESOME fairies (depicted differently from pop culture) and the great forest deer (which looks like it came to this set directly from the Anime Film Princess Mononoke) the appearance of said deer obviously means she is life to the Kingdom. Cue Ravenna, poison apple and being kissed by the yummy Huntsman, which translates into war, kick ass girlie armor and the death of Ravenna and the crowning of Snow White holding a blossom. The End. A little different from the fairy tail, but oh so lovely.


Now I am not an expert or a Film Critic, I have a 4 year degree in Film and Theater Directing, however no one has ever paid me to write anything about a film, as a matter of fact, for four years I paid people to read my ramblings about film! So, since being paid for something is an international measure of success, I can safely say that I am in the negative standing, but nonetheless, here is my opinion of the film:


First off, let's discuss the dark take on Snow White, the Fairy Tale we all knew and loved as children, taken by Disney and molded into the Patriarchal vision of the fairy princess... Well this film was not this:

or this:

Or any of this:

Instead we followed the dark Fairy Tale, one of the Brothers Grimm, through the dark and treacherous world all set in a fantastic brooding landscape:

The motif of light and dark, which literally translates into the battle of good and evil was shown clearly through the exquisite lighting, as well as the costume (which we will tackle later), the lighting kicks animated Snow Whites poofy marshmallow world to the curb:

Now for my favourite part... Cinematography - I think this is what made the film for me, it was INCREDIBLE. At university I had ambitions of being a DOP (Director of Photography) as I really enjoy that side of the film making process. The cinematography of this film drew you in from the very first moment, the long rambling shots juxtaposed with tight close ups really created a fabulous visual landscape and tantalized the eyes. Some of my favourite shots (and obviously the bathing in milk shot - Heaven):

And of course the costumes (which Charlize definitely got the better deal), and is that the tree of Gondor on Snow White's shield?:

Then the Special Effects... Wowee.... It would seem that Pixomodo who did most - if not all the SFX - also do all the SFX for Game of Thrones, so you KNOW they're going to be epic.

First we had the Shadow Army, made of spikey black obsidian glass, evil as HELL:

Designed to shatter outwards:

Then we had Mirror Mirror, and boy did this antagonist look INCREDIBLE, a human form in a sheet of shimmering , flowing, organic gold:

Then we had the magic forest and the Princess Mononoke Deer (which turned into a flock of Birds to escape):

Then we had the AMAZING fairies, so different to Tinkerbell and True Blood Fairies, so fantastical and original, so in touch with nature that they are naked, furry and can morph in and out of other animals:

We even had a troll under a bridge:

And a little bit of action:

The constant and all consuming pursuit of youth, fear of aging combined with the constant terror of death is around every corner. This is a great and timeless comment on society, especially the one we live in today. Unfortunately there are no pictures of Charlize ageing and firming up again after a good dose of young girls heart, but this was incredible. A lecturer once said that a good actor/actress is one that is not afraid of looking ugly as well as beautiful on screen, and both these actresses could do just that.

And if you thought that Charlize and Ms. Stewart were the only two people in the film, here is the Huntsman, the Dwarves and the others:

Overall, an amazing film. Some complained about Charlize's slow delivery, which I thought was very well directed, others said that the film was merely SFX and no storyline, clearly, I did not think so. Overall I thought it was a masterpiece of cinematography and SFX, combined with a fresh, new and dark take on the Grimm's Brothers tale with kick ass posters:

End...