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There will be many articles making contrasting arguments or comparisons of not only the 'Snow White' movies but to the original 'Snow White' Grimm's story itself.
New School Free Press provides their analysis of what Hollywood is presenting today insofar as making a traditional character into a fighter or a character of strength moving it away from the weak or the helpless or even having a dependency for others.
Here is an excerpt from NSFP's article entitled Snow White Suits Up, but There’s Still a Chink in the Armor - Reflecting on Fairy Tales and Female Heroines:
"In the darkly lit press release photos for “Snow White and The Huntsman,” the traditionally demure Snow White, played by Kristen Stewart, is dressed in a suit of armor, sword and shield in hand, strands of hair dangling from her brow, as if caught during a brief respite from battle. Snow White is getting a 21st century makeover.
The past 10 years have produced a spate of female movie action heroes, from the hyper-sexualized Lara Croft in “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” to the spurned mother Beatrix Kiddo in “Kill Bill” to the macho Gracie Hart in “Miss Congeniality,” each rendering a slightly different version of the female hero than the next. What the female action hero’s growing prevalence may actually suggest is both a perpetual dissatisfaction with current treatments of women in film and a yearning for a heroine who encompasses the forceful aspects of a warrior, without sacrificing any of her femininity.
The press releases supplied by each of the studios producing Snow White films this year suggest that all three of these films re-envision their heroines, no longer as the fragile damsel-in-distress described by the Grimm Brothers, but rather as coming-of-age post-Buffy and Xena warrior princesses, intent on saving themselves.
However, the central theme of this fairytale is that its protagonist is a helpless young girl who must depend upon the Huntsman and the seven dwarves for her salvation — turn her into self-reliant fighter, and one loses the essence of the story.
Singh’s adaptation, starring Lily Collins, claims to be by far the most faithful rendition of the Grimm Brothers’ classic fairytale. Collins stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that, “[Snow White] is very much that fairy tale princess we’ve all read about in books,” but it’s quick to add that that her portrayal has “been modernized in a way that she becomes a fighter in the end.”
Read the article in its entirety here.
via @malenacasey
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