Snow White & the Huntsman (2012)

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Background & MIRROR, MIRROR Issue

Snow White and the Hunstman was developed by Universal Studios with the hopes of starting a new fantasy franchise in the vein of Lord of the Rings. At the same time Snow White & the Huntsman was being developed, Relativity Media was working on there own retelling of the story with the movie that would be Mirror, Mirror. Neither distributor cancelled their film plans despite heavy scrutiny from the press. In a press release, Universal said they thought the two Snow White projects were tonally so different that it didn't matter. Nevertheless, in an effort to show Snow White & the Hunstman as the darker version of the story meant for teens and adults, Universal gave their movie the tagline "This is no fairy tale."

Plot Summary

The movie opens with a voice-over explaining that a queen once was in her snow covered garden and pricked her finger on a rose. Three drops of blood fell in the snow, and at that moment the queen wished for a child with that beauty, personified with lips as red as blood and skin as white as snow (and then dark raven hair, because what the hell, it looks cool). The woman gets her wish and gives birth to a beautiful daughter named Snow White.

The daughter grows up with her best friend, a prince of a smaller kingdom who is living in her castle on a diplomatic meeting named william. However, one harsh winter her mother dies. An army then attacks the kingdom and the grief-stricken king rushes into battle with his army. The army turns out to be made of glass. The king's army wins, and the in the rubble of the battlefield finds a woman chained to a wagon. The king falls in love with her and marries her the next day. That evening, though, the lady--named Ravena--says that all men abuse women and will throw them away once they become old. She then stabs him with a dagger and the narrator reveals that the lady is a witch who conjured up the army of glass to weaken the king for seduction. Revena then brings in a real army which, with the king dead, manages to take over the kingdom. The prince escapes the castle with his father, but sees Snow White dragged away but the queen's soldiers. He vows to return.

Ravena takes over the castle, and rules with an iron fist. The enslaved people lose hope as her dark magic corrupts the Earth in the kingdom, making everything cold and dead. In one bizarre act of mercy, though, Ravena spares the young Snow White, merely locking her away in a tower.

The narrator's voice vanishes, never to return again. Snow White is an adult now and still stuck in the tower. Ravena is still a bitch, killing men who show the slightest resistance to her reign in a creepy sexual fashion, absorbing the life force of women to retain her beauty and immortality, and making out with Finn, who happens to be her brother.

Ravena talks to her magic mirror which tells her that Snow White's innocence could cause her end. He then says that by consuming Snow's heart she can live forever without having to absorb and more lives. Ravena then tells Finn to get Snow. Finn has been banned from touching Snow by Ravena, but has been watching her for hours. Now that he knows she will die, he decides to go ahead and rape her. However a crow that Snow had nursed back to health as a small child has knocked loose a nail and Snow uses this to stab Finn in the face. She then escapes through the sewer system and rides a horse into the dark forest, which is filled with hallucinogenic gases and quicksand. The soldiers refuse to follow.

Ravena berates Finn for letting Snow escape, but heals most of his face. She then tells him he is the only one she remotely trusts and that she expects him to find Snow. She then suggests he find someone who isn't afraid of the forest.

Finn comes up with the Huntsman, who has been through the forest once before, though now he is an alcoholic since Ravena absorbed his wife's life-force. When Finn finds the Huntsman, he is getting beaten up and possibly murdered by a man he owes money.

Ravena tells the Huntsman to go into the forest and find a girl who is hiding there (she doesn't use a name since everyone thinks Snow died the night she threw a coup). He says it would be a miserable way to die and that she might as well kill him here, as all he wants is to be reunited with his wife in heaven. Ravena then says she will resurrect his wife if he finds the girl.

The Huntsman goes into the forest and with ease finds Snow, his face covered by a scarf to weaken the affect of the gases. Snow is hiding underneath a tree, confused and weak from severe hallucinations. Finn and his soldiers, who have accompanied the Huntsman, then says to hand over the girl. The Huntsman says first he wants his wife, and puts his axe to Snow's throat, saying he will kill her if they try to kill him. In the confusion, Snow breaks out of the Huntsman's grasp and runs away. Finn then tells the Huntsman that even though the queen is very powerful, she can't resurrect the dead and anyone who would believe that is a fool. The Huntsman becomes enraged and kills several of the soldiers. He then throws Finn in a pit filled with lots of the hallucinogenic gases. Finn writhes in agony and imagines his own skin is melting off.

The Huntsman chases down Snow, but she steals his knife. She says that she heard Prince William still lives and he will be richly rewarded if she takes him there (she doesn't reveal who she is, though). The Huntsman says that she must be worth some value if the queen wants her and reluctantly agrees to take her to Prince William.

While walking along, the Huntsman teaches Snow White some fighting techniques. The two begin to form a friendship.

The Huntsman and Snow accidentally mistake a troll's back for a bridge. This upsets the troll which throws them around roughly. Snow lands a distance from the troll and the Huntsman tells her to run away. The troll then attacks the Huntsman and nearly kills him, but Snow screams at the Snow at confronts it (though she doesn't use any violence). The troll roars for a minute, and then trudges off.

The Huntsman and Snow come to a lake where they are found from some poor female villagers. One of the villagers reveals that all of their spouses have been killed by Ravena's men, but they are able to live a very poor existence since they have disfigured their faces to keep them from having beauty worth stealing. There are even some young girls in the village, and they too have long scars along their faces.

The villager then tells the Huntsman that she thinks the person he is accompanying is Snow White. The Huntsman then finds Snow and asks why she didn't tell. Snow reluctantly says she didn't trust him.

Hurt, the Huntsman decides to leave the village at night while Snow is asleep. The villager he talked to early tries to stop him, but he says that since the soldiers are looking for him he will only bring trouble.

Meanwhile, Prince William has been working to help villagers escape from Ravena's kingdom to his father's far smaller kingdom. He decimates a sizable group of knights simply with his archery.

Upon discovering from a refugee that Snow White still lives, Prince William leaves to find her, despite his father's pleas to stay. Disguised, he finds Finn and a group of soldiers searching for Snow and asks to join them, saying he is an excellent bowman. Finn says he already has a bowman and orders his bowman to kill William. William promptly shoots the bowmen. His skill impresses Finn so much he is recruited.

Finn, William, and the soldiers attack the village where Snow is hiding. In the assault, William stealthily kills a few of the soldiers to save some villagers. The Huntsman rushes back to the village to help. He manages to save Snow, who is furious that he left. The rest of the villagers leave in a boat while Snow and the Huntsman decide to travel to William's castle on foot.

Snow and the Huntsman are captured by a group of dwarfs. The dwarfs are about to kill them when one of them recognizes Snow. He says that he knew the King personally and believes she is the only hope they have.

Finn and his soldiers attack the dwarfs, Snow, and the Huntsman, but the dwarfs lead Snow into a hidden cave to a beautiful glen.

After resting the night, Snow awakes to see the glen is a beautiful summer time location full of magical creatures such as fairies. She comes across a great white deer that kneels before her. The dwarfs tell the Huntsman that this is a divine sign that she is the one who can bring down Ravena.

Just then, Finn and his warriors attack. They shoot the deer, which bursts into a cloud of butterflies and departs. A dwarf who Snow was especially fond of dies by taking an arrow meant for her. William finds Snow, reveals himself, and battles along side her.

Separated from Snow and William, the Huntsman confronts Finn and a few soldiers. He kills the soldiers, but Finn manages to knock the weapon from his hand. Finn tells the story of watching Ravena kill the Huntsman's wife and mocks the Huntsman for not being able to save her. Enraged, the Huntsman picks Finn up and impales him on a broken tree stump.

Feeling her brother die, Ravena writhes in agony, revealing the two have a psychic link. She then has a flashback to her as a child where her village was attacked by ruthless soldiers. Her mother used dark magic to give her the possibility at immortality by sacrificing dark blood. When the soldiers came, she made Ravena vow to fight against all men and become as powerful as possible. The mother was then murdered and Ravena and Finn were put in slavery.

Back in the current time, Snow and William and the Huntsman and the remaining dwarfs camp in a frigidly cold forest. In the morning, Snow wakes up and wanders off into the wood. She turns around to see William has followed her. He gives her an apple which she bites into. Snow is then poisoned and dies. What appeared to be William morphs into Ravena, transforms into a murder of ravens, and flies off. The real William (who was still at the camp) and the Huntsman rush to Snow, but she is already gone. Heartbroken. William kisses Snow's corpse. Nothing happens.

The dwarfs, William, and the Hunstman arrive at William's father's castle with Snow's body. Snow's body is placed in a church. Alone with her, the Huntsman laments the fact that he was unable to protect her just as he was unable to protect his wife. He then kisses her and walks out.

Snow then awakes.

Meanwhile, William tells his father they must go battle and destroy Ravena once and for all. His father says it will only cause his small force to be destroyed.

Snow then walks from the church. The inhabitants of the city around William's castle gather in shock and awe. Snow then rallies them to raise an army and destroy Queen Ravena.

As an army charges toward Ravena's castle, the Dwarves sneak in through the castle sewers, kill several soldiers, and open the portcullis. A battle occurs inside Ravena's castle. Snow, the Huntsman, the prince, and a group of soldiers burst into Ravena's thrown room, but Ravena conjures up another army of glass. The glass soldiers reform after even the most deadly of injuries.

Ravena grabs Snow and tells her that she has caused all these deaths and they are not very different from each other. Snow has a hidden dagger, though, and stabs Ravena. Ravena says consuming Snow's heart was the only way to save herself and then whithers away.

Snow is crowned queen of the kingdom. She looks at the Huntsman as this happens.

Critical Reception

Snow White & the Huntsman received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie got a 46%, which qualifies as "Rotten." On Metacritic, the movie got a 57, which is in the categories "Yellow" and "Mixed Reviews." Of the Metacritic reviews, 18 were positive, 17 were mixed, and 4 were negative. The highest review was a three and a half star one by Roger Ebert.

Box Office

Snow White & the Huntsman did far better than expected. Most estimates given within the week of its release predicted a weekend domestic score below $40 million, but the movie in fact made over $56 million in the US in its first three days. It also was a hit at the foreign box office, earning about $40 million in its first three days overseas, where it opened in 45 markets (mostly European ones).

Sequel

Within a week of Snow White & the Huntsman's successful debut, David Koepp was contracted to write a sequel. To see this film, click here.