It seemed like it was a happy ending with Cinderella getting married and everyone celebrating.
I thought the film was over...and then....everything fell apart.
I just did not like the direction after that, even the music sucked.
THE MOTHER OF THE RAW IS WAR BOARD
That's the point of the story. It's meant to show that life doesn't always have happy endings.
shareThat's really the whole concept, though. Our typical take on the fairytale is that every action or obstacle is warranted simply because it moves the characters towards their Happily Ever After. If the story ended with Cinderella's wedding, then we would all walk away with the idea that the end justifies the means no matter what shortcuts we take to get there ... so it's okay that Jack stole from the giants, Cinderella made the right choice even though she ignored her intuition (she kept running away for some reason, right?), the Baker and his wife got their baby so it doesn't matter that they were harassing a whole bunch of people in the woods, and the witch is young again even though she only achieved this by bullying a sad married couple. It's reckless. And it's predictable. But that's not how life works. Actions have consequences and things aren't always so black and white.
For instance - two of my favorite moments come along in the second half because they poke a hole in the ways that we usually read or watch other fairytale stories.
1) In the second act, both of the children (Jack and Little Red) ask the adults about the humanity of the giant. Isn't a giant a person too? Isn't murder always wrong? So often we see a very strict dichotomy between good and evil characters without any room for gray areas. Because we've watched the stories of Jack, the Baker, Cinderella, and Little Red for the duration of the movie/play, we're supposed to root for their survival, right? But Into The Woods makes a case for the fact that all of the characters are flawed and, whether we agree with her or not, we can understand why the giant's wife would want to seek vindication for his death. After all, did he really deserve to die just because some kid wanted to steal his harp for nothing more than a silly dare?
2) This one is more subtle/less significant to the overall plot, but in the unexpectedly romantic scene between the Baker's wife and Cinderella's prince, I love the line where she confusedly admits that she's in the wrong story. Here's what I like about that - there's overlap in the real world. Most of our familiar fairytales are extremely isolated, but this story allows for the characters to rub up against each other and create more of a mess for themselves. To make an assumption based on the Disney-fied version of events, Cinderella's prince probably never looks at another beautiful woman again for the rest of his life, right? He marries her and that's the end. Once again, that's not how the world works. The thing that really resonated with me in the film version of Into the Woods was that Cinderella and the Baker's wife are easily interchangeable if it weren't for the fact that Cinderella was a maiden (aka unmarried) at the beginning of the story. Both are pretty peasants living simple lives away from the glamour of royalty...only by chance (and with a little magic) does Cinderella encounter the prince, but the Baker's wife would be just as beautiful in a golden gown, wouldn't she? And since the prince has exhibited behavior which indicates that he likes to chase after women without really knowing them, it isn't that surprising to see that he's become bored with married life and now he's charming another random woman when the opportunity arises. (special note - this plot is more believable in the play because a whole year elapses before act 2)
Essentially, Into the Woods is interesting because it takes a harder look at the myths of Happily Ever After. Our stories don't end just because we get the girl/guy, or have a baby, or whatever - we will always face new obstacles, sometimes as a direct result of our old wishes coming true.
Sorry for the essay answer - I didn't know I had that much to say until it was already said!
Cmt thank you so much for your post.
NEW VID!!!https://youtu.be/9eDficA198o
Great post cmtlshem15.
I do have issues with the film, mainly because I am not a fan of Sondheim musicals but I think other people thought this would be another Disnified film when it is far from that.
It's that man again!!
I believe that for the past 20 years or so, there are no happy endings in movies or tv. I'm not saying that life has happy endings, but we as a society want to take everything and make it gray.
It used to be that we went to movies to escape the real world. During the depression, you would poke fun at high society/the wealthy where the lesser of us, the poor getting the best of that society or rising up and overcoming. If a modern writer were to go back, those movies would be very dark with the protagonist having an open-ended ending. The people would leave the theater not feeling better.
I think our society is way too negative and god forbid if someone is happy at the end. Why? Because it's not real. Everyone looks for something different I guess.
For me, the second part of the movie seemed like a different movie than the first part. There were 2 endings. (I had no knowledge on the history of this story, so the movie is my first experience with it) I thought the baker's wife's scene with the prince was very forced.
"I hear this place is restricted, Wang, so don't tell 'em you're Jewish, okay?"
I believe that for the past 20 years or so, there are no happy endings in movies or tv.
I suppose I deserve to be bashed for some of my comments. I will start by saying It's a Wonderful Life was Frank Capra's worst showing at the box office (at least up to that time) and the movie was considered a commercial failure.
Gone With the Wind bored me so I never finished watching. But yes, there were movies with kind of sad endings back in the day. I guess my gray statement stems from the fact that many genres, especially tv have gone with characters being dark and stories being dark.
But since we are talking about this movie, I would have been fine with it ending with the "happy Ending" because I really thought that things were concluded. The second part of the movie's pace really slowed. Maybe I missed something, but the Baker's wife's "affair" with the prince came out of nowhere. I would probably need to watch the first half again to see what I missed. We have to interpret why Cinderella was running from the prince in the first half of the movie. The Baker's wife cut Rapunzel's hair and wore it as a scarf, yet she had it when the witch cut it off. With everyine dying, I was left feeling a little bit like I felt when I watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It wasn't that depressing, but still. Hope I made more sense.
"I hear this place is restricted, Wang, so don't tell 'em you're Jewish, okay?"
I do agree that trends have turned to favor more dark plots and characters than in previous time periods. I just wasn't comfortable with such a large generalization when there are movies ranging across film history on both ends of the spectrum.
I understand what you're getting at with the baker's wife from Into The Woods. I've had the benefit of watching this twice now, once as a play in live theater and now the movie version as well. There was no real warning about the impending affair, so you're not wrong - it does come out of nowhere, other than the fact that the play gives you more warning that the prince isn't going to be faithful to Cinderella. The movie did cut a few scenes out that would have eased you into the final conclusion with a little more finesse, but all in all, I was really disoriented the first time I was introduced to the story. My first instinct was to dislike the second half because it was so jarring. I won't claim that this will happen for everyone, but I just needed some time to process the message and hear other people's perspectives, and then I was much more receptive the next time that I saw it.
If you'll remember the prince said he was made to be "charming", not "sincere". I guess his charm and lack of sincerity wore off after a while and he needed someone new to bolster his ego. It's life folks. The fairy tale is not reality and Act II depicted a lot of reality such as relationships failing, people turning out to be different from what we expected,and new concepts of what constitute a family. I thought that the play was brilliant and the film was a worthy effort. Yes Act II was dark, powerful, and, in my opinion, quite uplifting.
shareGreat post..
shareI agree but it is part of the story, so I can't live without. But I do agree. It gotta kinda down once the whole second storyline hit.
shareAbsolutely right
shareI agree, the part after the wedding felt unnecessary.
shareI think it went down hill as soon as the lights in the theater dimmed.
share