Forgiveness debated in 'Cinderella' ending
Spoiler alert! This story includes a video clip and details about the ending of Disney's live-action Cinderella.
Cinderella got her fairy-tale ending in Disney's live-action version. But was she too forgiving?
Director Kenneth Branagh reveals a previously unheard debate which simmered before Cinderella began its storied box-office ride in March. In pre-release test screenings, outspoken audience members wanted to bring the hammer down on her wicked stepmother.
"Some people were vocal about wanting to see a different movie ending," says Branagh, speaking ahead of Cinderella's Sept. 15 Blu-ray/DVD release. "(They preferred) punishment and revenge."
Just to be clear (stop reading here if you don't want to know the movie's outcome), Cate Blanchett's Lady Tremaine lost out big time in the end as Cinderella (Lily James) walked out with her Prince (Richard Madden) to happily ever after. Cinderella looked at the woman who made her life misery and uttered, "I forgive you."
Tremaine crumpled on the stairway, the banisters reflecting her mental imprisonment. "Forgiven or not, Cinderella's stepmother and her stepdaughters would soon leave … and never set foot in the kingdom again," says a voiceover.
Branagh says most viewers at the test screenings were pleased with this ending (Disney won't disclose how many screenings were held or where). But he was taken aback by the dissenters' "vehemence."
"People wanted scenes where the stepmother was definitively stripped of her wealth and seen begging on the streets," says Branagh. "It was interesting to see audiences split along lines on an ending that celebrated forgiveness or in punishment, retribution and revenge.
"It indicates how interestingly difficult some people find the generosity of spirit, self-sacrifice and ability to turn the other cheek that Cinderella has," says Branagh. "Some people are irritated by it; they see it as being a patsy or a victim. The story exposes the rawness of those feelings."
Branagh did not adjust his ending based on the audience input. Screenwriter Chris Weitz says the culture around the Cinderella fairy tale is violent. The Grimms' version featured Cinderella's stepsisters having their eyes pecked out by birds.
"We thought that would be a bit rough," Weitz jokes, adding he's not surprised that the focus groups "got a bit bloodthirsty."
"We're used to seeing movies with the villain impaled upon on a giant spike or blown up by a nuclear bomb," says Weitz. "Forgiveness doesn't rank highly as a movie virtue. There aren't action scenes based on forgiveness."
Sister Rose Pacatte, a nun and host of the Sister Rose Goes to the Movies blog, says there's a natural tendency, based on past movies, to expect evil to get its film comeuppance.
"But Cinderella decided to take the moral high ground," says Pacatte. "That's important from a religious and a human being point of view."
Branagh, who enjoyed taking a "moral, societal temperature" with the screening feedback, calls the ending "a massive spiritual effort" by Cinderella to follow her deceased mother's words, "Have courage and be kind."
"Cinderella was triumphant in every sense. There doesn't need to be a vehement winner," says Branagh. "What the stepmother will live with inside her is enough. For Cinderella, the best revenge is to live well."
