Blog 2

The opening scene of the movie shows a poor family living in a small, rundown house and there is truth in this scene. The Grimm family was poor and they moved to a smaller house after their father died. This scene also has a little girl in it and this is true, Jacob and Wilhelm had a sister. The other truth that this scene shows is the brothers stepping up taking care of their family. The brothers took responsibility for their family after their father died and this is shown subtly in this scene. Another fact about the movie that is true is that Germany was occupied by the French and Jacob and Wilhelm didn’t like the French. In the movie they were reluctant to work for the French and in real life, they wanted the German principalities to be free of the French and to become one unified Germany. The movie shows Jacob writing stories and it is true that he wrote stories, but Wilhelm wrote stories with him and this wasn’t shown in the movie. 

Although the movie was interesting and entertaining most of the plot was fictional. Even the setting of the movie, Marbaden, is fictional. The Grimm brothers did not hunt the supernatural or pretend to hunt the supernatural. There may be witches and magic in their stories, but there aren’t any witches in real life and the magic shown in the movie doesn’t exist in real life. Jacob and Wilhelm weren’t tricksters or con-artists, they were scholars and they took their work and studies seriously. The movie shows them going out to a bar and celebrating but in reality, this is what their classmates were doing, as shown in this quote: “... most of the students from wealthier families received stipends, while the Grimms had to pay for their own education… This inequity made them feel more compelled to prove themselves at Marburg, … a small university with 200 students, most of whom were more interested in the social activities at fraternities and taverns than their studies” (Zipes 6).