Pans Labyrinth by Toro Guillermo - Movie Review Example

Saif Alsaadi The of Arizona Comments from Julie 14oct. Pan’s Labyrinth We all have our own world where one can be the king or the queen, a place where one can be able to live for the rest of ones life without any problems, it can be real, conversely, it can be imaginary. Like Kim Edward, An American Auther stated “But it is more a place of life and rebirth than a land of the dead. Like the opening image of Ofilia’s death being reversed, as the blood flows backwards, the underground realm teems with moist, breathing, growing life.”(Edward 114) That shows when Ofilia finds the labyrinth more of a comfort place than her house, she sees the real word as her fantasy, and sees the w(under) lands (Toro 43) the real deal. Guillermo directed this movie. Del Toro illustrates some great elements of a movie like Shot scale, shot angle, and Props, showing the aspect of reality and fantasy to show the audience how Ofilia Considers the Fantasy is her reality. Moreover, as a way to escape to the fantasy world and it is critical to note that her fantasy world offers her an illusion from her actual world and thus derails her. Del Toro uses both shot scale and shot angle in the movie. An example is a point where Ofilia first entered the Labyrinth, the camera moved from a close shot scale of Ofilia’s amazed face to reveal the place gradually. The camera rotated in 360 degrees in order to show the whole place. (Del Toro) That is in a purpose of showing the audience how Ofilia was so curious and strongly anxious to know more about this imaginary place. That also shows how her curiosity was furiously generated due to the lack of freedom as a kid from Captain Vidal. Captain Vidal was very strict and did not let Ofilia wander around and it is for this reason that Ofilia is portrayed as a surprised woman with no form of understanding of the environment. Del Toro uses the Prop of Book to demonstrate Ofilia’s reality and fantasy. The book is a prop that has the ability to draw any object in order for Ofilia to understand what it is trying say and describe, this prop is really significant since it helped Ofilia to be able to save the little baby that is inside her mother, when the book showed a womb that is destroying it self. That book is a way to escape reality and it is full of fascinating secrets, that’s what makes it a fantasy for us to think about. In the scene where Del Toro used shot scale, to demonstrate Ofilia’s fantasy world in Captain Vidal’s eyes. In the part of the movie where Captain Vidal was chasing Ofilia to swoop the baby boy back out of Ofilia’s hands, Ofilia ran so fast as if death was chasing her. The running shows us how Ofilia takes an advantage of a place she knows very well; a place that’s a fantasy in Captain Vidal’s eyes, but it is the complete opposite in Ofilia’s eyes. There is a scene where Del Toro uses a prop of a chalk to display Ofilia’s way to escape reality. In the scene where Ofilia uses the chalk to go from the real world to the fantasy through a portal that she can create from her chalk (Del Toro). Although the real world is as bad as the fantasy world that she is going to, she has to do it in order to accomplish the assignment of getting the stone from the room where Pale man was. Getting the stone was important for failure to carry out this action would have had her in many problems to add to her already existing misery. In the beginning in the movie, Del Toto used extreme close shot on the grass hopper who is hiding behind a tree to show that that grass hopper is going to be the key for Ofilia to escape her reality. When Ofilia and her mother were in the cabriolet going to Captain Vidal’s place, they had to make a quick stop because the baby who is in ofilia’s mother is acting up, the grass hopper instantly caught Ofilia’s attention and then she starts to follow it(Del Toro). The close up shot that the grass hopper, or Fairy as Ofilia refers to, is going to be the key in which the adventure will start, and it was meant to be there so it can help Ofilia escape the reality and go back to the fantasy world that she considers reality. A film concept incorporated in the movie is at the scene where Vidal is scene torturing a captive and then killing a doctor. In the scene, there is a lot of dim light in the room where the captive is under torture and the only thing that one can see is the face of the person under torture in order to show the amount of pain that he is under. Moreover, the sound effects are enhanced significantly such that the audience can vividly hear the screams of the person under duress. The dim lights are imperative for they ensure that the concept of pain is well outlined. The fact that it only the face that was visible at the scene ensured that the audience did not look at other parts of the room on the screen but precisely the face of the captive. Moreover, the blood streaming from his face is shown clearly as the camera zooms in to offer a clearer view of the situation. Ofilia views this from the background as she is being moved to her room and this explicitly makes her unsure of the situation and tries relating it to reality where she finds it difficult provided she had not encountered such a situation prior to this fantasy. A cinematography tactic employed in the story is widening the field of view when showing action and especially involving anger within the characters. As shown, Vidal is portrayed in the story as a reckless person who does not care about other people ab. Vidal only cares about his needs and this is seen from his highly commanding nature. Failure to get his needs done leads to misery to those people. A case in the story is Vidal tortures a captive rebel. He tortures him a lot hoping to get information out of him (Toro 89). After all the torture, Vidal ends up killing the doctor in charge which happens as a surprise to many people and it is at this point that there is the realization that Vidal was psychopathic. Further portrayal of Ofilia as a calm, caring and responsible person is where there is a scene of her nurturing the mandrake root. After this, Carmen throws it into the fire and almost immediately, the labor pains for this woman begin. She screams in pain hoping to gain immediate assistance. Upon realization that Mercedes was a spy, Vidal ordered that she is taken to the torture room. While that was happening, he ordered that Ofilia be locked in her room. Furthermore, he ordered she does not get any attention from the assistants. The Faun had some invisible authority in the area and this witnessed from the manner in which she possesses Afilia’s trust. After some time, the faun goes to Ofelia and tells orders her to take the sibling to Labyrinth. Another point to understand is the fact that Ofelia is a very cunning woman. This is shown by her ability to trick the so renowned and bright Vidal and sedating him (Toro 123). After the sedation, Ofilia takes the baby and runs with it. After this, she runs into the Faun who advises her on opening the portal and is told that the best manner to do this is by the sacrificing of the brother’s blood. However, Ofilia does not conform to this order and at this point, the Faun leaves her to decide on her own fate. Revenge is another aspect witnessed in the story and the root of this is from where Vidal gets to the Labyrinth but only finds Ofilia talking to herself ill aware that she was talking to Faun. Upon leaving the Labyrinth, a group of people captures Vidal and it is after this that Pedro, Mercedes’ brother kills Vidal for all the misery that he had taken his family through all the years. The film is quite remarkable in its ability to portray some of the characteristics that people in the era had. Many people suffered under the leadership of commanding and negligent leaders who had seen their way to power through illegal means. Modern days have democratic nations and people do not suffer as in the case of Ofilia. Ofilia is portrayed as a strong woman with the ability to surpass all the negativity and torture that went her way. This movie depicts various characters and themes critical for people in the contemporary environment to understand. Work Cited Toro, Guillermo. Pan’s Labyrinth. London: Oxford University Press. 2006. Print. Read More