Pans Labyrinth Critique - Essay Example

Pan's Labyrinth is staged during the Spanish civil war. Although the Republicans were already defeated during the staging of the film, there were still pockets of resistance from insurgents that marked Spain’s civil war. Franco’s Spain was fighting the rebels where the protagonist, Ofelia’s stepfather, a Franco-leaning soldier, Captain Vidal would brutally kill suspected Republicans or those who oppose the regime even if his main task was merely to reroute the rebels. Captain Vidal may have a strong presence on the screen due to his emotionally charged character of a brutal tyrannical officer but the most interesting character was the stepdaughter Ofelia who discovered a mysterious labyrinth where she meets a faun. What makes the discovery remarkable was that the faun treated Ofelia as a princess who guided her to embark not only on a journey to discover her destiny but also gave her a mandrake root that cured her ailing mother Mercedes. In the end, Ofelia met her destiny by being reunited with the king and queen of the underworld after passing the last test of the faun to shed her blood instead of her brother's to enter into the portal of the underworld.

The film may have the visual trappings of a fantasy movie but if one would try to decipher the deeper meanings and interpret the elements of the film, it is a political film about authoritarianism and fascism that reflects the director’s disgust of structure and institutions. The element of a detestable political ideology breathe life into the movie because it was the milieu of the film. The other element of the film is Ofelia’s fantasy world which is an allegory of Del Toro’s political point of view against authoritarianism which is reflected in the film.

These two elements, the political element and the fantasy element are intertwined in the film because Del Toro used the political element to visualize his disgust for institution and authority which is the precursor of the fantasy element of the film – Ofelia’s withdrawal into the fantasy world or Pan’s Labyrinth.

More than the mysticism and folklore of the film, Pan Labyrinth highlighted the political dimension of authoritarian Spain in 1944 - a time when the Second World War was imminent, where Hitler was in his prime, and the war was the order of the day. The film also portrayed fascism and authoritarianism as a form of government. This was exhibited by Captain Vidal who was an officer in General Franco’s army who was tasked to route the rebels by any means necessary.  In his dispensation of his duty, he was allowed to use absolute and brutal force in his attempt to reroute the guerillas which could be unacceptable today. This method was characteristic of a fascist government during General Francisco’s time whose government was characterised by absolute authoritarianism that exudes with extreme nationalism to unify the country through discipline and indoctrination and if necessary, brutal force. The film’s political dimension is allegorical and meant more than what is obvious about how oppressive fascism is. Beyond the ideology of fascism, it tackles the element of how authoritarianism breeds violence and evil which in Del Toro’s film was personified by Captain Vidal. The film also reflected the element of the director’s political point of view of how he hated structure and its authority be it in church, society or organization. This element can be known if one would try to understand what the director was thinking when he was making the film. In an interview, he admitted that this element of personal protest against institutions and authority is present in the movie (Youtube).  This hatred in institutions was very obvious in Del Toro’s film Pan’s Labyrinth where authoritarian soldiers were portrayed as an evil that cannot be defeated. This element of disgust over utopianism and institutions can be also seen in Del Toro’s other films such as Hellboy, Blade and Pacific Rim albeit it is not as obvious as Pan’s Labyrinth.

The political element is directly intertwined with the fantasy element which is expressed in Ofelia’s fantasy world which alludes to Del Toro’s tendency to withdraw. Ofelia’s fantasy world also signified the separate house that contains all of Del Toro’s books, artworks, art collection and all things that pertain to his work as a gratification of his yearning as a kid to have a house where there are secret passages and rains the whole day (Del Toro). His movies are his escape from his disgust of structure and his characters escape their harsh reality by getting into some mythical or fantasy world.

Understanding Del Toro and his disgust for authoritarianism and structure enables his audience to see his film in a different light and in a way, understand the film better. Pan’s Labyrinth hinted at the cultural background of Del Torro that is affiliated with the film’s socio-cultural milieu which is Spain during General Francisco Franco’s time. The element of fascism and authoritarianism being placed in bad light is also not a coincidence as this represented his disgust for the structure and institutions which fascism best represents.  In a way, the film also verbalizes how he withdraws from his perceived reality through Ofelia’s mythic creatures and fantasy world. Her attempt to escape the harsh reality is also the same way how Del Toro’s wanted to escape the institutions in his films as he seeks refuge in his other house where it shelters his books and artworks in the same manner that Ofelia escapes to Pan’s Labyrinth to retreat from the harsh reality of her day. In the end, Del Toro’s hatred for authoritarianism also became evident with the death of Captain Vidal, the tyrannical soldier who represented fascism and authoritarianism by dying a gruesome death of being shot in the face which is symbolic of the filmmaker’s disgust of what Captain Vidal represents.