Pan's Labyrinth, by Guillermo del Toro, is a critique of fascism during the period after
The film is set in a remote district of Spain, where a force of Franco’s soldiers has been deployed to kill the rebels hiding in the district. It follows the exploits of a very imaginative Ofelia, who meets a faun in the middle of a labyrinth. She finds out from the faun that she is actually the daughter of the lord of the underworld, and that she must complete three tasks to be reunited with her father. These tasks supposedly take place in a fantasy world that only Ofelia can see, but the resulting outcomes of this fantasy world can be felt by anyone and everyone. The swipe transition of Ofelia crawling in the tree’s roots to soldiers riding in the forest shows in a technical manner that these parallel worlds are intertwined. And it is through these tasks that Ofelia rebels against the commander.
In the first task, Ofelia has to retrieve a key from a giant toad by feeding it three specific rocks. This toad living under the root of an old tree, and is the tree to slowly wither and die. The toad in this case could be symbolic of the fascists, and their infestation of another country. It symbolizes the slow decay of an economy and society.
The second task is to save her mother from being killed in child-birth by using a mandrake root. However, this is foiled by the commander, who views Ofelia’s mother purely as a way to give him a son and otherwise finds his wife expendable.
Even the third task, which is actually a test of Ofelia’s self sacrifice, shows that she would rather give up her chances of being “immortal” than hurt her brother, the act of which would essentially make her like the very person whom she abhors. Ofelia's very moral choice turns out to be the right one, and in her death , she is immortalized. The shot of Ofelia's death is especially interesting, because it is also the first shot. However, the first shot is Ofelia's death, but rewound at normal speed. The first shot is similar to the opening of Citizen Kane. The opening shot of Pan's labyrinth matches the character of the princess in the story told just after we see Ofelia's death in backwards motion. But, other than that, I don't see the reasoning in putting the last thing to chronologically happen as the opening of the movie - at least in Citizen Kane, it emphasized the enigma of Charles Foster Kane, and the difficult task of finding out about Rosebud.
Although Pan's Labyrinth shares some qualities of the classic fairy tale, the movie seems to more closely resemble a nightmare. The menacing nature of the faun and even the fairies is not at all reminiscent of the cutesy magical creatures embedded in our minds from numerous Disney movies. Additionally, each of the three tasks required of Ofelia had some grotesque aspect about it. But, this departure from traditional fairy-tale trends suits the film's serious message and keeps it seeming original. The nightmarish fantasy aspect of the film from the perspective of a little girl even emphasizes the purity and justness of the rebels’ cause.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I think the combination of fascist critique and creepy fairy-tale gives the movie a very new and fresh look. However, at some points, it was frustrating to see Ofelia make some bad decisions. An example is when she places the piece of “magic” chalk on the commander's desk. Not only does this make the commander suspicious, but it also destroys her fastest and most undetectable means of escape. If this hadn't have happened, Ofelia most like wouldn't have died. But, then again, if she had used the chalk to escape from the commander's room, he wouldn't have followed her and she wouldn't have fulfilled the "self sacrifice" part of her third task. So, I guess it did have some literary value, but it was still just frustrating to watch her just throw her magic chalk away.
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