Jordan Forbes Dr. Merricks INT 101 October 13, 2014 Film Analysis: Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro Gómez’s Pan’s Labyrinth is a kind of commentary as fairy tales as a whole, with a dark and gritty plot to bring it back into the 21st century. The main villain in this story is Captain Vidal, a fascist captain who constantly tries to prevent Ofelia, the main character, from trying to become free, and gain the throne in the underworld. This story is a modern retelling of the classic fairytale, with all the elements of one including grief, struggle, tasks that need to be completed ,an evil step-parent, and someone willing to take her away to a better life. In the beginning of the film Princess Moanna of the underworld kingdom dies after a memory loss from the blinding rays of the sun, her father foresees she will come to life again. Parallel in 1943, in a Fascism-infected Spain, arrives Ofelia, and her mother Carmen to meet Captain Vidal; Carmen`s new husband and father of her unborn child. Vidal is fanatically against the republicans and rebels. Vidal`s housekeeper, Mercedes, is an active rebel himself. A large insect appears in Ofelia`s bedroom, and transforms itself into a fairy. The fairy leads Ofelia into …show more content…
an ancient Labyrinth where Ofelia meets the faun. The faun, believing Ofelia to be the dead Princess Moanna, sets her three tasks to complete before the next full moon to gain immortality.Ofelia successfully retrieves a key from the belly of a giant toad and the faun gives her a mandrake root to cure Carmen`s illness due to her pregnancy. The second task fails when Ofelia successfully retrieves an ornate dagger from the Pale Man, who is a child monster, but manages to wake him up too, after disobeying a certain instruction by the faun. The faun is angered and refuses to give Ofelia her final task. Meanwhile, Vidal`s tyranny grows and he discovers Mercedes’ secret. He sees Ofelia taking care of the mandrake root, which the faun had gifted her. Carmen gives birth to a son and dies in a painful labor. Vidal locks Ofelia up and takes Mercedes away. However, Ofelia escapes, and in the process injures Vidal. The faun reappears and advises Ofelia to escape with her baby brother. Ofelia sedates Vidal and escapes with the baby to the Labyrinth. Vidal follows them. The faun tells Ofelia to open the doors to the Underworld by sacrificing the blood of her brother. Ofelia, however, refuses to harm the baby. The faun, angered at the second disobedience by Ofelia, leaves her all alone. Vidal, meanwhile, manages to reach Ofelia and shoots at her. He takes the baby and leaves. At the exit of the Labyrinth, he is captured by the rebels. Vidal is killed and Mercedes vows to make the baby boy a good human, unlike his father. Mercedes enters the Labyrinth, and finds a dying Ofelia. A few drops of Ofelia`s blood fall on to the alter next to her and she is transported to the Underworld. Her father, the king, greets her and informs her that the third task set by the faun was a trick to test if Ofelia would be willing to spill an innocent`s blood over hers. Having kept the faith that she wouldn’t, Ofelia manages to transcend into the underworld as Princess Moanna while Ofelia dies in the altar above. Here ends the tale. The director, Guillermo del Toro Gómez, gives us a deep insight into the fairytale and folk culture that we have all grown up on. The very concept of a Labyrinth, wherein reside fairies and fauns, is an absolutely delightful representation of a fairytale kingdom. An insect turns into a fairy. She takes Ofelia down a complex Labyrinth and she meets a half human half goat faun down there. There is a Pale man, traditionally known as a child monster, who feasts on little kids, this I believe is a callback to the traditional folktale bad guy, like the Big Bad Wolf or the Witch in Hansel and Gretel. There is an underworld, beneath ours, where reside the people in their afterlives. It is all intricately woven together as a mesmerizing fairytale. Why just fairytales?
Look at the rich folk culture involved in the spinning of the movie`s script. Gómez intricately designs the whole movie around Pan`s Labyrinth. A labyrinth has a rich history of being a maze built by Daedalus for King Minos at Knossos. The labyrinth was built to keep Minotaur, a half-man and half-bull creature. The battle between Minotaur and Theseus is a very popular tale in Greek Mythology. Even though the remains of the palace at Knossos have been discovered, there has been no sign of the Labyrinth. So the mysterious angle to the folk stories is an added advantage in the film. The faun is a mythological creature in the Roman folk culture, and plays a central character in the film. In fact, it is the faun who takes the story
forward. Gómez has always had a fascination for the fairytale and folk culture. It is evident in his entire filmography. Pan`s labyrinth encompasses all that a fairytale lover would like to see on the screen. The very name of the film is a representation of the rich, ancient Greek mythology. The faun is the Pan. It is his labyrinth we are introduced to. We have to find our way out of the labyrinth, along with Ofelia. The story feels our own. We feel like a character in the story. We are lost in the world of the movie. Since each fact is woven into our lives, from our childhood days, we relate to the mythical world of the movie. The added Fascism angle is also an asset since it shows how torturous were the days in history and how relevant the struggle of the rebels was, how much cruelty they had to face.Ofelia is a true heroine; she is brave, she stands up against the wrong, she loves her dear ones and can go to any length for them. The film directed by Guillermo del Toro Gómez received worldwide praise, and I would recommend anyone who loves fairytales and folk lore, to go ahead and invest 2 hours in it. It is a charming little movie wherein good triumphs over evil, and also gives us a confident heroine worth cheering for. You will surely have a big smile on your face in the end, with a few tears in between. Works Cited Pan's Labyrinth. Dir. Guillermo Del Toro. Perf. Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, and Ivana Baquero. Picturehouse, 2006. Film. Perschon, Mike. "Embracing the Darkness, Sorrow, and Brutality of Pan's Labyrinth." Tor.com. Tor, 25 May 2011. Web. 13 Oct. 2014. Walsh, Colin. "Moving Cinema.": Fairytales, Fascism, and Understanding Symbolism in Pan's Labyrinth. We Are Film, 30 Aug. 2011. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
The movie the Labyrinth tells a story about a group of unlikely heroes trying to make their way though a maze in order to defeat the Goblin King. The story starts out with the main character Sarah whom, without even realizing it, wishes her baby brother to be taken way by Jareth the Goblin King. He tells her that if she wants her brother back she will have to make her way through the labyrinth and to the castle beyond the Goblin City. She only has 13 hours to complete the seemingly impossible task or her little brother Toby will be turned into a goblin. While making her way through the twisted and endless maze Sarah runs into many weird characters. The first person she encounters is Hoggle a very untrustworthy dwarf whom is under the influence of Jareth. He is selfish and does things only if there is something for him to gain. He betrays Sarah many times throughout the movie, but in the end he proves himself to be more than a traitorous coward. Ludo is a yeti and despite looking vicious is a gentle and caring monster. Ludo also has the power to control rocks. Sir Didymis is a loudmouthed, but noble knight who displays his valor throughout the movie. The four heroes manage to fight their way through the perilous labyrinth. The Goblin King Jareth is defeated and Sarah’s brother Toby is saved. Though the characters in this movie seemed to be nothing more than ordinary, and if not odd, they fought their way through labyrinth and conquered an entire army of evil goblins and their king. (Labyrinth 1986)
In his wickedly clever debut mystery, Alan Bradley introduces the one and only Flavia de Luce: a refreshingly precocious, sharp, and impertinent 11-year old heroine who goes through a bizarre maze of mystery and deception. Bradley designs Bishop’s Lacey, a 1950s village, Buckshaw, the de Luce’s crumbling Gothic mansion, and reproduces the hedges, gently rolling hills, and battered lanes of the countryside with explicit detail. Suspense mounts up as Flavia digs up long-buried secrets after the corpse of an ominous stranger emerges in the cucumber patch of her country estate. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie features a plethora of unforeseen twists and turns; it is surely a rich literary delight.
Many other characters alter his viewpoint of the world. Some of these characters die, one is a murderer, and another introduces him to local myths. The heroine in Pan’s Labyrinth is Ofelia, a girl trapped in the middle of a revolution and escapes into a world of fairytales through books and imagination. Ofelia’s mother, Carmen, is pregnant and very sick. Under the influence of her husband, she encourages her daughter to stop reading childhood fantasies and to obey her new husband....
... need for hard labor but as they move to the country, Beauty has to learn to work alongside her future brother-in-law and do heavy work. She also moves away from her studies and turns to helping her family progress. After her year away from her family, she physically grows into a woman. She also finds herself dependant of the Beast rather than of her family as would a child.
Her mother gave her hope and was the one who introduced her to fairy tales. So having that ripped out of her by Captain Vidal made her dislike him more. All she saw in him was a domineering, almost inhuman man who only serves to make her current situation miserable all the more. So, wondering into the labyrinth of her own accord and at the same time going against what she was told not to do. This is where she encounters the faun who gives her a book that shows her the three tasks she must accomplish in order to return to her rightful world. This, in turn, empowers her to become her own hero, and distancing from the stereotype that every princess needs a prince to rescue her. So, when the faun came to her asking her to bring her recently born brother to the labyrinth, which she obeyed in spite of her nature to go against what is usually mandated of her. Here, one can speculate that Ofelia is her own person, having finished all tasks on her own without help from a male lead, which most films monopolize on nowadays in order to validate its success. Ofelia is choosing her own path through her own choices. She is not a pretty girl in need of a man to save her because she is saving herself, as shown by the outcome when Captain Vidal shoots her. As she lays dying, a small, fading smile plays on her lips as Mercedes hums a lullaby, holding Ofelia; her return to where she originated from certain when she decides not to “shed the
The insects are seen transformed into three fairies of the fantasy world.They are a symbol that act as a connection between fantasy and reality, indicating that the insects are fantastical creatures in disguise, waiting for the right moment to emerge into their true identity. This happens to be Ofelia as she exclaims that she “just saw a fairy”, as she talks to her caregiver, Mercedes. Being only known as “just a woman” to Captain Vidal, Smith notes that she “is in league with the guerrillas and will conspire against her tyrannical master under his very nose.” As Mercedes answers Ofelia’s question with “No. But when I was a little girl, I did. I believed in a lot of things I don't believe anymore,” It is a deep realization that once you grow older, you have to deal with the harsh realities of life, which is in her case, fighting the fascist leaders. It is common to know that many young children believe in fairytales, but once a child reaches the age of adolescence, those type of fantastical elements start to
Like all the fairy tale will have a happy ending. "Pan 's Labyrinth" is no exception, but this layer of happiness is immersed in the bitter and depressed in the deep. Too much blood and tears, too many memories, too much darkness. Ofelia finally found her parents, returned to the eternal sweet home, but not one can really happy together. A fairy tale is hope, is the dream, is the comfort, is the ideal country. "Pan 's Labyrinth" is such a fairy tale, Ofelia through the murky darkness of the labyrinth find her happiness, just as experienced the cruel history 's Spanish people. Guillermo applied a metaphor in the end. The end of the tragedy is the film 's surface cover, in essence, is the protagonist Ophelia 's comedy
Sex, love, depression, guilt, trust, all are topics presented in this remarkably well written and performed drama. The Flick, a 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning drama by Annie Baker, serves to provide a social commentary which will leave the audience deep in thought well after the curtain closes. Emporia State Universities Production of this masterpiece was a masterpiece in itself, from the stunningly genuine portrayal of the characters of Avery and Rose, to the realism found within the set, every aspect of the production was superb.
The film Pan’s Labyrinth, has several common concepts with Joseph Campbell’s theory on heroes in Hero with a Thousand Faces. His theory emphasizes on tests that show their moral and basic instincts for the rite of passage to their threshold, in this case, the underworld. Campbell’s theory is a concept that surrounds an individual’s journey to heroism. This concept pertains to Ophelia due to her circumstances as a child who ventures out on thresholds, tests, and so forth. Campbell’s depiction relates to Ophelia as he describes the levels in which one must attain and accept as a female heroine. Furthermore, his theory exaggerates on the making of a hero to the resurrection in terms of physical and spiritual transformation. Ophelia’s character depicts a hero who has been resurrected as a human. Thus, she begins her journey to cross the threshold, “pass from the everyday world in the world of adventure,” (Campbell). There are many stages in the film that depicts Ophelia’s introduction to the stages of being a hero. More so, it focuses on tasks, which Ophelia must pass or fail in order to determine her role in the film; Princess of the Underworld or just a human soul. This is lead by the faun who simply reassures a place of ‘paradise’ for Ophelia only with her cooperation to listen and follow her morals.
1980. Warner Bros. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Music by Wendy Carlos and Rcachel Elkind. Cinematography by John Alcott. Editing by Ray Lovejoy. With Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd.
Sarcasm, mockery and satire are common themes used throughout “Cinderella”. The reader asks: Why does the author use this style of writing? How do these literary elements enhance the author’s overall theme and tone? Sexton’s use of multiple literary devices demonstrates her beliefs about fairy tales and enables the reader to clearly see the absurdity of such tales. She does not try to make the reader decipher what she wants them to take from the story, she lays it out directly. By the author using her own hyperboles and satire, the reader is able to see the impracticalities of the original story in a different way. The comical remarks made by Sexton such as: “That is the way with amputations. / They don’t just heal up like a wish”, add humor and light-heartedness to the
In the title “In This Strange Labyrinth”, the labyrinth is symbolic of love’s maze-like qualities. The speaker describes her predicament by saying, “In this strange Labyrinth how shall I turn/Ways are on all sides” (1-2). A different path on every side surrounds her, and every way seems to be the wrong way. She is confused about which way she should go. Wroth is conveying the theme of love in a decidedly negative way, for according to myth, the Labyrinth was where the Minotaur lived and before it’s demise, death was evident for all visitors of the maze. The speaker is struggling with every choice she may make and cannot rest or find aid until she finds the best way: “Go forward, or stand still, or back retire;/ I must these doubts endure without allay/ Or help, but travail find for my best hire” (10-11). She has several choices and each one is confusing and leaves her feeling helpless.
Cinema Du Parc is a reportery theatre that showcases independent films, whether it be arthouse or international cinema. It is located on Parc Avenue in Downtown Montreal, specifically inside a plaza filled with institutions such as cofee shops, grocery and clothing stores...
Love is a word that’s been both miss-used and over-used all at once. Romantic movies change our definition of and have a big impact on this definition greatly. There have been many movies and novels made over love, but never like this. “The Notebook” is a love story about unconditional love that two people have for each other. This emotionally, heart touching story will have your eyes blood-shot and burning from you not wanting to blink your eyes. This tremendously wonderful love story will have you not wanting to even miss a millisecond of this heart throbbing film. With many plot twists and many scenes that will have you falling off of your seat and you not having any nails by the end of the movie, this is the movie for you. This emotionally rich film is full of action, laughter, and romance, which is the perfect trio combination. This movie shows us how love can bind us together forever. This film went above and
Society is a result of our interactions, and society guides our interactions. This all stems from social construction. Social construction conveys values, ideas and traditions. These values, ideals and traditions are created and become traditions that are then passed on. These traditions then come to be perceived as natural rather than cultural, which is often how media will display it and society unknowingly accepts.