Pan's Labyrinth Point Of View

In Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, he successfully captivates his audience as he flips between a growing rebellion against Francisco Franco in the 1940’s and a young girls journey to find her own imaginary world. The film perfectly contrasts the uprising with Ofelia’s mythical journey. Throughout the film, the casting was done perfectly as each actor played their character well. Specifically, Sergi Lopez plays Captain Vidal perfectly as his emotion and hate is exquisitely show, especially in his torture scenes. As a whole, Pan’s Labyrinth’s dual story lines are beautifully executed.
The movie is shot from an extremely interesting point of view. Instead of being shot from the rebel’s perspective, the film features a rebellion from the perspective of the government getting overthrown. For this reason, the audience

is often cheering against almost all of the main characters (except Ofelia and maybe Mercedes).
The theme of choices throughout the film foreshadows Ofelia’s choice at the end of the film to sacrifice her own life instead of the innocent blood of her brother.

As Ofelia enters the underworld and the fairies tell her to open the middle door, she still decides to open the door to the left. She makes the correct choice even through it is the opposite of what the magical creates tell her. This ultimately foreshadows her final choice to die and not sacrifice her brother even though Pan encourages her to do otherwise.
Del Toro makes Pan’s Labyrinth feel like a fairy tale. He uses the Mise-en-Scen to do this as opens and closes with a voice over and narrative sequencing describing a magical land hidden to most. He uses the setting of the mythical labyrinth to further this idea. Also, there is a common lullaby played throughout the movie. The lullaby ties the movie together, giving I an innocent childhood feeling.
He continues this fantasy idea through the use of books as a motif. Ofelia uses a magical book to learn the future as well as how to complete her given tasks. The magical book has ink that draws itself propelling the idea of a fantasy

forward.
Like other del Toro films, he uses a very distinct colorway to emphasize fear. At night, he utilizes a blue colorway to make the scenes seem gloomier. He uses less saturated colors to establish this. During the day, he uses a yellow tint and low key lighting to emphasize the shadows and show the contrast between the light and dark. Also, the golden and blue colorway gives the film a magical feel as the colors reinforces the theme of fantasy.
The color way completely switches from the beginning to the end of the movie. As the film opens, the magical fantasy world is shown to be somewhat evil and mysterious as del Toro uses a dark blue colorway. The film then opens to the real world shown in a yellow, bright colorway, However, in the final scenes of the film, this completely switches. This change demonstrates how in the eyes of Ofelia, the real world is confusing, dark, and full of death while her fantasy is a safe haven from the destruction of the real world.
The motif of eyes is prevalent throughout the film. In the beginning of the film, Ofelia allows the fantasy world to invade the real world as she finds an eye in the forest and put it in the face of a statue. The motif is continued as Pan is introduced. His eyes throughout the film are bright blue and stand out. Moreover, as Ofelia travels to the underworld to retrieve the knife, the devil’s eyes are seen once again as he put them in his hands. Together, this demonstrates a theme of watching ultimately revealed to be Ofelia’s parents in the end and they are always watching over her.
The film alludes to Christian spirituality as reaches its end. After Ofelia dies, she enters her fantasy world and this greatly resembles heaven. She must die to enter this sacred place, and it is filled with gold. Moreover, Ofelia’s father greatly resembles a common depiction of god with his long white beard and huge thrown.
However, the one point not executed perfectly was the Mercedes escape scene. First, the Captain had multiple stab wounds and would have recovered much slower. Later that day, he was chasing Ofelia through the Labyrinth. Also, as Mercedes escapes into the woods, the horses would have caught her much faster than they did. This entire sequence is extremely unrealistic and out of place in an otherwise sensible movie.
Overall, Pan’s Labyrinth is great film. It features many of del Toro’s classic markings like his colorway and fantastic visual effects. Also, it comes from an interesting point of views as it is a rebellion not from the view of the rebels. The two story lines perfectly intertwine to create a perfect ending as the Captain is shot, and Ofelia finally reaches her fantasy world.