Pan's Labyrinth Film Critique

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Film Plot Summary

            This is about a girl. A girl who is the princess of the Underground Realm. She is young and curious. So curious, that she escapes to the mortal world where she is blinded by the sun, forgets who she is and lives a life of pain and fear before dying. Ofelia, the eleven-year-old-girl is travelling with her mother Carmen to Captain Vidal’s estate. Carmen is pregnant, who is not having an easy time and Ofelia brought lots of books, her mind lost in the realm of fairies, thinking that the bug she saw in the woods is a fairy.

            When they arrived to meet Captain Vidal, Carmen’s husband, he and his men were busy fighting the rebels living in the surrounding woods.

            Ofelia, led by the creepy stick insect she saw in the woods while travelling, does some exploring and finds an old labyrinth. There she meets the housekeeper Mercedes, a kind gentle woman.

            On their first night, Ofelia sees that Mercedes and Dr. Ferreiro are helping the rebels in the woods.

            Before Ofelia could fall asleep, the insect becomes much more fairy-like and leads her to the labyrinth in the middle of the night. She descends some stairs and is greeted by a very filthy and slightly creepy faun, who tells her she’s the princess of legend and must complete three tasks before the full moon if she wants to return to her homeland. The faun then gave Ofelia a book that has blank pages but its pages reveals the message only if Ofelia is alone.

            The first task is to feed three magic stones to the giant toad living inside an ancient fig tree. Ofelia gets muddy crawling through the cavernous underbelly of the tree, but she slips the toad the magic stones and he vomits up his own stomach lining where the key she is looking for is stuck onto and deflates into a normal-sized toad.

            Unfortunately, back in the real world, things aren’t much less nasty. Carmen’s pregnancy is getting worse. She’s bleeding and feverous and Ofelia has to sleep in a different room from her. With the Faun’s help, he gave her a mandrake root to help her mother and a chalk so that she can draw a door in her room in order to complete the second task. She then draws a door and enters a room with a freaky-looking man who has long nails and no eyes on his face. She retrieves the items she was instructed to, but can’t resist the food she was forbidden from eating. When she chows down on a grape, the monster awakens and placed his eyes in the palms of his hand. He busies himself by snacking on a few fairy heads and then almost catching Ofelia as she escapes.

            Meanwhile in the real world, we learn that Mercedes’ brother is one of the rebels. she and Dr. Ferreiro go visit the rebels, bringing food and letters. Then the rebels invade the estate using a decoy train attack to break into the storeroom.

            But Captain Vidal and his mean are quick and better armed. They chase the men down, killing all except one who they tortured. They immediately called Dr. Ferreiro and Vidal discovered that the doctor was also helping the rebels because of the antibiotics Vidal found in Ferreiro’s suitcase, which was similar with the one Vidal and his men found in the woods that came from the rebels. Vidal shoots Dr. Ferreiro as he left.

            The faun is mad at Ofelia for the food-eating incident and he leaves her. The next morning,  when Ofelia is checking on the mandrake in her mother’s room, Vidal catches her and yells at her. Vidal get weirded out by the thing he saw under the bed that looked like a ginger root. Carmen wakes up and says she’ll handle it. She throws the mandrake in the fireplace and when it burns, she begins to go into a dangerous labor which costs her, her life. Luckily, her baby boy can be saved. Vidal’s obsessed with the boy but mostly with having an heir to carry his name.

            Things didn’t get better. Vidal’s onto Mercedes rebel-helping scheme so she tries to bolt, taking Ofelia with her. Vidal catches them and brings Mercedes back to torture her but Vidal’s the one who ends up getting stabbed. Mercedes is able to make a break for the woods and rendezvous with the rebels who saved her life.

            The Faun gives Ofelia a second chance so he orders her to steal her brother and runs aways from the wounded Captain Vidal, who chases her with his gun drawn. In the meantime, the rebels have gained some reinforcements and are assaulting the estate.

            Ofelia runs going to the labyrinth and the Faun was waiting there. But as the Faun asked for her brother’s innocent blood so that he can spill some of his blood into the pool, Ofelia quickly refuses.

Captain Vidal then finds Ofelia with her son and shoots Ofelia. Vidal exits the labyrinth only to meet the rebel force waiting for him. They take his son and shot him.

             Inside the labyrinth, they find the dying Ofelia, whose blood drips into the pool, opening her passage to the underworld.

            She awakes unharmed in a golden room with her real parents seated on two thrones and a third one empty made just for her. The Faun is there with his fairies and he bows to her. Ofelia is finally home.

Film Analysis

   Interpretation of Symbolisms

            The movie started with a short story pf a rose. For me, the rose meant a symbol of feminine.  It represents Ofelia’s potential journey in life and its thorns represents the obstacles Ofelia has to face throughout this journey. It is fraught with pain and fear.

            Another is the giant toad. I think it is a metaphor for socio-economic inequality. The toad is syphoning the life of the fig tree, the Spanish upper class is killing the lower class by hoarding Spain’s limited resources. The toad could also represent pregnancy. As you may have noticed, the tree where the giant toad is in is shaped like a female reproductive system. The toad represents as Ofelia’s brother. And the tree is like Ofelia’s mother, is slowly being killed by the being that lives in it.

            Vidal’s watch is another thing. It is like a visual representation of Vidal’s character. They speak of his need for rule and order and control. Vidal is a man of action, a military captain who forces his will upon the world, just like the useless gears in the watch he fixed, do in their cold, mechanical, unthinking way.

Reference of Story to Current Events

            One thing that I noticed is that the movie shows a patriarchal system in the family. It clearly shows that Captain Vidal, as head of the family, he wants to be in authority. He wants all his orders to be strictly followed and he forces others to believe in what he believes in and what he wants to happen. In our society, we Filipinos are known for having a patriarchal system. We have this mentality that “men are more capable of lots of things compared to women” because it is in our culture, even way back during the Spanish era that men does all of the work most the time and a woman’s duty is to take care of their children and teach them livelihood skills and good values.

            In a socio-political perspective, one thing that was seen in the movie is the conflict between the upper class above lower class. In the society nowadays, the government tends to neglect the needs of those who are in the lower class. There are even times that the government abuses their power and they forget about those who are oppressed in the society. Sometimes, they even let private companies abuse our natural resources which are livelihood of those who are in the lower class. The government also does not seem to notice that the ones who are in the lower class who are striving and work hard every single day to sustain their families do not have benefits. This unfair treatment of the upper class over the lower class is an example of how most conflicts in the society begin.

Personal Reflection & Review

              I personally liked how the movie was made. It is strange, imaginative and adventurous. My attention was captured by the creatures, from the size of the toad, to a demonic pale monster who inserts its eyes on his palms in order to see. However, there were some parts that I didn’t like because it was really brutal and sadistic, maybe because of the Captain’s actions. The ending was good but the darkness, how Ofelia suffered and achieves happiness made me contented with the ending. Furthermore, this movie touched my heart since it showed pure and genuine love of Ofelia to her mother and brother. She is very family-oriented and well-mannered. For me, this movie is an art since it really moves the audience. It is very mysterious and creative and it also made me feel different kinds of emotions throughout the whole movie. 9/10 would recommend.