Pan’s Labyrinth: Movie Review

• Pan's Labyrinth Plot Summary

It starts like any good fairy tale with a story about a girl. And not just any girl: the princess of the Underground Realm. 

We realize that this might sound like kind of scary, ominous, up-to-no-good girl, but she's really just young and curious. So curious, in fact, that she escapes to the mortal world where she's blinded by the sun, forgets who she is, and lives a life of pain and fear before dying. We're first introduced to eleven-year-old Ofelia and her mother Carmen as they travel to Captain Vidal's estate. Carmen is pregnant and Ofelia's mind is lost in the realm of fairies. She even thinks a bug is a fairy and not like a beautiful, gossamer-looking butterfly. She thinks a nasty stick insect is from the land of pixies. When they arrive we meet Captain Vidal, who's Carmen's hubby and his men. They're busy fighting the rebels living in the surrounding woods. Ofelia, led by the creepy stick insect, does some exploring and finds an old labyrinth. She meets the housekeeper Mercedes, who's a kind gentle woman especially in comparison to the harsh Vidal. A lot happens on the first night. For one, Ofelia sees that Mercedes and Ferreiro, the Doctor, are helping the rebels. For another, the insect becomes much more fairy-like and less hideous that leads her to the labyrinth in the middle of the night. She descends some stairs and is greeted by a very filthy 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 first is to feed three magic stones to the giant toad living inside an ancient fig tree. Ofelia gets a little muddy crawling through the cavernous underbelly of the tree, but she slips the toad the magic stones and vomits up his own stomach lining and deflates into a toad-skin rug.  Also, the new dress her mother gave her is ruined but Ofelia doesn't really care much about dresses. She's completed her first nasty task. Unfortunately, back in the real world, things aren't much less nasty. Carmen's pregnancy is getting a lot worse. She's bleeding and feverous and Ofelia has to sleep in a different room from her. Luckily, the Faun's there to give her a mandrake root to help her mother and to give her chalk so that she can draw a door in her room and complete the second quest. This one makes the whole toad debacle look like a walk in the park. She enters a room with a freaky-looking man who has long nails and no eyes in his face. They could have just as accurately called him Mr. Nightmare Food. She retrieves the item 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, placing 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 mortal realm, we learn that Mercedes' brother is one of the rebels. She and the Doctor 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 Vidal and his men are quick and better armed. They chase the men down, killing all accept one, whom they torture. The Doctor kills the hostage out of mercy, directly disobeying Vidal. Vidal shoots him. The Faun is mad about the whole forbidden food-eating incident. He yells at Ofelia, and then leaves her. The next morning, when Ofelia is checking on the mandrake in her mother's room, Vidal catches her and yells at her. He's weirded out by the mandrake but of course we don't exactly blame him. Carmen wakes 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 life. Luckily, her baby boy can be saved but things don't start getting 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 save her life.  Ofelia, on the orders of the Faun who decided to give her a second chance,  steals her brother and runs from the wounded Vidal, who chases her with his gun drawn. In the meantime, the rebels have gained some reinforcements and are assaulting the estate. Ofelia runs to the labyrinth and meets the Faun. But when the Faun asks for her brother so that he can spill some of his blood in the pool, she refuses. She's a good sister, and doesn't want a goat-man getting stab-happy with her baby bro. Vidal finds her, takes his son, and shoots Ofelia. Vidal exits the labyrinth only to meet the rebel force waiting for him. They take his son and shoot him dead. 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, just for her. The Faun is there with his fairies and he bows to her. Ofelia smiles; she's happy and finally home.

• Film Analysis: Symbolism 

There are a lot of hidden similarities between what's happening in Ofelia's fantasy world and what we see going on in the human world: some big, some small, and some more apparent than others but each serves to connect the human story of war to Ofelia's journey through the fantasy world.  So let's start with an easy one to spot: the walk through the woods. Ofelia's reading the Book of Crossroads and making her way to the giant fig tree. She is looking very pretty in her new silk dress and the lighting around her is warm with the sun and the music that plays is soft and gentle. She narrates from the book as she walks and there is a sense that she has, like Alice already entered into a wonderland. Compare this to the soldiers, galloping on their warhorses through the undergrowth. Although they travel through the same forest as Ofelia, the scene is much more intense. We have the rapid, staccato beating of hooves and the music is much more violent.This, combined with the horizontal wipes of the trees that transition seamlessly between these two woodland adventures, highlights the very different worlds in which the men and Ofelia live: a world of war vs. a world of innocence.

• Personal Reflection

Pan’s Labyrinth is about thinking for yourself and disobeying authority. So, I analyzed and noticed that there were two issues that the movie projected. First is the survival of the fittest, the captain and his men were being provided and have sustainable living while people out there on the woods don’t have anything and patiently manage to wait Mercedes stolen goods. The division of goods were also not distributed well because the captain benefit more than its people. It is here, where you just think what’s good for yourself and act as a social animal that only mind his or her own. Second which is the last is the struggle of existence. I said earlier that there were people in the woods that been called rebels but in fact they just aim to achieve a justice and humane society. People with more less privilege, seems don’t exist on people who’s in higher position. Thus, their existence been diminished and got easily persecuted. It is here where disobeying in authorities enter, how? People tend to make a move on which they can help each other to protect themselves and treated equally. To end my personal reflection, keep in mind that ⬇️

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