Pan’s Labyrinth

Ive heard of this movie for a while and finally had a chance to watch it. I was going to see it in my Spanish Class in high school, but family had vacation so i missed that day. Which was too bad because this film was really good, in a pessimistic way.

The main plot: Ofelia is a girl who traveled with her pregnant mother to her stepfather’s military outpost during the Spanish Civil War in the 1940s. While the rest of the adults try to deal with the effects of war life, she finds herself get pulled into a fantasy world, where she must succeed in 3 dangerous tasks in order to prove herself.

Not gonna lie, it felt like I was somehow watching 2 very different movies that, somehow in way I can’t yet explain, seamlessly blend in together.

Because look, magic time in war movies is not a new thing. Narnia, Bed Knobs and Broomsticks. But I can’t really think of any other movie that actually has the magic being pushed aside for focus on the war.

I think to better explain this, i need to talk about the two prominent plots in this movie.

First is Ofelia. She is a girl who adores stories and fairy tales (like same). And her story follows that of a classic fairy tale. She meets a magical figure, the Faun, who gives her 3 tasks to accomplish. If she is successful, she can enter into their magical realm as their princess. So you see her being tested in strength, courage, kindness to see if she will get her reward. And, it really does play out like a fairy tale. In the beginning you see her fix a broken statue, and that kindness is what summons the fae. Because that is how it works in fairy tales, when you do a good deed you are rewarded.

We meet The Fawn who approached Ofelia with the tasks. He was designed like bark, so he blends to the background for an epic reveal. He’s a bit of a trickster, a flatterer, someone who you cant be to sure if you can completely trust them. Which, as fae goes, makes sense. I went back and forth throughout trying to figure if he was trustworthy enough or was trying to scam Ofelia out her soul or,something.

THEN! There’s the actual serious war movie about an assertive, serious, strict military Captain Vidal (the stepfather), who is doing battle against the last bits of Resistance that live up in the mountain. Like, its weird how these seperate things can be so closely tied together when one story does not affect the other at all.

The Captain is cruel, and a dominating prick to boot. He cares more about his legacy than his new wife/family and it shows in tiny ways to make it more realistic. Ofelia offers the left hand to shake, Captain crushes the hand instead. He puts down his wife at a dinner party saying that no one really cares about her stories. He is so sure that his wife will deliver a boy to carry on his legacy. And this is just his personal side.

Professionally, he is ruthless, sadistic, doesn’t give a shit about who he needs to kill or even cares if he kills innocent people. Like, he’s scary man, and I was on edge over what he was going to do, if he was going to catch the Resistance, if he was going to hurt Ofelia and her mother.

Doctor Ferreiro is cool. He’s there to help Ofelia’s mom during the pregnancy, and the pregnancy itself was a whole can of stressful times let me tell you. He’s just trying to do what he can to help, even at the risk of his own life. But the Doctor has one of my favorite lines in the movie, where he basically said he is unable to obey without question, because to lose your ability to question would lose your sense of judgement. Yeah, the movie went there with their commentary on “just following orders”.

Then there is the head maid Mercedes. Shes cool because you can see shes toeing the line in this place. She may be in charge of the household, but she is still at risk. So you see her do small things, subtle things, to keep ahead and keep out on top. Stuff most people wont notice during the moment, but it lingers just long enough on camera so the audience can hopefully pick it up. It..it almost feels like she’s the main character in the War Part of the film with the Captain as the villain.

The movie really does make a divide between Magic and Reality in sets. Becase while the adults are in war time here, Ofelia is in her own magic business. The sets when she does her challenges, incredible. Totally astounding. The set of the 2nd task terrifies me.

^This scene. It freaked me the fuck out. It is literally just “enter the room and dodge the monster” but the atmosphere is just FILLED with temptation and danger I just choked on stress for Ofelia’s safety. Which still falls under the fairy tale rules of “follow the advise or suffer the consequences.” But it is just filled with red and yellows, colors that you don’t see in the War portion of the film.

You can even see some of the magic being used in the war film. Ofelia uses magic to help heal her mother who’s sick. In the beginning she fixes a broken statue and garners the attention of the fae and Fawn in thr first place (a total fairy tale movie). But it is so small and subtle that it can give into doubt on “is magic real, or just all in her head?”

I think, the reason these plots can mash so well together, is because they both center around when people should trust and when people should question. Not following the rules has consequences that can cost you your life. But you shouldn’t obey everything, especially when it could cost someone their life. Del Toro did a magnificent job showing this in both a simple fairy tale and a hard war movie.

Overall I definitely recommend to watch this movie. The premise is a bit misleading, and it is pretty heavy, but if you like dark fantasy mixed in with realistic war you are going to enjoy the hell out of this.