Pan's Labyrinth - what did other people think? (possible spoilers)

[tigereye]

It was amazingly beautiful, intense and quite violent. Some of the images were very hard to watch. All in all it was a gorgeous and heart-wrenching film.

Curious what others thought.

[philosophie_en_rose]

1. It's lovely, but heartbreaking.

The ending is surreal and depressing.

[tigereye]

2. a friend was telling me she just didn't want to see it

due to her not liking violence.... but I think there are times when you have to see the world more than one way.

In some ways, it is very like many, many fairy tales. I think the juxtaposition of the real and fantasy horrors is what won it so many accolades.

[philosophie_en_rose]

3. The violence definitely isn't gratuitous.

It really means something in Pan's Labyrinth.

[tigereye]

4. that is what I was thinking

many films with violence really need to be seen, so that we don't forget and make changes....

[unpossibles]

14. don't look at it as depressing, try to see the hope

she reaches the kingdom, the people are spared the cruelty of the Captain, and there is hope for the future (symbolized by the baby being taken from his sadistic authoritarian father).

[MonkeyFunk]

5. Just saw it today

Yes, very violent, but also very beautiful.


Much darker than I'd expected.

We also saw The Queen, which I highly recommend.

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. It's really violent. A beautiful film, but oh so violent.

I read recently that the director's father was kidnapped once and held for 72 days, so he knows about human ugliness quite personally.

The film that really suprised me recently was "Little Children".

[tigereye]

8. ah, I wondered about that

the intensity of it made me think that there was probably a very personal connection. This is why I get so frustrated when people here complain about fascism - they have no idea, usually, what they are talking about....

however, maybe this ought to be shown to the administration and some members of our military as a reminder of what we do not want to be.

[seemunkee]

7. Just got back from seeing it

I wish I understood what all the symbolism was.
Fantastic movie even if some of it was hard to watch.

How much of the fantasy world was real? The mandrake and the way she escaped from her room at the end. Anything else?

[tigereye]

9. um, good question

there were a lot of parallels between the two worlds, I thought. My husband just bought a lot of symbolism books, he's really interested in dream recovery and analysis, from a variety of angles. I told him he would really like this film from that perspective.

I myself saw many Jungian images.

The creature with the eyes has to have some interesting origin. That was a very curious one.

[noonwitch]

10. I wanted to go see it, but I had a cold this weekend

So I'll go next weekend.

[tigereye]

11. probably better to have your wits and health about you!

I felt like I had a cold AFTER I went. ;)

[tigereye]

12. probably better to have your wits and health about you!

I felt like I had a cold AFTER I went. ;)

[unpossibles]

13. I loved it. Amazingly and heartbreakingly beautiful! (SPOILER ALERT)

I see it as being about the struggle for freedom/identity in the face of crushing fascism though escapism, but I also think it had another meaning.

I think the ending was not depressing because the character passed the test - like the freedom fighters, the housemaid, and the doctor, Ofelia represents a more wild nature and chooses self-sacrifice over hurting an innocent to get what she wants.

Captain Vidal (and by extension, Franco and by further extension fascism) can only advance through selfish cruelty and imposing of their will upon nature/free spirit/the people and is therefore evil and sadistic (and not in a fun way, either).

Ofelia breaks from this, not only through her literary escapism, but through the ultimate self-sacrifice, and in a sense, she has become royalty (or returned to the original innocent state, a sort of before-the-fall archetype).

I see it as a story of hope. yes, it is brutal and sad at times, but the end of the film also gives hope that the people will overcome.

But I am a huge fan of dark fantasy in the vein of Terry Gilliam, Neil Gaiman, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet and loved every second of it, even the moments that made me squirm a little.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

15. Beautiful, haunting, and memorable. Highly recommended. HOWEVER. For anyone who

watched the trailers and somehow thinks it's a straight-up fantasy movie (like the old "Labyrinth" or "Legend" etc.), it has been marketed in a misleading way to catch a larger market.

It's really a historical period drama wrapped up in a dark fairy tale. The "real world" part of the film occupies the majority of it.

There is violence and cruelty, which is in no way gratuitous, it is integral to the story being told.

Highly recommended. Not for young children though.