Themes in Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth, a film made in 2006 and directed by Guillermo Del Toro, explores many themes during it's story development. One of which is gender. The captain is the most stereotypical 'manly' man that you could create. He is arrogant, powerful, intimidating and brave. On multiple occasions, he shoots and kills people, some of which are not even his enemies. However, the film explores gender in a good way, as Pan is not a stereotypical female. She is strong-minded, witty and brave. This is shown numerous times throughout the movie. At the end of the movie, she sacrifices her own life to save her brother's. There are links between the patriarchal system and the way Spain's society was under the fascist government. This links to the theme of rules or rewards. The movie's plot arguably uses political influence in the form of the underworld. In the real world, Ofelia sees that things are unjust and horrible. However, in the underworld, there is a fair system in place, in which if she does tasks for Pan, she will be rewarded, and ultimately is by becoming princess. We do not know for certain if this was real or not, however. An interpretation of the film may be that Ofelia's mind created this made up fairytale life to escape the real world. Another theme is decisions. There are a lot of choices that Ofelia has to make that would be considered extreme for a young girl to make. At the end of the movie, she has to decide between the potential death of her newborn brother and becoming a princess. Morality is restored in the end as the decision to not give her brother to Pan means that she can become princess.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Analysis of opening scene and Junky Limbo scene from Trainspotting

Image
Opening scene The opening scene of Trainspotting is widely regarded to be one of the most iconic scenes in British movie history. It does a great job of showing you what to expect for the rest of the movie, jumping straight into explicit scenes. The music that plays throughout it while Renton reels off all of the things to 'choose' sets the fast pace and adds an action-based effect to the scene. We get to see all of the main characters here and one of the sub-plots of the movie (Renton trying to get off of heroin) is set. Most of the camera shots are close ups or mid shots in this scene as it is still trying to develop the characters and introduce them to the viewer. The lighting in the house is very dark and miserable. This directly contradicts the light from the previous scene of being outside, and it also contradicts the music which is still playing in the background. This creates a strange effect on the audience which makes them not too disturbed or sad by the scene, d...
Read more

Similarities and differences between Casablanca and Do the Right Thing

Casablanca and Do the Right Thing are two very different films from two very different time periods. Both deal with different issues, but both are similar in a sense that the overall meaning of the film is deeper than just the storyline itself. Do the Right Thing inevitably has more advanced camerawork in comparison to Casablanca. The majority of Casablanca is simple over-the-shoulder camera shots and barely any wide shots. Casablanca was very good in it's utilisation of eye-lines when it cut from shot to shot. Do the Right Thing has more flashy camera work and it has traditional Spike Lee-type angles such as the zoom from above one. Similarly, Do the Right Thing has far more advanced editing too. It features a lot of flashy cuts and transitions, whereas Casablanca uses simple editing and doesn't really use any flashy editing throughout, as expected. Both are similar in a sense that they use establishing shots often. A good use of this in Casablanca is when Rick's bar i...
Read more

Weekly film analysis-Brazil

Image
Brazil is a film made in 1985, directed by Terry Gilliam. It is of the dystopian genre and is set in a future which ironically turned out to be rather inaccurate. The plot is very unclear throughout the whole movie, but this is done with clear purpose. Although the plot is hard to follow and often leaves the viewer wondering why they are watching Brazil, it is very thought-provoking and interesting to watch, which is why the film is so watchable. The plot was not believable at all but this was all part of the genre. The central goal of the movie was probably to express the opinions and views of the people who made the film, more so than to deliver a message or entertain the viewer in a certain way. A lot of symbolism was used in the film and there are many theories as to what the symbolism actually represents. An example of this is the flying scenes and especially when the ground begins to rise into the skies. The characters were complex and hard to break down. The acting was ...
Read more