Del Toro’s Pan's Labyrinth is easily one of the most creative films ever made in this era. The way he uses disobedience is spectacular. He really thought outside the box in making this movie or better yet, he tore the box up. Del Toro took us into his own little world and told us an unforgettable story about disobedience. In his movie, disobedience is everywhere from the lighting of the movie, the fairy tale concept, and the characters.
Disobedience is the focal point of the movie and it’s what Del Toro wants to instill in our minds. Everything the characters did was related to disobedience. If there wasn’t a scene where the character didn’t show disobedience, Del Toro showed it in a different, subtle way. For example in Pan’s Labyrinth, every scene was dark and gloomy. Bright colors were scarce in this movie. Usually, movies have a bright background or colors to capture the audience attention. Del Toro did the op posite he used dark, melancholy colors to make us feel out of place. Also, I realized in other movies when someone dies the whole scene turns dark and gloomy but when Ofelia died, the scene became cheerful and vibrant. Isn’t that weird?
We are all familiar with the fairy tale concept or the damsel in distress. Like Rapunzel or Snow White. In Pan’s Labyrinth Ofelia dies, when in other fairy tales, there’s always a knight in shining armor ready to save the day. Ofelia didn’t have a knight in shining armor. She wasn't saved and died on the cold labyrinth floor. Even if she did have a knight in shining armor to rescue her from her cold stepfather, Ofelia wouldn’t go into the “afterlife” and become a princess. That's one major part of the story that really makes you think.
The whole picture shows us that in life we live there’s a certain “norm” everyone agrees on. And at time we have to do things that we don’t want to. Either way someone has to die. That’s the way things work in this modern world no matter how much we deny it. For example, her own stepfather at the end of the movie shot Ofelia. We knew it was coming but we didn’t want it to happen. Or how about the man that had his nose bashed in repeatedly by the butt of the gun?
It’s weird how we expect things to be perfect and harmonious while at the same time we ignore the gut feeling that things can go wrong.
Our minds are set by the society of how the movie should be instead of following our guts.
ReplyDeleteYeah we go through denial, and think life should be perfect and everlasting, without any problems, when actually pain, suffering, and sadness happens in life no matter what the fairy tales say.
ReplyDeleteI liked the two last paragraphs where you talked about the norms and mores we live by in the world. It's true that rights and wrongs we recognize are based on our norms(customs) and values we were raised around in. So, Del Toro exposed that in Pan's Labyrinth with many forms of disobedience.
ReplyDeleteMonday 12:00 on the dot...
ReplyDeleteI like how Del Toro disobeys in his plot, how there's no 'knight in shining armor'. It's quite mind-bending and makes you go 'huh' for a few minutes.