An Award Winning Adult Fantasy from the Early 2000s

Pan’s Labyrinth was incredibly original, I have not seen anything like it. I did not find out till after watching it that it had received multiple awards, these included three Oscars and other Oscar nominations. It won for best cinematography, best art direction, and best make up. It was also up for best foreign film, but I am assuming, that it was something similar to how this year Parasite was a foreign film, and it won best picture, but it did not win best foreign film. It is important to share the love. Going into this film from the poster, I expected a weird horror film, but the website I looked at called it a fantasy. It falls somewhere in-between the two, but if a fantasy movie is going to receive the R rating, then it must be well done if it wants to draw in an older audience that might typically be adverse to such a movie.

This movie was about a brilliantly creative girl named Ophelia. She loved to read and tell stories, but sadly her Dad had died, and she was tangled up in her Mom’s new love affair with a Captain in the Spanish army during WWII. Captain Vidal was a deplorable human being. He was overly physical and showed no mercy to anyone including his wife and his new stepdaughter. Ophelia found solace in a nearby labyrinth that she was led to by a fairy. In the labyrinth, she was promised by a creepy creature, a faun, a half goat half man creature that looked part wood as well, that she could become princess of the underworld and be reunited with her dad if she completed three tasks. As she tried to complete the tasks the captain was trying to finish off the resistance in the woods outside of their large manor in the woods.

One of the most important aspects of the movie came from the relationship between the mother and Ophelia. Her mother is pregnant with the Captain’s son, but she was not doing very well with the pregnancy, there had been multiple complications. The mother was under a ton of pressure from the captain to have his son successfully, it was very reminisced of a monarch needing a son. It even got to the point where Ophelia heard the Captain say that it does not matter if the mom dies, as long as his son survives. So clearly the mother was under extreme stress, which did not help with the complications from the pregnancy she already had. Too often over the course of the movie, she seemed to take her stress out on Ophelia. She became upset with Ophelia for reading to much, for getting her dress dirty, for being late for sinner, and for trying a home remedy to help her mother heal. The Captain had clearly become an overwhelmingly bad influence on the mother to the point where she took it out on her daughter. Ophelia had faith, she looked for the finer aspects of life, and she tried to help not only her mother but others as well. Ophelia’s books and her quest gave Ophelia an escape from reality. This seems to be a skill that adults like her mother seem to lose as they grow older. There are times in life when life is going to be extremely hard, but it is important to have some level of escape to get away from whatever in the real world has become troublesome.

One connection I investigated was if there was a similarity between Ophelia in this movie and the one from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. From a few different sources I read, it seems like Ophelia in Hamlet committed suicide to take her life into her own hands, she had been tormented by the mixed signals she received from Hamlet, and she was still distressed over her father’s death. So when it comes to Ophelia in the Labyrinth, one parallel was that both of their Dad’s had died leaving them in uncertain circumstances. Both characters can also be characterized as innocent. In Hamlet, that Ophelia was not quite as young as the one in the movie, but she still very emotionally vulnerable and put into frenzy from the mixed signals from Hamlet. When it comes to the end of the two characters’ story arcs, the one form the movie has more of a redeeming arc. She was not willing to allow her brother to be hurt, she harbored no ill will to her brother, even though he caused the death of her mother, and she was willing to sacrifice her life for her brother, even though she thought it cost her the opportunity to be reunited with her dad and to become the princess of the underworld.

Throughout the movie, there were various monsters and mythical creatures that appeared either in the house to Ophelia, in the labyrinth, or during one of her tasks. I do wish that some of these mountains got more screen time or back story. In the first task, the toad that was in the tree ate the three stones quickly and died there was minimal adversity here. Then when Ophelia encountered the monster with its eyes in his hands, the monster chased her down the hall and ate a fairy, and that was about it. It just seemed like these creatures could have played a bigger role that created more suspense that just the brief minute or two experience. I am not typically a fan of movies that last over two hours, but I would have been in for an extra fifteen minutes of this movie, if it meant that there would be more monster involvement and intricacies to the tasks.

It is hard to categorize this movie into a specific genre it blends so many varying elements into from war, to horror, to fantasy, and even some aspects of a family drama, but what is most important, is that it does all of these well. There is very rarely a dull moment, the story was very engaging and emotional. Ophelia’s character went through a very tragic journey and faced many hardships that an eleven year old should not have to endure, but she showed strength in the face of adversity, and she was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for family, and she ended up being rewarded for it. I gave this movie an 86. I definitely recommend it to others to watch. It won multiple Oscars and for good reason. One aspect of the movie that I enjoyed, but others might not, is that the movie was in Spanish. This meant that I had to watch it with subtitles, which meant that the tv had my full attention for the two hours that it took to complete the story, this made the movie better because I could not afford the distraction of a phone because my Spanish is good, but not great enough to be able to watch a movie without subtitles. DO NOT LET THE SUBTITLES DISCOURAGE YOU FROM WATCHING!