Pan's Labyrinth Review-Molly Jacobson

Molly Jacobson
Professor Hammond
Visual Literacy
October 20, 2010

Pan’s Labyrinth Film Review

Pan’s Labyrinth is a unique and twisted representation of strategically blended childhood fantasies with reality type situations. Ofelia, the main character, has a run in with the faun, a grotesque creature said to be from a realm of fairies sent to bring the fairy princess (Ofelia) back to the kingdom before the last portal to return was destroyed. The faun told the young and naive Ofelia that she was secretly the lost princess that needed to be returned to the fairyland and would need to successfully finish three difficult and dangerous tasks in order gain access and become a princess again. If Ofelia can effectively finish the tasks she will unlock the portal to return to her real father waiting for her in the fairy world, and regain her position as the fairy princess, something that she longs to be.

After finishing the three tasks, going through the painful loss of her mother, and the horrible wrath of her stepfather, Ofelia finally makes her way to the finish the final obstacle; bringing her brother to the labyrinth. Meanwhile during her journey the world surrounding her is crumbling, the maid Mercedes and the Doctor are secret insiders for the crusaders surrounding the camp, trying to take over the stepfather’s army. The movie ends with Mercedes people killing the patrolmen and killing the stepfather.

I have read many different reviews of Pans Labyrinth and have come to my own conclusion about what the movie is trying to portray. The visual aspects of the movie such as the music and mise-en-scene of a gloomy, depressing, and dark place make the viewer feel and see the undesirable and dangerous world that the director Guillermo del Toro was trying to depict.

In the very ending of the movie Ofelia is trying to finish her final task of bringing her baby brother to the labyrinth. After poisoning her stepfather he continues to chase her through the maze until he finally reaches her, grabbing the child and chillingly putting one bullet into her chest as he watches her drop to the floor, leaving her to die as he turns his back on her to leave.

One thing I noticed at the end when Ofelia held the baby talking to the faun was that when the camera was from her point of view you could see the faun, but when it was from the stepfather’s point of view you were unable to see him, revealing just how powerful the girls imagination is. Thus it continued to make my notion that death was the ultimate final step for Ofelia to return to the kingdom of her father and return to her thrown as the fairy princess in the made up world she had conjured up for herself.

Additionally, there are some details of the movie where I looked deeper so I could understand it better. For instance the chalk that can draw and make a door where as there would be no other way of getting into the place. That little piece of chalk is so significant because it is one of the most popular ‘activities’ of young children and allows them to express their imagination on the ground below them. It brings back memories of my childhood drawing flowers, butterflies, and stick figures on my driveway, thinking that I had created something real, only for it to be washed away by the rain and forgotten about. I can think of a million times I drew on my driveway with chalk hoping it would lead me to a different place, even pretending it did. Thus my final analysis to my thesis that in the end the only way for Ofelia to become a princess again and remember her previous role was to die.

Throughout the movie we never knew the fate of Ofelia’s real father, but I had assumed he was dead. So in order for her to be reunited with him she would need to die as well. I was a bit confused with Mercedes being the fairy queen at the ending but the conclusion I made was ever since Ofelia’s mother died, Mercedes had taken her under her wing and cared for her as a mother would, even while her mother was still alive and ill, Mercedes represented a motherly figure in a constant way that was not shown from her biological mother.

Lastly, in a film review of Pan’s Labyrinth by A.O. SCOTT from the New York Times in 2006 had a quote that I thought was worthy of being included, “Fairy tales (and scary movies) are designed to console as well as terrify. What distinguishes “Pan’s Labyrinth,” what makes it art, is that it balances its own magical thinking with the knowledge that not everyone lives happily ever after.”

Children are always going to have an imagination and think outside of the box, something they may truly think is real, such as Ofelia believing in the faun and the fairy world, but is not actually existent in the adult world and is just a fantasy is my final thought on Pan’s Labyrinth. The ending for the child is a happy ending because she really believes she becomes a princess, where as for the adult it’s a disastrous unhappy ending that can only be death.