Pan’s Labyrinth is no children’s fairy tale, even though the fantasy elements were there. Just as there were more serious and possibly sinister elements underlying certain other of the classic tales: The Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, and Rumplestiltskin; the story under this fantasy is a serious critique on abuse and male domination. The background story centers on the fascist takeover of Spain, about the time depicted in Guernica. Very young children would probably not really understand the text of this movie, and older children may find it quite disturbing.
At the beginning of the movie, we see a pregnant mother and her daughter riding in a vintage automobile. The mother is trying to convince her daughter, Ofelia, who is reading a fairy tale, Princess Moanna, that her new stepfather is a good man and that she should call him Daddy. As they arrive we begin immediately to see the totalitarian nature of Captain Vidal of the Nationalist forces under Franco. He is pledged to root out the rebels leftover from the Spanish Civil War. Ofelia is distracted by what appears to be a praying mantis and follows it to the labyrinth. The maid, Mercedes, goes after her and rescues her books. They form a bond.
The theme of human and civil rights underlie this entire film as Ofelia tries to fulfill her destiny, as stated by the Faun she meets in the labyrinth when following the insect which has now become a fairy. Captain Vidal is shown as brutal and very centered on his goals. He does not really care for Carmen, but only wants possession of her child, his progeny. He probably killed her husband. The young girl only matters to him as far as she can ensure the health of his child. He is overheard by Ofelia telling the doctor that if it is a choice between mother and child he must save Vidal’s son.
Ofelia is given the classic three tasks by the Faun to prove she is Princess Moanna, and to open the door to her home in the underworld. She accomplishes the first task right away, retrieving a golden key from a horrible giant toad, killing the toad, and free the tree which it is killing. Her new hand-sewn party dress is ruined in the process, attracting the ire of her mother, because she was to be shown off to the guests and also because Vidal has publicly humiliated her mother, partly because she cannot control her daughter. It is obvious at the party that Carmen is not accepted into their circle and is merely a container for the child. She is reminded that she is common, showing both the status of class and of women. The higher class women present peck at Carla, because they can since she is lower class.
Ofelia finds her mother hemorrhaging, and tells the Faun that her mother is sick with the baby. The Faun gives her a mandrake root and tells her to put it in a bowl of milk under her mother’s bed and feed it three drops of blood a day. Carla immediately begins to improve. Ofelia promises her unborn brother that she will protect him. Ofelia fails at the next task because she cannot resist the temptation of fruit and disobeys orders to eat nothing. The horrible child eater wakes up and eats two of the fairies.
When the captain discovers Ofelia feeding the mandrake, Carmen, who is much better now, throws it into the fire. It screams and Carmen begins contractions and dies in childbirth. We see that women are really worthless in this culture, which is trying to impose its rule on Spain. The captain has been vicious from the beginning, but he gets unbelievably worse, torturing prisoners and even killing the doctor, simply because he euthanized a prisoner to relieve his pain. Ofelia tries to escape, and Vidal captures her and Mercedes, who was helping her, and who has been found out to be a rebel. Vidal locks Ofelia in her room and takes Mercedes to be tortured, but she cuts him with her personal knife and escapes.
The Faun visits Ofelia and tells her she must complete the third task before moonrise. She must take her baby brother into the labyrinth. She steals him and runs there with Vidal right behind her. The Faun says that the door to Princess Moanna’s kingdom will only open with the shedding of an innocent’s blood, and says she must get a drop of her brother’s blood. She refuses and the Faun vanishes. Vidal catches up, takes the baby, and shoots Ofelia. As he leaves the labyrinth, Mercedes and the rebels capture him. He hands over the baby, breaks his watch, and gives it to Mercedes, saying his son should know when his father died, a flashback to his own father’s death, and Mercedes informs him that his son will never know who his father was. This is, of course, the worst thing she can do to him. This heavily patriarchal society places great store in the male lineage. Vidal has lost everything, and the Americans have broken through the lines to help the rebels.
Mercedes finds Ofelia dying inside the labyrinth and we see three drops of her blood fall on the altar. The ending is totally ambiguous since we do not see Ofelia die and we see her reunited with her parents, the rulers of the underworld.
In many ways, this is the film version of Guernica, as we see a panorama of Spain in turmoil, and the inhumanity of the fascists is shown in detail. The film portrays what was an ugly period in history, and even the beautiful things in the film are somehow dark. The fairies and the stonework are more like Victorian religious artifacts, at once beautiful and yet strange.
References
del Toro, Guillermo, Pan’s Labyrinth, Picturehouse (USA), 2006 (Spain)