The messages about the inherent nature of the captain, Ofelia, Mercedes, and Ofelia's mother are painfully obvious: Ofelia, Mercedes and Ofelia's mother are all good and the captain is very bad. Ofelia hardly does ANYTHING wrong. Yes, she disobeys the faun by eating the fruit in the room with the pale man but she is immediately sorry. She takes no joy in disobeying like we expect a bad person to. Her disobedience isn't something that causes harm to anyone (the fairies being eaten don't count because they're alive in the end when she's being accepted as the princess of the Underworld). Mercedes does nothing wrong except inflict physical pain on the captain who is dubbed as the bad guy, therefore making him conceptually acceptable to hurt. Ofelia's mother does nothing wrong ever. The captain is evil inside and out. Everything he does exudes "bad guy". He kills innocent farmers, disregards his wife's health for that of his son's, and murders a young girl in cold blood. Nothing he does can be perceived as good because everything he does is for his own benefit; to uphold his ideal of perfection. There is no such thing as a real life version of these characters. That's not how the world works. Good people do awful things and bad people do good things.
For example, I have a friend in the army right now. His name is Dillon and he's overseas right now in Iraq fighting the war. Him and I video chat on Skype all the time. Like in a normal conversation, I used to ask, "Hey what'd you do today?" or "What are your plans for the day." Nine times out of ten, he couldn't definitively give me an answer. That made my mind wander. What was he doing? Dillon, this sweet, loving, passionate boy I met almost 5 years ago, could be killing people when he's not talking to me. Who are these people that he could be killing? They can't possibly all be bad enough to need death as a punishment. "Bad enough" for death doesn't even exist in my mind. I'm one of those people that doesn't believe in the death penalty or war of any kind or violence. What if those people have families to feed so they joined their country's army purely for money? Dillon is a good person but he is doing bad things.
That being said, obviously del Toro's world is a creation for entertainment and entertainment only. To try to use it as an argument to make people reevaluate their perception of good and evil, right and wrong, would be to assume his world is one that can be compared to the real world. If there is no way to compare the two, then there is no argument to be had.
Picture credits:
Army men - http://www.baseops.net/militarybooks/army_7.jpg
Well, you certainly have guts to argue that there are NO arguments in Pan's Labyrinth. I think that was del Toro's point, though.. that the world ISN'T black and white.
ReplyDeleteWhen Ofelia ignored the fairies and went ahead and ate the berries, one may argue that she did the right thing simply because she was hungry. Was she really wrong in taking the berries?
However, I loved that you shared your own personal story about you and Dillion... that shows the extreme grayness and corruption in this world.
Wow, that must be tough having a friend in the army.
ReplyDeletegreat blog!
It's true that some good people have to do bad things in certain situations. It's sad when they have to get to that point sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI like your blog, especially the one that you include your personal experience. You brought up an interesting point about "killing for peace". Some people will argue that war is necessary to us to have peace, at least for a while.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. When I went to the last one, I enjoyed it more.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is necessary to have war with them because it is only the way to protect ourselves.
Think about what would happen if we decided to have no troops over there?
I have to agree with Cancan, how could you think that pan's labyrinth is black and white? As for the "can't be analyzed as an argument of any kind," I have to admit that you did make your point but yet, I think that film has several different arguments intertwined in one
ReplyDeleteI loved how you add your personal experience in this blog :)
wow, this blog diffinitely made me think. Pan's Labyrinth is too black and white. it doesn's mix like reality. in reality, what is good and bad is up to us. we decide if it's bad or it's good. in pan's labyrinth, that doesn't happen. niceeeeeeee analysis.
ReplyDeleteand i loved how you included your personal story, the story took it to the home plate for this piece i think.
You know, after reading your blog. I had to go back and look at everyone's blog again to see if what I read was accurate. Your blog was mind-boggling but in a good way. It made me think of the things I might have missed out on in the film. Although the movie itself isn't realistic, it is possible for someone to dream of an escape? I mean, every kid out there in the world can dream of a place to get out of a bad situation. If that's right, then can't Ofelia do the same thing? Can't Del Toro use her as a repreentative for other kids out there who happen to dream of a place they want to be, a place that could actually be better than home?
ReplyDeleteOne of most interesting analysis out there! I like how you think about the fallibility of the fantasy world in Pan's Labyrinth. But I am not sure if there is no such of people like these characters. What about Saddam Hussein? I believe he resembled lot of Vidal's qualities. He owned 72 palaces and murders 350,000 people annually. Just think about it, and again, your blog was amazing.
ReplyDeleteDaring of you to include your friend in personal experiences... Must have been hard for you to do that.. Nice job.
ReplyDeletei like you including your friend in the evaluation but i agree with other blogs that the movie is not just black and whtie. but your blog is amazing in other ways :)
ReplyDelete