If you haven't seen Pan's Labyrinth, you don't have an answer. Have you seen it? Wow.
I knew I was going to like this movie right away - it has the word Labyrinth in it, and you all know who was in a different movie with the word Labyrinth in the title. That's right: Mr. David Bowie. Here's the kicker though - The Labyrinth was a kid's movie that even adults could love. Pan's Labyrinth, on the other hand, is a film that if you let your kids watch, should immediately result in your kids being taken away.
I thought (for some reason) that it was about a little girl that escapes from war-torn Spain to an imagination land of wonder and magic. Umm....no. It's dark. Pretty dang dark. It's not uber-violent or anything, but there were some pretty graphic scenes: ones that made me cringe and Gina hide her eyes. Violence isn't the main theme of this movie, but it's there.
The story, effects, acting, and directing are awesome. Early on you learn who you hate, who you feel sorry for, who you pity (much different than feeling sorry for), and who you are leery about. The jacket from NetFlix starts out "In a fairy tale for adults," and it really is. The subtleties in the story are somewhat buried and left to the imagination of the viewer, which I really like: if the movie takes no thought to understand, I'm not a big fan (that's why I like films such as Donnie Darko).
Watch it, but be warned: it's not a light-hearted romp in the land of fairies. It's twisted and beautiful at the same time. I'd be interested to discuss your take on the ending - how did you read it? - although not here, as we don't want to ruin it. If you are easily disturbed by "necessary" violence, don't watch this one. As I said above, there isn't a lot of violence, but what's there sure is impactful.
ps - I love FireFox and it's inclusive spell checker.
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5 comments:
Ummm, yeah... I went into that movie thinking it would be a delightful, slightly dark trip to fairy land. I'm all about slightly dark fantasy, so sign me up, right? I had no idea it was actually a brutal war movie full of torture and some of the more visually disturbing scenes of violence I have forced myself to sit through. Yes, it was well directed and yes, it was imaginative (though i've seen much better)- but really, that movie was 1/10th labyrinth and 9/10ths horribly disturbing war movie. I'm a hard person to offend, but that movie did a thorough job of it. I can't say it was a bad movie, it wasn't. I just hated it is all.
"I can't say it was a bad movie, it wasn't. I just hated it is all"
I love that quote. I should have been a little more clear - I LOVED the movie, but I tend to like films like that. I also LOVED "Crash" and "Requiem for a Dream" - two movies that would make anyone very, very uncomfortable.
"Pan's Labyrinth" was an awesome movie, and I will see it again somewhere down the road. I just wanted to make sure that all you in BloggerLand didn't rent it under false presences.
if you own Donnie Darko, i actually know the only person in the history of man to have not watched it. Or should it be to not have watched it?
either way, I know that person and I could probably pass it on to her if you do indeed own it.......
i'm just sayin....
I have the special edition director's cut DVD with the alternate ending (it sucks, but it's there). You can tell your "friend" that I'll pass it on whenever works for "her." Tell "her" to just call whenever.
I so very much loved Pan's Labyrinth also and agree that it is not remotely for children; even very vaguely explaining the storyline to my kids felt weird.
However, my Goth-bound 7-year old daughter immediately needed to know more and more about the Pale Man. Somehow we got hold of giant eyeball tattoos and she insisted on putting them on her palms. I spent the entire day telling everyone we met, as my child put her hands to her eyes and stumbled around, that NO WE DID NOT TAKE OUR KIDS TO SEE THE MOVIE.
Nice post.
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