by Harry Tournemille

Created on: February 06, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

The biggest misconception most people have about Pan's Labyrinth is that it is a Hollywood fantasy film. North American marketing has insinuated this and movie posters have also given the same impression. And so, people head to the theaters expecting something in the same medium as Lord of The Rings or Harry Potter.

Naturally, they're surprised and somewhat disappointed when they realize what Pan's Labyrinth really is: a Spanish war film that uses fairy tales and myth as metaphor, that it is more about the spirit of people than about whimsical underworlds and strange creatures. In fact, while this film may not be as visually enticing as the aforementioned fantasy films people try to compare it to, its story is much more compelling, much more human. Pan's Labyrinth is what all fantasy films should aspire to be.

Guillermo Del Toro introduces a girl, Ofelia, who's life has been turned upside down. Her real father is dead, her ill mother is carrying the child of an ominous stranger, and the young girl must now move away from all she has known to a dark place in the mountains where warring factions of guerrilla fighters move through the surrounding forests. Ofelia, an avid reader of fairy tales and myth, creates a possible world of escapism in her head, one that seems to provide an element of security for her, or at best allows her the room to come to terms with what is going on around her.

The film is not about being factually correct or determining whether or not this world actually exists. In fact, Del Toro does a good job of leaving that question up in the air. But there is no doubt that the world seemed real to Ofelia, that it is a part of her. And this is the key.

Like most war films, there are acts of pure evil and horrific moments of injustice. Del Toro does not pull his punches either, but he is careful not to allow for the violence to be unexplained, or to exist for the sake of entertainment. He paints a picture of darkness, of an elitist element of society oppressing the weak. And Ofelia yearns so deeply for things to be right again it breaks the viewer's heart (at least this viewer). But this film is not about creating false emotion, and not everything evil in the world gets made right. And so again, Ofelia's imagination comes into play again. Her world of fauns and secret forest places allow her some semblance of justice.

Pan's Labyrinth is a masterpiece. It refuses to be mundane, empty entertainment. Whereas most fantasy films are more about the imaginary world than the substance within it, this film is about the intimate cries of oppressed people, the violated heart of a child who wishes for her world to be as it used to: safe and secure. It is about substance, not background. This is an example of real film making.

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