My evaluation of Pan's Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth is perhaps one of the best foreign films ever made because it was viewed by many college universities including Gallaudet University for academic works. Great authors make great films and great films have influence on the society in some ways. Del Toro presented hidden meanings in Pan’s Labyrinth and they were symbols of Del Toro’s beliefs and values. College universities had college students to watch the movie and write about the hidden meanings they found in the movie.

Indeed, Pan’s Labyrinth is perhaps one of the best foreign films ever made. Why so? Well, let’s see here. Pan’s Labyrinth won three academy awards; Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Makeup and you would know why if you watched it. Though, the awards would not happen if the movie didn’t attract lot of movie-goers. I often wonders, “what made Pan’s Labyrinth an excellent movie and how?” The answer lies in the movie. When people were watching Pan’s Labyrinth, they probably were into the movie or disliked it so far because of the slow start it had. Now, at some point they probably felt there was something different or as you prefer a better term, odd with the movie as it progresses on. Perhaps that’s why some people liked the movie because it was different from normal fairy tales.

Pan’s Labyrinth was unconventional as just as Del Toro wanted it. Why was it different? Well, in the movie, the cinematic lights and the mood remained the same from the very start to the end. Also, it’s quite dark for a fairy tale and did not have a happy ending unlike an original fairy tale would have. I could list more reasons to why the movie was unconventional when compared to many other fairy tale movies. To put it in layman’s terms, Del Toro was showing his sense or value of disobedience in the movie.

Also, Pan’s Labyrinth was well known for its unoriginal ways that college universities had their students to analyze the movie and find the hidden meanings behind it. Like myself, I was assigned to analyze the movie and find the hidden meanings and why was it significant. Del Toro wanted us to recognize them and realize the significance of it. For instance, there were many signs of disobedience in this movie such as the doctor’s obvious disobedience toward Captain Vidal when he put the beaten prisoner to sleep against his orders. As for hidden disobedience, you can say that Ofelia’s mother was somewhat disobedient toward Captain Vidal as well when she said, “I would not be more disappointed than Captain Vidal,” to Ofelia when Ofelia arrived late for dinner. There were religious parallels in this movie as well like the significance of Jesus’ crucifix on the hands and the pale old man with eyes on his hands.

Pan’s Labyrinth was filled with so many hidden meanings that it was quite enjoying for intellectual people. Pan’s Labyrinth stood out among the movies because it was completely different and considered unconventional when compared to other fairy tale movies. Perhaps, that’s why it was a great movie. As for me, I just enjoyed it because it was the opposite and I enjoyed analyzing the meanings behind the scenes in the movie.

Purdue OWL website

What is Purdue’s OWL? First of all, the anagram stands for Online Writing Lab and Purdue is well known for its literary resources and information on academic writing styles. Many students and professors worldwide use this website for assistance for their English classes. College students like I use this website mainly for instructions on APA citation. I highly recommends Purdue’s OWL website to all college students to use it because it’s very helpful when you need help on essays or a rhetorical analysis. Also, if you want to avoid plagiarism and wants proper citation, OWL has many citation formats like APA to offer.

In class, I have learned a variety of writing styles and how they apply to academic papers. We discussed about how each of these styles has an impact on academic papers and how they connect to the audience. For example, we discussed about rhetorical analysis and how would we use it in certain situations like trying to persuade the audience to look at it from a different view of point. Also, we discussed about the styles we use in arguments and the key points to use in arguments. I fervently recalled class discussions when I’m writing an academic paper and was able to use it as one of my tools. However, I had several weaknesses in my academic writing skills and my feedbacks indicated it.

In class, I used a book; Lunsford to study and research the writing styles and how we use it in an academic paper. It contained information and instructions for these styles. I was able to effectively absorb information from Lunsford and had an understanding of the material presented in Lunsford. Basically, I’m able to use materials contained in Lunsford and class discussions as my tools when I’m writing an academic paper.

However, my light bulb came on full powered when I looked around on Purdue’s OWL website. It had abundant information on many literary styles or instructions on literary skills we, college students use in our academic papers. I completely understood how to properly write a rhetorical analysis or a proper argument with the backing. OWL was truly effective and very elaborative on the material presented on the website. I finally came to an understanding of subjects my class and Dr. Wood have discussed about and also material written in Lunsford. OWL is really a magnificent academic source for all college students and teachers to use for their English classes.

Pan's Labyrinth

Wow! Pan's Labyrinth was certainly one of the oddest movies I have ever seen in my life, but it was an excellent movie. Plus, it’s a foreign movie and I rarely like these kinds of movie! But, Del Toro did really great and I can see that he worked so hard on this movie. So, I can see why he said the movie nearly killed him and he lost forty five pounds of fat from making the movie. He wanted people to see the meanings behind the scenes and he wanted to express his meanings of certain things that were shown in the movie. You can have so many different meanings in a scene and nobody’s wrong. He’s very creative and sly in some ways. Also, he completely broke the ‘golden film rules’ in Pan’s Labyrinth such as having a unfortunate ending in a fantasy-like movie or having the mood of lights remaining the same for the rest of the movie. Basically, Pan’s Labyrinth is all about disobedience.
I thought the movie was very deep when you try to analyze it in pieces. For instance, Del Toro showed religious parallels in this movie, like in the ending, when Ofelia the main character died and then rised again in her kingdom as an immortal being just like Jesus did. Jesus also died and was reborn again as an immortal. Also, the monster with eyes on his hands also depicts the crucifixion of Jesus and his hands. The setting of Pan’s Labyrinth was in Spain and Spain’s official language is Catholic. So, Del Toro perhaps used these religious parallels in the movie for that purpose and to show his perspective of it.
He also showed many forms of obedience in this movie, theatrical and social. In theatrical sense, Pan’s Labyrinth was a fairy tale, yet it’s very dark and gloomy. There were no happy endings in this movie like fairy tales normally have. The fairies were not bright at all and ate like savages. In normal fairy tales, you always see bright fairies and they’re clean. Also, they’re there to help while the fairies in the movie lied to Ofelia, the protagonist of this movie. The lights never changed at all from the beginning to the end because the mood remained the same. In normal movies, you normally see the lights change when the mood of the movie changes. But in this movie, it was always dark and the rain never stopped.
Now, in a sense of society, there are so many meanings of disobedience because it completely depends on a person’s experience and values he or she holds. The Faun told Ofelia to obey him all the time and would be rewarded if she accordingly does so. However, when the Faun told her he would need the blood of an innocent, he meant her brother. If she obeys him, she would have her wish. In disobedience, she refused to kill her own brother and chose him over her desire to escape the life she lives in. Thus, she disobeyed because it was the right thing to do so. I believe Del Toro is trying to say that disobedience is not always wrong, but it is sometimes a right thing to do in certain situations.
Well, it was very interesting when I had to analyze the movie, instead of just watching the whole movie. I really realized there were hidden meanings behind Pan’s Labyrinth and I probably won’t recognize it if I was merely watching the movie like I normally do.