I take it you have seen this. I like the fantasy stuff more than the Spanish Civil War stuff, as the latter seemed a bit formulaic and too goodies and baddies. Still, I was interested by the idea that the fantasy story featured moral ambiguity while the people in the "real" story had the kind of Zoroastrianism that one typically associates with fairy tales.Those Spanish nationalist soldiers – they were rubbish! I was struck by how they could not fight their way out of a paper bag. It was hard to see how, with tards like these, Franco had managed to win a bloody civil war.
You make an interesting point about moral ambiguity in fairytale versus simplified black and white morality in the history bits which I hadn't thought of. Maith an buachaill.
ReplyDeletePersonally what I found interesting was comparing it with the usual films about the end of WWII, where no matter how horrible everything gets you know the good guys will win in the end. Whereas in Pan's Labyrinth you realise that historically the good guys lost and the "facists" stayed in power until the seventies. Now that's extra bleak.
I thought the scene where the rebels hear that the allies have just landed in Normandy and they're all hopeful because they think they'll come and sort out Franco was pretty poignant, I thought. I loved the film. A real punch in the guts, I thought.
ReplyDeleteReally not sure about your theory about manichaean reality vs. ambiguous fairy tales. Not sure it works like that.