PAN'S
LABYRINTH (NEW LINE TWO-DISC PLATINUM SERIES) (2006)
Pan's Labyrinth (New Line Two-Disc Platinum Series) (2006)
Actors: Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Doug Jones, Ariadna
Gil
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound,
DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: Spanish
Region: 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number of discs: 2
Rating R
Studio: New Line Home Video
Run Time: 119 minutes
DVD Features:
-
Available Subtitles: English
-
Available Audio Tracks: Spanish (Unknown Format)
-
Video prologue by Guillermo Del Toro
-
Commentary by director Guillermo Del Toro
-
Featurettes:
-The Power of Myth
-The Faun and the Fairies
-The Color and The Shape
-
The Charlie Rose Show featuring director Guillermo Del Toro
-
The Director's Notebook
-
Production sketches
-
Storyboard video prologue by Guillermo del Toro
-
Storyboard/thumbnail compares
-
Theatrical teaser and trailer, TV spots
Movie:
Disc:
 
 When
a movie comes one’s way with as much critical accolades as Pan’s
Labyrinth has garnered, it is sometimes easy to be disappointed. It wasn’t
that good, one almost always ends up saying.
Pan’s Labyrinth may not have won Best Film at this year’s Oscars (it
only got three Academy Awards) but, not only did it
score a whopping 96% approval rating on RottenTomatoes.com, but the film found itself
on no less than 130 top ten lists upon its release. “The best film of the
year,” an authority no less than horror author Stephen King claimed in
Entertainment Weekly. “Fries your nerves and fires your imagination,” the
usually overenthusiastic Peter Travers of Rolling Stone also gushed.
However, in the case of Pan’s Labyrinth the critical praise is
actually justified. Yes, it really is that good.
Directed by Mexican-born director Guillermo del Toro of
Mimic, Blade II and
Hellboy fame, Pan’s Labyrinth can be
best described as a dark fantasy tale. Set in Fascist Spain in 1944, it
tells the story of a little girl named Ofelia who moves with her mother to a
new home in the mountains to live with her new stepfather, Vidal, simply
referred to everyone who knows him as “The Captain.”
“The Captain” is commanding an outpost responsible for squashing the few
remaining Anarchist rebels living in the mountains who are under the
impression that the Spanish Civil War is still being fought. As far as lost
causes go, few were as lost as the Anarchist cause during the Spanish Civil
War: the war was largely over by 1939 and Franco would rule over a Fascist
Spain until his death in 1975, upon which the Bourbon monarchy was restored.
“Everybody knows the war is over,” as Leonard Cohen famously sang once.
“Everybody knows the good guys lost . . .”
“The Captain” (Sergi López) is a nasty piece of work, one of the most
hateful villains in recent movie history. Authoritarian and cruel, torturing
and summarily executing innocent peasants, he is only interested in the son
that his new wife will bear him and largely ignores Ofelia. “The Captain”
could easily have been played as a hammy movie villain, rolling his
moustache villain the way Chow-Yun Fat does as the evil Emperor in Curse
of the Golden Flower. Instead he is a malignant and threatening presence
that seems to hover over the film’s proceedings. Underplaying the character
was a wise choice.
An
even bigger surprise is the 12-year-old Ivana Baquero as Ofelia. Child
actors are usually terrible, but Baquero displays an unexpected maturity in
her depiction of the character. At once responsible and childish in the way
that an only child can be, Baquero admirably carries the movie on her
slender shoulders. Largely ignored, Ofelia spends her time in the woods
where she discovers an ancient maze inhabited by a mythical creature called
a faun
—
half-man, half-goat
—
named Pan. Pan tells Ofelia that she is actually a princess from an
underground kingdom. To escape the brutal realities of a war-torn Spain and
return to her kingdom she must perform three tests
—
all of them dangerous and all of them involving menacing creatures.
Is Pan telling the truth? Is Ofelia simply imagining it all? Part of the
movie’s tension derives from these questions. Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers
is right when he states on the DVD's cover that Pan’s Labyrinth frays the viewer’s
nerves. This is a dark, violent fairy tale for adults and is not suited for
small children at all. (You’d be mad to make them watch it.) In fact the few
critics on Rotten Tomatoes, who did not like the film, cited the violence as
being the main reason for not having enjoyed the film at all. Violent
and nerve-wrecking it may be, but Pan’s Labyrinth is also
unexpectedly moving and emotionally involving. The ending is simply
gut-wrenching and beautiful at the same time. This is a movie that could
only have been made outside of Hollywood as it simply tramples underfoot
many of Hollywood’s unwritten rules
—
and by establishing that fact early on
—
Pan’s Labyrinth is all the more powerful for it.
Yes, Pan’s Labyrinth deserves all the accolades thrown at it by
critics. It simply has to be seen by more serious-minded filmgoers.
Sensitive viewers should beware though, but they risk missing out on a
remarkable film-going experience . . .
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