This weekend I:
1) Drove home in the rain with no wipers
2) Cought a cold
3) Smashed the back of my hand with a Sledgehammer
4) Sliced my foot with a razor blade
Still, I managed to replace the front springs on my Nova, sleep in, relax with some coffee on Sunday morning, and eat frozen pizza with Ranch for dinner. We also watched Pan's Labyrinth for the second time, and it overpowered me just as effectively as the first time...that film is such a beautiful and painful work of art; one of the greatest fairytales ever told, and one of my personal favorites.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Posted by Darren Cools at 9:48 AM
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Wow. What an eventful weekend!
ReplyDeletePan's Labyrinth is an interesting movie. I do not dispute the skill of Guillermo del Toro in producing an amazing work of art (you should see The Devil's Backbone sometime for an even darker and comparably good film). But I didn't like Pan's - the movie was spoiled for me by what I know about the Spanish Civil War and the position of the fascists vs. the Communists. Franco was Catholic, and although I can't say I approve of his style of government (military state), the Communist element (represented in the movie by the members of the underground) wreaked unspeakable evil upon nuns and priests during one of the bloodiest civil wars in Catholic history. The portrayal in Pan's of the fascist military as a violent and treacherous threat to humanity was, I am sure, pretty close to the way the Communists painted them in propaganda in the 20's. I can't verify this claim but that is what I strongly suspect. Hence I view the movie as subliminally pro Communist/socialist and anti-Catholic.
But so far I seem to stand alone in this opinion...
Actually, Rich DeLuca shares your sentiments about the pro-communist/anti-catholic trend, though he is the only other person to have mentioned it. I have to admit that I no nothing of Spain at that time or what was going on in the country, and unless one already knows something about it, I wouldn't have detected anything else in the film that was distinctly anti-catholic. Still, I am sad to discover that if you know your history it necessarily takes a nasty turn. I guess I am mostly impressed by the depth of the characters and the sheer imagination of the story. Beautifully executed, despite to serious taint.
ReplyDeleteGranted, this is a bit late, but there is no "serious taint"; it is a fairy tale; objections about the nature of Spanish Leftism reminds me of liberal objection about classic fairy tales...don't you know that monarchy was oppressive?
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, Spanish phalangism wasn't exactly the beatitudes in action.