We saw Pan's Labyrinth this weekend. It was brutal and a bit gory, but sublime in its contrast of children's fairy tales and adult fairy tales. For me, it was the third in a series of movies that seek to change our Disney-polished 20th century retelling of these macabre stories. The first was Sleep Hollow; the second The Brothers Grimm. All of these movies focus on the horror of "Evil" in one way or anther. What makes Pan's Labyrinth different is that it highlights cruelty - not of the fairy world, but of our's. In mythology, from which fairy tales are drawn, nature is neither benevolent or malicious. The wolf in Little Red Ridding Hood is frightening because he is a wolf, and he is hungry, and he is a trickster; he must eat and his skills are suited to that necessity.
Pan's Labyrinth, as well as Sleep Hollow and The Brothers Grimm, maintains a common thread to a magical realm, at once dark and terrifying while alluring and seductive. The "Evil" encountered is magical Evil; opportunities for redemption often exist as do traps for becoming enslaved. These are the paths of Fairy Tales - through dark forests with endless choices and, often, only one safe way home. What makes Pan's Labyrinth different is that it also contains this entirely other story - of adult fairy tales and the cruelty that "purity" engender. The most shocking thing I've seen on film, outside of the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, are the scenes in Pan's Labyrinth involving Captain Vidal. And they are horrific on a level that brings me back to Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and Extraordinary Rendition. Jose Padilla is unique - of all those taken by the government since 9/11, he is the only actual U.S. citizen. It is through his case that we will learn what "the good guys" have been up to in our name. This they do to "make us safe". The cruelty that has been used in our names shames us all as we have forgotten the faces of our fathers and the world they fought and died to protect and nourish. This is not what was ever intended.
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