Pan’s Labyrinth – in theater (Spanish, subtitles). Director Guillermo del Toro’s powerful vision of Franco’s fascist Spain in 1944 through the eyes of a preadolescent girl Ofelia, who imagines a fantasy world to escape from the horrors of her actual life. Her mother, who has married a captain in the military, suffers through a difficult pregnancy; her actual father had been killed earlier in the war, and she refuses to accept her monstrously cruel stepfather, who commands an outpost dedicated to eliminating a resistance group of guerrilla fighters. Ofelia becomes Princess Moanna after a harrowing series of trials involving faeries and a faun. Deadly decisions: each character must choose on which side to belong, and Ofelia must make life-and-death choices inside the labyrinth.

(An older acquaintance who served in the military told me, when I mentioned this movie to him, that Franco was a great leader of the Spaniards because he kept Hitler out of Spain during World War II and he kept law and order – in his estimation the Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish civil war was a stupid liberal stunt and, Picasso’s Guernica aside, the reports of atrocities were overblown – but made a mistake of eventually allowing democracy in Spain. This mild-mannered gentleman, however, also admitted to me that he felt greater sorrow over the loss of the Twin Towers on 9/11 than he felt for the victims inside the buildings, even though he previously had disliked the ugly architecture of the World Trade Center. “They’ll never be replaced,” he said. Nor will Franco.)

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .