Pan's Labyrinth: Context (links to articles + videos)
The Spanish Civil War
- The Spanish Civil War took place between 1936 to 1939. This is prior to when the film is set in 1944 showing that despite the war ending, tension was still high.
- This devastating war was fought between the far right (General Franco and the Royalists) vs far left (the communists).
-Prior to the war, Spain had been awfully hit by the the Great Depression. This caused the military dictatorship that had ruled since 1923, to collapse in 1929.
-The Depression caused a rise in communism and more and more people felt that this was their last hope.
-Franco was one of three major fascist dictators within Europe. The other two were Hitler and Mussolini. These two dictators were determined to see Spain fall to the right-wing Nationalists. They supplied the right wing with financial and military support. As Fascist allies, they were passionate about stamping out all sectors of communism. They saw it as a nightmare if a neighboring country comes under soviet control. They knew that if it came under right-wing control it could be an important ally in future wars. .
https://www.youtube.]' com/watch?v=m5oxIARPSHw -- Interview with Guillermo Del Toro about Pan's Labyrinth
- The Spanish Civil War took place between 1936 to 1939. This is prior to when the film is set in 1944 showing that despite the war ending, tension was still high.
- This devastating war was fought between the far right (General Franco and the Royalists) vs far left (the communists).
-Prior to the war, Spain had been awfully hit by the the Great Depression. This caused the military dictatorship that had ruled since 1923, to collapse in 1929.
-The Depression caused a rise in communism and more and more people felt that this was their last hope.
-Franco was one of three major fascist dictators within Europe. The other two were Hitler and Mussolini. These two dictators were determined to see Spain fall to the right-wing Nationalists. They supplied the right wing with financial and military support. As Fascist allies, they were passionate about stamping out all sectors of communism. They saw it as a nightmare if a neighboring country comes under soviet control. They knew that if it came under right-wing control it could be an important ally in future wars. .
-The Communists, on the other hand, got support from Stalin's Russia. However, this support was nowhere near as much as the fascist dictators had been supplying to the royalists. Stalin sold only enough supplies to keep the communists fighting. He did not see it as a big a priority.
Social
-Corruption of the middle class and the Catholic Church is clearly portrayed in the film. Catholicism is clearly shown to be biased in favor of the fascists as God is said to not "matter" about the rebels bodies according to the priest present at Vidal's banquet.
-Despite the film's portrayal of the corruption of Catholicism, Del Toro still strongly puts forward his spiritual side of his religion. The end of the film shows Ofelia going to some form of a stereotypical heaven, a place where she can feel calm and safe. This shows that despite the divide inn the country people still had the same views about religion and moreover heaven.
Political
-Vidal and his small army of men are the only people who represent the entire fascist population in Spain at the time. They are regarded as heartless and petrifying. While the communists on the other hand, are represented as passionate and eager. This strongly puts forward, Del Toro's and the Spanish opinion of Fascism and Communism at the time. Both dangerous and lethal but one leaned towards the more detrimental and inhumane side while the other just as bad but comes across as a lot less harmful and the "heroes" of the film.
Social
-Corruption of the middle class and the Catholic Church is clearly portrayed in the film. Catholicism is clearly shown to be biased in favor of the fascists as God is said to not "matter" about the rebels bodies according to the priest present at Vidal's banquet.
-Despite the film's portrayal of the corruption of Catholicism, Del Toro still strongly puts forward his spiritual side of his religion. The end of the film shows Ofelia going to some form of a stereotypical heaven, a place where she can feel calm and safe. This shows that despite the divide inn the country people still had the same views about religion and moreover heaven.
Political
-Vidal and his small army of men are the only people who represent the entire fascist population in Spain at the time. They are regarded as heartless and petrifying. While the communists on the other hand, are represented as passionate and eager. This strongly puts forward, Del Toro's and the Spanish opinion of Fascism and Communism at the time. Both dangerous and lethal but one leaned towards the more detrimental and inhumane side while the other just as bad but comes across as a lot less harmful and the "heroes" of the film.
The fantasy side of the film was created by Del Toro as he wanted to captivate this idea that you can create a fantasy world which is "as real" or "as scary" as the real world. The themes of the film were inspired by another film Del Toro made called "Devil's Backbone". This film covers the themes of innocence and brutality. What's unique about this films is that it brings in children's fantasy into the dangerous human world and readjust it into a more adult-mature way.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/history/roadwar/spancivil/revision/2/b -- Spanish Civil War information
https://www.youtube.]' com/watch?v=m5oxIARPSHw -- Interview with Guillermo Del Toro about Pan's Labyrinth
Good to see that you have added to this per our conversation in class, however the two links at the end of the post need to be properly embedded and a summary of their relevance needs to be included. This will show me that you know exactly why you have included them and how your understanding for the topic area has increased.
ReplyDeletePlease make these amendments ASAP. Thank you.
All the best
Mr Cooper