Pan's Labyrinth: A fairy tell of life

As I watched the movie Pa's Labyrinth by Guillermo Del Toro I kept trying to ask myself throughout the whole thing...what is the director trying to get out of this? You see this movie does an incredible job of mixing a fairy tale and real life together, but I could never put the two together but after reading a new york times review it finally hit me! The fairy tale helps to explain the significance of the real storyline. That sounds confusing but you see the real story takes place in spain during a war and people are fighting against whats left of the army which are the "villians" of the movie, and the little girl has to fight her way through evil characters, just like in real life. So to sum that up more logically you can look at the story in two ways. One is the non-fiction way where the free men of the country are fighting for their lives against the army. The other is the fiction way where the little girl has to fight her way through her imagination. Both tell the same story of fighting against evil. So here I believe the director wants us to see both separate stories, but put them together at the same time. 

The second thing that immediately caught my attention in this film was that yes this was a fairy tale alright, but it was not a fairy tale for children, not at all. For example one of the first scenes of the movie involves the captain of the army taking a beer bottle and literary smashing an innocent mans face in, blood and all. I knew right there and then that this was no disney movie. This brings up the question...What are adults going to get out of this type of movie? I mean a fairy tale for adults, who would want to watch that. This is what made this film so good in my opinion. I think the direction the director was going for was to give us an easier way to view the story of fascism, and how terrible it is. But instead of doing it from a confusing real life story, he simply turned it into a fairy tell and worked its way in with the story. 

I tried to compare other films the director had with this one but none really seemed to be as in depth and detailed as this. Yes he had some other hits like Blade 2 and Mimic, which in my mind are not phenomenal movies. This movie was. It's one of those movies you know took so much time and effort to put together, that the director wanted it so bad he didn't sleep, and my hat goes off to him I think he did a great job. The only thing I question about his dedication is why make such a good movie and end it so abruptly? It was put together amazingly but I still think the ending could have been stretched a little more.