Evaluation of Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth’s intensity and creativity undoubtably captured and as well as fascinated millions around the world, from gore-loving teenagers to middle-aged movie critics. The movie is uniquely based on a child’s ‘adult-rated’ fairy tale fantasies and not many other movies have similar plots, or anything remotely close to it, really.

As we all know that disobedience is the central theme of the movie, Pan’s Labyrinth, directed by del Toro. What if disobedience is the central theme of life? The life we live everyday. Everyday we make from minor to major decisions and every decision we make either ‘obeys or disobeys’ others in a ripple effect. Every decision ultimately has a consequence of some sort.

Allow me to provide an example of how Ofelia perfected my ripple effect theory. Every time the courageous little girl went against her mother, her very pregnant mother grew more stressed and thus adding more strain on her pregnancy. Captain Vidal became restless and unmerciful when it came to his wife’s constant episodes of writhing in pain. Maybe because of Captain Vidal’s irritation at home caused his violent lashings to innocent bystanders. The faun is another instance of my theory. Right from when the faun met Ofelia, his acts of persuasion to draw Ofelia in the imaginary world ultimately led to her gruesome death.

Body language and gestures is another aspect of Pan’s Labyrinth that I think is necessary to include in evaluating the film. Ofelia demonstrated many timeless examples of defiable body language. For instance, at the very beginning of the movie, when Captain Vidal and Ofelia met for first time, she stuck out her left hand for a handshake. That was a classic symbolic move divulging disobedience and disrespect. Notice that every time Ofelia disobeyed, her shoulders are lopsided and she has one foot back. Another exceptional example is when the faun asked for the baby brother, she backed out with a foot and her dominant shoulder slung back. However, Ofelia did not always disobey this way. As she completed her first task as instructed by the faun, she walked back to the farmhouse confidently with her dirty, newly-made dress.

The antagonist, also known as Captain Vidal, did not obey. He actually demanded the complete opposite. He always looked confident and ‘assured.’ Most of the time, his hands were behind his straightened back and that posture expected obedience from every one else around him. His stance portrayed a perfect example of dominant body language.

Mercedes, the ‘second mother’ of Ofelia, was secretly allied with the rebels in the forest and thus was the informant in the house. In her scenes with the captain, her body language was ‘closed up,’ (because she was hiding her true self). She almost never gave eye contact because that was her way of disobeying. In her final scene with Captain Vidal where she rescued the baby boy from his monsterous father, she bluntly refused to abide the captain’s wish to eventually inform his son about his biological father.

As for the doctor, like Mercedes, he rarely maintained eye contact with the captain and his men. When facing Captain Vidal, he tucked in his chin to protect his exposed throat, which means the doctor was ‘hiding.’ He often spoke in short sentences or uttered one-worded answers indirectly. His final act of disobedience and rebel turned out to be his last. He stood up against the captain and turned his back on him. Captain Vidal consequently fatally shot him.

The faun’s meeting with the girl for the first time was carefully thought and planned out. He was sure not to be too up close and personal with Ofelia. To gain her trust so she could perform the tasks, he could not ‘invade’ her personal bubble. For the third and final task, he pretended to want the baby but since Ofelia had to refuse and offered herself instead. The faun transformed his body language from being gentle to being rough. He intentionally popped the bubble be getting in Ofelia’s face to create discomfort for the frightened girl. That ultimately led to Ofelia making the right decision after all.

Through disobedience and body language, one might learn that the world wouldn’t be able to revolve with out the two factors.

Purdue OWL Website

The Purdue OWL website is a credible source in assisting you in understanding and improving your writing. I feel this webpage should act as a huge role in your writing whether you need to write a ten-page research paper or a simple five-paragraph essay for your history class. It clearly states what your thesis should look like, what is too broad or what is too narrow. Warrants, claims, and rebuttals are all factors to support your thesis.

So should Gallaudet University follow this website? Yes. Not just Gallaudet University but every other university there are in this world. It should be the unwritten rubric for every single piece of writing. This website should be used as a guide because it inevitably applies to every writing rubric ever made.

The Gallaudet University’s Writing Rubric covers only five aspects of writing; assignment formatting and citing, written English conventions, critical thinking, organization of ideas, and author’s personal tone and audience awareness. Purdue University’s Writing Rubric includes all of those aspects and provides an explicit explanation for each one. Whereas the Gallaudet University’s Writing Rubric looks weaker in comparison: there is no mention of warrants, evidence, or rebuttals. They are crucially critical when it comes to writing.

In my experience, I always have had a difficult time writing mainly because I never know if my thesis is good enough or if my arguments are strong enough to support my claim. I was never taught to use a counterclaim or rebuttals to make my thesis stronger. After reading this website, I feel more confident in my writing as I will continue to use the Purdue University’s Writing Rubric, as well as Gallaudet University’s Writing Rubric.

Another aspect of the Purdue University’s Writing Rubric that I liked was that it included logos, ethos, and pathos (as mentioned in the Lunsford book). I feel it is extremely critical to have those three factors incorporated in every piece of writing. In the Purdue University’s Writing Rubric is the perfect combination of Gallaudet University’s Writing Rubric and Chapters Two to Four in the Lunsford et al. 2007 book. When logos, ethos, and pathos are used, the writing automatically become a stronger piece and it will connect with the readers more intimately. The readers will grasp a better concept with your writing.

Frankly, I am envious of the students at Purdue University because they must be writing their papers with such ease while the students of the rest of the world are struggling. Purdue University deserves to be praised for their Writing Rubic because it is transparent that a lot of thought and time were dedicated in making this perfect rubric.

Pan's Labyrinth- del Toro's Greatest Creation

Well, I must say this film absolutely blew me away. ..

Pan’s Labyrinth is an interesting and spooky story set against the backdrop of a fascist regime in countryside Spain in 1944.

Right from the start, the film contained ‘out-there’ colors and bizarre angles, you would know that this movie would not be like any other movie you’ve ever seen. Pan’s Labyrinth includes kooky twists of children’s fairy tales and it definitely breaks numerous general ‘film rules.’

The film centered on Ophelia, a pre-teen girl, who was just a bit ‘imaginative.’Her mother married and is impregnated by a hard-headed, fascist captain in the midst of a civil war in Spain. So Ophelia and her mother moved to an old farm house located in the middle of a forest surrounded by a group of rebels.

Ophelia often wandered from reality and walked into a world of fairies and unicorns. That all changed when fantasy became reality as Ophelia found a weird-shaped rock that belonged in a totem of stone. Her discovered rock was the final piece to the puzzle and from there the entire challenge unraveled.

With a natural instinct to always disobey, Ophelia found herself in an ancient world where she had to complete three tasks so she could return home as the long lost princess. As the film went on, she completed those tasks with huge obstacles in the way. She had to face a gross, overweight frog and a child-eating mutilated being.

In the end, she was murdered by her step-father, the Captain, and ultimately was freed from her currant body and her soul traveled back to where it belonged. The ancient, mysterious world.

This film had many metaphors, abstract meanings, and parallels to the bible. It is quite impossible to come up with one solution or answers every single little detail in the movie. Even after a few times of watching the movie, you still would not obtain only one answer. A huge part in this is definitely the theme; disobedience. If everyone followed orders and did what they were told, the plot would not be possible and the world would be a boring place.

Ophelia, among a few others (Mercedes, the doctor, the rebels, etc) went with their gut instinct with every decision opportunity presented. Ophelia chose to ignore her mother and ran off to the labyrinth to complete her tasks, and Mercedes ignored the Captain and aided the rebels hidden in the trees.

Color played a huge role in this film. In the beginning, the movie started out having a normal color contrast until after Ophelia completed her first task. Every day was a rainy day ever since. This may see like a minor thing but in actuality it is major. The film continued to use dark colors until the very end when Ophelia dies. That was when the movie made a complete one eighty turn to a scene with bright and super bold colors.

It's hard to have a personal engagement in this one. I never was into 'fairy tales' growing up so I never had much of an imagination. In no way can I ever relate to Ophelia in her bravery. But Ophelia and I do have something similar; we disobey when we feel the need to. If the Captain was my step-father, I probably would be the first person to be murdered.

Overall, this movie was very interesting.. actually... the word ‘interesting’ doesn’t even cut it, doesn’t even describe a portion of this film. Pan’s Labyrinth requires a lot of analysis (the bigger the group, the better) and abstract thinking. del Toro is a pure genius and he has a lot of guts to make a movie of this caliber.