Pan's Labrynth

#21 Righto, but taken in the aggregate, that's a lot of blood and gore and violence packed into two hours!

This was a bloody, violent, unsettling movie -- but I agree, it was intended to further the storyline, and not just gratuitous Tarantino-style mayhem.

(Uh-oh, I dropped Tarantino's name... is that the cue to start a new debate?)

#22 This film is being praise by film makers as a return to art for film which is so often only interested in selling tickets and dvds. It's violent, it's tragic and the fantasy is just a way the girl copes. Watch the movie and think about what the fantasy really is. It's not mindless... it's a metaphor for what is happening around the girl and it's her way of figuring out what she's going to do about it. It's american counter-part is probably K-Pax.

#23 I will say Hostel was way more pointless than Pans labyrinth. Witch, funny enough , has nothing to do with pan, it was just that the translation from "The Labyrinth of the Faun" went over better as Pans, as i guess they thought most americans would not know what a faun is...and it seems to be showing. lol.

#24 If you take it in aggregate, you missed the movie, i do not read, watch or view art in aggregate.

#25 You could drop Rodriguez as well. He and Quentin cut their teeth on ultra-violence and aren't shy to mention it. Robert R. wanted to make children's films and violent movies. He's pretty much doing just what he set out to do. We could also talk about how unhappy Kubrick was that the last chapter of Clockwork Orange was not released in the US until after filming was complete on the film. Especially since it completely and totally changed the story arch and had a more complete impact. Not that Burgess considers it his best work anyway...

#26 @Blake L.: Yes, reading is required for this one, but it's worth it!

@David: Well said! I read old-school Grimm's tales when I was child, and they were extraordinarily bloodthirsty when compared to pastel Disney fare. Pan's Labyrinth was much closer to those tales, and while the characters were fairly simple, I think the moral of the story was more shadowy and complex than any given Grimm's tale.

#27 Hostel was rather pointless. That wasn't the point. It was that I felt that the level of brutality in Pan had more impact.

Pan came before fauns. Pan was a Greek god. When Rome rose and absorbed the Greek pantheon, Fauns came about. Not that it matters, really.

#28 I think that the even the creator of Hostel would not want his movie to be compared with Pan's Labrynth. lol.

#29 @David

Stop talking smart in here. This is a game development thread! Turn off the brain. Game developers are all idiots or 40 year old virgins didn't you know!

#30 I could compare Anthropophagus since baby eaters were brought up. That would be even more fun than Hostel. Except that more people have seen Hostel and consider it a brutal gorefest...which was why I compared it to others' comments.

#31 "Pan came before fauns. Pan was a Greek god. When Rome rose and absorbed the Greek pantheon, Fauns came about. Not that it matters, really."

Not sure that's right. As Saters, Pan, Puck, and Fauns are all, depending on time frame, the same creature, just different ...... people? Pan is a Faun, is my point. A Faun is not pan, a Faun is a creature. Now, depending on if you read Roman, Greek, and yes, Russian mythos, they are different tempered creatures.


And im trying to put my finger on "The Pale man", while i understand the write/director says he "Made him up", its very similar to another creature of history...right down to his dwelling, the murals, and the "Temptation" aspect. (and the baby eating)

#32 I thought the 'Pale Man' scene was one of the best in the movie, loved the mood, loved the setting. Can I ask which creature of history it is similar too?

#33 Pan was a Greek God of Nature while Fauns (Roman) were forest spirits that had the physical traits of Pan. Satyrs were fertility spirits/entities that were often in the company of Pan. You can read some of the extant Satyr Plays by Euripides and Sophocles. You could read the extant Greek plays in a manageable time frame. Somewhat less manageable than reading the complete works of Shakespeare, though.

I'm not sure on the pale man. There are a number of greed stories. Jason (of the Argonauts fame) either kill or chase away harpies that are guarding a table laden with food.

EDIT:
It would be a bit of a stretch for Hansel and Gretel, though the theme is similar.

EDIT 2:
The production design on the pale man was similar to Clive Barker's Cenobites from Hellraiser, however. That was something that instantly popped into my head when I saw the scene.

#34 I loved the Pale Man segment. The first thing that sprang to mind for me was the underworld myths, specifically Hades. Persephone ate the pomegranate seeds, and was condemned to live in the hellish underworld. Ofelia ate the grapes, and was condemned to live out her life in the hellish mortal world.

#35 Why do mortals always eat forbidden fruit?

#36 Because it's forbidden, of course.

And why is it always fruit? Why not the Forbidden Cheeseburger, or the Forbidden Pop-Tart?

#37 Fat Tommy looked at the grill. He had been on a diet since his mother watched a special on Dateline about childhood obesity and his tumbly was extra-rumbly today. The needle-teeth of the slug-squirming mouth inches above the sesame seeded cheeseburger of perfection. Fat Tommy looked left and right at the thorny tentacles flexing and oozing some thick and sticky brackish fluid.

It seemed safe.

Fat Tommy reached his fingers towards the burger, the dreamy patty beckoning him as the teeth parted and the tentacles slithered to embrace him...

#38 There was a forbidden donut on the Simpsons.

#39 Doh! nuts! or the pastry?

#40 Doh-nut.... sacralicious...