REVIEW
Pan's Labyrinth & Wicker Man
by Morgause Fontleve
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
This is a supernatural cinematographic masterpiece in the same genre and league as the original Wizard of Oz, stars a completely Spanish/Mexican cast, and sports so much subtitles that (try as they may) just cannot spoil the grand atmosphere created by the picturesque setting and expertly designed sets that catapult one inside this vacuum of a world where the mundane and the magic hold hands.
This film boats of haunting melancholy, a dark thread of wonder running through the weave of 1940's post-civil war Spain under Franco's fascist rule of tyranny, hunger, violence, sickness and propaganda. In it we are able to recognize the face of meanness and cruelty of the meticulous, militant, fanatical human, the colourless, dreary reality of the rigidity of a home in the grips of military rule, as opposed to the candour of the childlike soul that believes in fairies, fauns, quests and magical cures.
The movie furthermore deals with the subject of "weak" mothers who sacrifice their own and their children's freedom in the name of two lies: "companionship" and "safety". It also touches on subjects such as the moving loyalty to Cause and Kin, the glory of a political struggle that runs parallel to another between the surreal and the real, which can’t be but of inspiration to the Pagan viewer.
Pan's Labyrinth finally affords one the glimpse into how the nobility of spirit triumphs over illusion, transcending life into immortality, when the young heroine chooses self-sacrifice above that of an innocent infant brother and is returned to the Realm of Magic and Family from whence she came a long, long time ago.
Written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro this beautiful and powerful multiple award-winning film is without a doubt a spell-binding fable for adults.
Wicker Man (2006)
This is the ill-documented 2006 Hollywood remake of the 1973 British cult classic by the same name. It was written and directed by Neil La Bute and stars Nicholas Cage and Ellen Burstyn, amongst others.
Edward Malus (Cage) is a motorcycle cop who is suffering from post traumatic disorder. He hears from his ex-fiancé that her daughter is missing and decides to go to the mysterious Summersile, in the Pacific Northwest, to assist in finding the little girl. Malus discovers that the isle is a cult community of women living the Pagan life. They are primarily bee farmers. The women are all named after trees and flowers and are addressed as "sister this or that". In this community men are quasi invisible and most definitely subservient to the evil, feminist shrews practicing the ancient Goddess religion. Our Sad Sack cop is allergic to bees and the buzzing of bees spells out tragedy.
The movie abounds in Pagan imagery; the Triple Goddess symbol, a maypole in the school yard, ritual masks, the community drinks mead at the Green Man Inn, the abundant bee-hive motifs, the talk about "The Day of the Dead" festivities as well as other Pagan rituals, a close up shot of the Full Moon the night preceding the festival.
Edward Malus begins to experience discomfort in this terrible and awe-inspiring matriarchy. His increasing suspicion is that the little girl has not disappeared but has been earmarked for the Beltane fire ritual.
Unaware that he is being manipulated by the local inhabitants, Malus eventually manages to find and save the little girl, but she leads him straight into the Pagan mob’s arms where he is assaulted, his legs broken and covered by bees which sting him. A crazed woman then gives him a shot of adrenaline to "spare him" (after the allowance for a short spell of suffering through anaphylaxis) for the Wicker Man fire sacrifice. Malus’ own daughter lights the sacrificial fire to ensure a good honey harvest the following year.
Hollywood has managed to make Goddess worshippers look like cruel Amazons who do not hesitate to sacrifice someone in order to obtain a better crop. The men, far from being the noble warrior types, are brow-beaten wimps without a voice, as the Goddess worshippers have cruelly removed their men’s tongues. Young girls in school are taught that men are just "phallic symbols" and the young boys (who survive birth in this isle of women) do not get any education whatsoever. The entire male population is kept solely for hard labour and procreation. They are slaves and victims, not men, and are accorded no dignity as such. This Pagan society is fashioned on the working dynamics of a bee-hive … males are worker bees. The drone gets disposed of once the brood is ensured.
From Caesar’s account we know the wicker man was used to offer sacrifice to the gods. The victims were usually animals and criminals sentenced to death, as well as a variety of grains that would have pleased the gods.
The burning of something is indeed one of the oldest forms of Pagan worship and method of reconnecting with the all. They represent the fires of inner change and transformation, as well as the Lord Sun, who with His return fertilizes the Goddess, so that all can thrive and survive.
They say that a little knowledge is dangerous. This movie proves it! The film makers’ main reference was Frazer’s 'The Golden Bough' and the biased writings of Julius Caesar … and it transpires!
This film is nothing other than a desperate attempt at having fundamental anti-Pagan morality revived. It is a denial of all we stand for! Pagans are guilty of tearing down the house of God and of "drowning" the crucified Christ in his crypt. It makes a mockery of our sacred rites and festivals and punts the belief that Pagan women use men for procreation and hard labour only, that men and women aren’t equal amongst those who practice the Old Ways, that Goddess worshippers are cruel, that harming others comes natural to Pagans, that Pagans kill, don’t call it murder, but self-sacrifice instead.
This movie promotes the belief that Pagans abort and bottle fetuses and baby boys, that Pagan women are secretive, lying and conniving reflections of the Paradisiacal Eve, that women are fed royal honey and men (as second rate citizens) are fed only sugar which is harmful. It promotes the idea that Pagan society is mechanical and clinical and that Love is considered to be a force used only for manipulation and which find its sole end in procreation.
It encourages the belief that our magical traditions consist of the cutting off of others’ body parts and sinister-looking books of spells, that Pagan women would kill and mutilate bodies, that violence is admissible in Pagan society, that the bloody and defunct practice of the Wicker Man is still a current and common practice among Neo-Pagans.
Forget it! Nothing could be further from the Pagan Truth! What remains of that ancient custom is only the wicker man himself.
It is clear that La Bute is a misogynist who stills soils his rods at the thought of his domineering Mummy subjugating his pitiful mute and cowering Daddy over Sunday tea. He has failed to digest his own abortive progenitors and regurgitates his own discontent at his familial horror on the viewers who seek naught but entertainment and sincerity in the masked maze of his failed piece de resistance.
In the original movie the authority was Lord Sumersisle and it was the fertility of his apple orchards that had to be restored through human sacrifice. The Isle of Apples refers to none other than the Isle of Avalon. In the Hollywood version, the misogynistic insult is even closer to home … the authoritative perpetrator of evil is made woman! The cop, Edward Malus (which means apple in Latin), discovers he is the father of the missing girl and dresses himself up as a bear and runs through the forest with the child in his arms. She betrays him and he is destined to face the poison of the "blessed bees". He is spared by a shot of adrenaline just to be hoisted up into the Wicker Man. His own daughter lights the sacrificial fire. Screaming, he burns to death (a direct parody of the burning times) as the Pagan crowd looks on in a mixture of triumphant glee and the madness of blind faith so atypically Pagan.
We believe it no coincidence that the symbols of the Mother Goddess are portrayed in this film as instruments of evil and the tools which bring about death. It is also no coincidence that all women have the names of trees and flowers and that they, representing Mother Nature, are equated with evil and the enemy. It subliminally intimates that Nature is destructive and lacking in balance and that women and Nature need to be subjugated, controlled or destroyed.
Lastly, did Nicholas Cage feel he had to redeem his idiotic Catholic ass after being portrayed as "the bounty hunter for the Devil" in Ghost Rider? Well, this movie was a box-office failure and Mr. Cage lost the respect of many a fan when he started kicking and boxing women around whilst maintaining this vulnerable whipped-puppy look bigots are so good at putting on.
It has been mentioned that it is important to remember that the "Wicker Man" is a movie and not a documentary on Paganism. I find however that it perpetuates the ignorance of all things Pagan. It encourages nescience and imbalance and makes a mockery of what is sacred to us. I find it offensive and hardly entertaining!
CONTACT MORGAUSE FONTLEVE
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