"To all the monsters in my nursery, may you never leave me alone."
- Guillermo del Toro. Guillermo del Toro Gómez was born on the 9th of October of 1964, in the largest city of the Mexican state of Jalisco, Guadalajara. He is an Academy Award-winning director, actor and special effects makeup artist best known for his fantasy films like The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, The Book Of Life and The Shape Of Water. The critically acclaimed work The Devil's Backbone was co-written, produced and directed by Del Toro Gómez in 2001 and tells the story of a inauspicious orphanage with many dark secrets waiting to be uncovered during the final year of the Spanish Civil War.
Figure Nº.1 - The Devil's Backbone - One of the official movie's poster.
Contemporary theorists like Enrique Ajuria Ibarra claim in their academic research that Guillermo del Toro's creation displays a narrative mainly interested in the fantastical element of the tragedy of war instead of showcasing a complete historical accuracy of the Spanish Civil War since "(...) the presence of a ghost is to establish a relationship between fantasy and (...) trauma. The traumatic haunting is the necessary fantasy that sustains the identity of the characters" (Ibarra, E., 2012, p.56-66). Nevertheless, an attentive analysis of the The Devil's Backbone allows the spectator to determine that all the supernatural elements present in the film are there to ideologically represent the broken national identity of Spain. The film begins with a poetic voice-over on the philosophical nature of a ghost and, as visible in the next clip, this voice-over is used to introduce the socio-historical setting of the film and the tragic background of Carlos and his surrounding environment considering he is a "a newly orphaned, ten-year-old prodigy dropped off at the Santa Lucia School by his leftist father's compatriots" (Chun, K. & Del Toro, G., 2002).
Clip Nº.1 - The Devil's Backbone- The film's socio-historical setting.
If the link doesn't work, click here. Additionally, The Devil's Backbone contains numerous detailed scenes where the physical and psychological devastation of the Spanish Civil War is portrayed taking in consideration that Guillermo del Toro acquired many personalized information about this civil war since he "had spent much of his childhood listening to the anecdotes of Republican exiles who had fled Spain after their defeat by the Francoist military in 1939" (Morgan, A., 2017, p.94). These next two scenes land an important factor in the argument on the factual importance of the war considering it shows a nation willing to kill their own citizens simply because they share different doctrines.
Clip Nº.2 - The Devil's Backbone- The assassination of those who defend the Republican ideology.
If the link doesn't work, click here.
Clip Nº.3 - The Devil's Backbone- The attempt of assassination of innocent children.
If the link doesn't work, click here. Santi, the most influential fantasy element of the film, is visually represented in the The Devil's Backbone by a "trace of ectoplasmic blood, footsteps on spilt water and the boy's scratched name still noticeable on the wall, all point to the fact that the spectre is still clinging on to the material and present world" (Ibarra, E., 2012, p.60) since he represents to Guillermo del Toro a mark of "a memory that refuses to be hidden" (Gómez-Castellano, I., 2013, p.2). By comparing Santi's death to Spain's history, the audience realizes that the child is a metaphor for those who innocently lost their lives in the civil war due to the incapacity of people to coexist in a society that embraces people with different principles considering "the basis of the trauma lies in the very act of filling in gaps, of realizing and understanding an initial event that achieves full signification only when it is looked at retrospectively through a filter of subsequent events" (Ibarra, E., 2012, p.63).
Figure Nº.2 - The Devil's Backbone - Junio Valverde's character, Santi.
To conclude, Guillermo del Toro Goméz's 2001 film The Devil's Backbone relies, in terms of genre, on supernatural elements to fit the moulds of the Gothic horror film it intends to be inserted in but the ultimate motor of the story is the accurate representation of the Spanish Civil War in order to understand the past, heal the present and build a better future. Word Count: 460. Reference List: - Chun, K. & Del Toro, G. (2002). What is a Ghost?: An Interview with Guillermo del Toro. Cinéaste, 27(2), 28. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2uTInHV. - Del Toro, G. (2001). The Devil's Backbone [Film]. Spain: El Deseo, Tequila Gang, Sogepaq, S.A. - Gómez-Castellano, I. (n.d.). Lullabies and postmemory: Hearing the ghosts of Spanish history in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno, 2006). Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 14(1), 1–18. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2YSFOnk. - Ibarra, E. A. (2012). Permanent Hauntings: Spectral Fantasies and National Trauma in Guillermo del Toro’s El Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil’s Backbone). Journal of Romance Studies, 12(1), 56–71. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2I6sYg4. - Morgan, A. (2017). Creating Cinematic Esperanto. Film International (16516826), 15(4), 88–103. Retreived from https://bit.ly/2OXzmHj.
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