Destination Unknown

Few gripes out of the way first:

Pan’s Labyrinth can probably be considered one of the best movies of the last
year, and Bridge to Terabithia for this year so far, yet they
both lasted for only a week in the theaters of our country
(Philippines)?! Damn you big-budgeted Hollywood blockbusters for revolting and cobweb-bing
(if you catch my drift) theaters everywhere and supplanting movies
that
are far, far superior!

And Damn publicity! What’s with giving misleading trailers of Pan’s Labyrinth
and Bridge to Terabithia? Both of these movies focus more on the personal lives
and drama of their leads, and yet their previews made them out to be just another Narnia-cum-Potter
action fantasy Version 3.0? See, this is exactly the reason why my lazy "film
critic" friend had, so casually, cast off both films as just inferior
versions of Harry Potter (without ever seeing both; what an idiot!). Way to have no
idea what he’s talking about.

Anyway, I’ve been having a Walter Mitty movies fix lately. Who? What Walter
Mitty? Walter Mitty is a fictional character that has become very famous (and either
much beloved or much maligned) that his name has been included in the dictionary, and
is defined as an ordinary, timid person who is given to adventurous
and self-aggrandizing daydreams or secret plans as a way of glamorizing a
humdrum life. Snoopy from the Peanuts comics is a good example of
someone with a Walter Mitty complex. The protagonists of movies such as Big Fish
and Finding Neverland also display prominent Walter Mittyish
characteristics. I also used to imagine myself as a sort of secret agent
exposing conspiracy theories within the hallways of Chiang Kai Shek College.
But, well, enough self-aggrandizing; let’s veer the attention away from myself
for once.

The two most recent Walter Mitty films from memory are Pan’s Labyrinth
and Bridge to Terabithia. Unlike all those aforementioned films and
characters (including myself), both films include protagonists that use their
imagination as an escape, instead of simply a glamorizing, to their lives.

In Pan’s, Ofelia (the protagonist) is thrust into a Kapitan Vidal’s (her
stepfather) manor where both of them can monitor Carmen (her mother) giving birth
to Vidal’s child. Taking place on Civil War Spain, fascist Kapitan Vidal
defends himself from Republican resistance groups, while also being
irrepressibly cruel to everyone — including his wife’s doctor, and his maids
(especially Mercedez, the movie’s other protagonist).

Mercedez’s faces tremendous pressure as a maid who has to serve a master
she so thoroughly despises and has to keep watch of both Ofelia and her mom.
She tries to curb kapitan’s cruelty (with little to no success) while
cushioning Ofelia’s from tough times (again, with little to no success).

If Mercedez is Ofelia’s link to reality, then the faun is Ofelia’s link to
fantasy. Ofelia sees fairylike creatures and later careens to a deep labyrinth in
the forest outside the manor. A faun appears and informs Ofelia that she came
from another world, is indeed Princess Moanna, and has to fulfill three tasks
in order to come back.

The movie never tells you if Ofelia’s visions of fairies and frightening
creatures are real or not, and her actions in her journey never have any direct
consequences to the real world. What is clear is that this journey gives Ofelia
hope that she can receive freedom from all the havoc her stepfather is
responsible of creating. For each and every test, Ofelia learns a lesson that
bears a striking resemblance to the parables from world’s religions. Yes,
common sensibilities will tell us that living on a fantasy are a destructive
way of dealing with problems. Think of this for a minute, then: People — even
creatures — in this movie suffer in some of the worst way possible, like having
a feet sawed off, being killed by being hit repeatedly in the head with a water
container, and having the side of the mouth cut so wide open it had to be
stitched (consider this also a disclaimer at the movie’s violence; it’s
definitely not for the kids and the weak at heart). Can you, then, blame Ofelia
if you consider that she’s young, helpless, and lacks the ability and maturity
to make sense of her forlorn circumstances?

If in Pan’s the character’s fantasy is a defense mechanism for someone
subject to the most atrocious form of cruelty, then in Bridge to Terabithia the
fantasy works as a defense mechanism to the problems of everyday people. Unlike
Ofelia of Pan’s (we probably don’t live under a dictatorial captain’s manor),
Jesse’s problems are something most of us have experienced: bullies, annoying
siblings, unappreciated skills, finances and boredom with the world in general.
His life receives a turnaround when Leslie becomes his new neighbor and his new
classmate.

While Jesse is a talented artist, Leslie is a talented writer. In spite (or
maybe because) of their talents, both of them are actually considered the
school’s loners, cast out by classmates and bullies who are very likely not as
intelligent. They differ in their attitude and perspective of the real world;
Jesse allows the real world to bother him. And, well, we can all say that
Leslie has her own optimism, is very imaginative and probably slightly crazy.

Jesse is initially annoyed with Leslie when she tries to befriend him. One
day however, they race to a creek inside the forest and find a rope that Leslie
believes can swing them across to another world. When they have swung across,
Leslie lets her imagination run wild, by declaring a derelict tree house as
their tower, and that they are King and Queen entrusted with the responsibility
to protect their dominion, which Leslie
calls Terabithia, and to defeat some kind of Dark Master. 

Jesse starts to believe her, not because he sees with his own eyes the things
Leslie has imagined, but because he sees them with a shared imagination. It
gives him a good-natured kind of enjoyment. And why not? It’s not everyday when
we see someone creating his/her own imaginative world and has the will to share
such experiences with others. Leslie sure has (and I sure don’t). Never waste the opportunity to be with someone who thinks outside the box; the world is full of corporate-speaking, youtube-watching, iPod-listening,
Macbook-touting, Starbucks-drinking and reality-TV-gossiping dull duds.

Everyday, after school, Jesse and Leslie go to Terabithia to solve
different problems: sometimes mundane, sometimes fantastic. They try to fend
off annoying squirrels, find ways to stop their school’s bullies, and defeat
giant trolls. While all of this is happening, they have become best friends.
They also assimilate the positive traits of each other: Jesse being encouraged
to be more open about his artistic skills and to become more courageous, and
Leslie being encouraged to deal with her everyday problem with as much aplomb
as how she defeats giant trolls.

And this is the point where I have to stop describing the plot details lest
spoilers become aplenty. People who have read the book probably know what I’m talking
about. When denouement kicks in, one suddenly realize that any initial
predictions of the movie’s tone is untrue. The best quality of Bridge is that
it avoids Hollywood conventions and does not squirm from delivering what
reality really could.

Indeed, both movies have similar motifs. Both of them use similar
approaches in teaching sensible lessons that one could understand, perhaps,
only if they view the world differently. The characters
in both movies choose to view the world and deal with it by crafting an imagined one; by the end of both films, viewers might wish to be transported in the
same imaginary realms. This is not just simply because these realms are wonderfully imagined, but also because the experiences in them parallel the experiences in real world and, therefore, they are suggestive of a solution (because there always is a solution to any life’s problems). If this may justify the Walter Mitty complex, we learn
from both movies that fantasy has about as much to teach us as reality.

Besides,
aren’t movies a kind of an escape too?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 7:52 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.