1. hardwired7

   Oct 12, 2012

   10

   This movie moved me deeply in 2006, and hasn't stopped moving me since. The final scene is playing on a perpetual loop in the background of my mind. It is a canonical work of art.… Expand

   • 10 of 11 users found this helpful
2. LaurenU

   Jul 20, 2007

   10

   Very good movie, very compelling. And to say that I claimed it was good simply because someone told me it was is a lie. I can think for myself and watch a good movie. And yes critics usually rate foreign films high, but look at the sheer originality of those films, my opinion is that a lot of american directors either take a book and make a terrible movie, take a play and make a decent movie, or remake a foreign film and everyone loves it.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
3. HarryP.

   Jan 13, 2007

   10

   When the films of 2006 are talked about, years from now, this will be seen as the Everest among the foothills of the piedmont.

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
4. Jeveuzac

   Jul 21, 2013

   10

   Una película espectacular, divertida, reflexiva, entretenida.
   Es grandiosa de principio a fin. Sin duda de lo mejor que he visto en mi vida yy la mejor pelicula que ha hecho Guillermo… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
5. Matt

   May 20, 2007

   9

   Everyone who has been criticizing this movie, with the interesting exception of K Henderson, is simply too stupid to understand it. Go see Spiderman. Henderson brings up interesting points, notably the plot holes (what motivated the General to kill the little girl? That should have been developed a little more. I'd be interested to see what other holes you found.) Also, it's hard because the main character is an 11 year old girl who did phenominally, but still just can't be expected to develop the on screen complexity of an adult. I'll address a few people's stupid issues at this time: 1. PnArdy--art is not supposed to be entertaining. It's supposed to be beautiful. You're obviously not Spanish, so the facists mean nothing to you, but it dominates the psyches of most Spaniards born before 1975 (including my current teacher.) It is one of the most profound horrors in human history, even if it is almost entirely overlooked by Americans. 2. P E--the ending is not a cop out. It shows that peace and the ability to resist facism, as represented by the girl who disobeyed her facist leader, is only a fantasy. The reality is all those rebels are going to die within 24 hours. It's actually one of the most profound endings I've ever seen. 3. E R--the characters are not one dimensional entirely. Why does Mercedes continue to serve the captain instead of fighting with her brother? Why does the mother allow the captain to dominate her and why does she crush her girl's fantasies? Why does the girl decide to eat the grapes? One dimensional characters would not do such things. Admittedly, there is little moral gray area within the characters (except the mother, who is not evil but is considered worthy of death, apparently, for her passivity, which is one of the strongest and most powerful messages of the entire movie.) However, the movie is an allegory. Allegories are not meant to have much gray area. Also, the fact that the fantasy world was unpleasant until the end is the point of the allegory (fantasy=facism except in the fantasy land, when the girl disobeys she is exalted and lives while in real life she dies.) It is actually one of the most difficult films to interpret I've ever seen. I've had to think about it for half an hour and write about it. 4. Doug R--go see Spiderman. Not going to go on. Basically, one must know a lot about the Spanish Civil War to appreciate this movie, and one must be willing to understand the allegory.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
6. DanB.

   Jan 23, 2007

   7

   Very well done, executed, written, etc. (With the exception of one markedly goofy cow-milking scene.) In the end, though, it left me cold. Can't say why, really. I just didn't much care. Still, it's very impressive and in many parts entertaining, and I wish more movies were as inventive and unafraid of being different.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
7. TonyL

   Jan 10, 2007

   0

   Although I do not think this movie is a zero, I want to decrease the bloated score of this film as much as possible. I am left utterly confused by the many critic and reader high scores. What movie did you see, am I blind, have I lost my sensibility, am I or you in some way deluded? Is there an invisible wave of totalitarian group think affecting all the high scorers where a few high scores compel others to fool themselves into thinking that something is simply profound that attempts to make a profound statement. For how can you not love a movie that critiques Fascism and compares the violence of the real world with the violence of fantasy world. OOOOHHH that must be so profound, how creative and genius he must be to associate these two worlds. I gathered little or nothing from this, and his metaphor was as bloated as the critic scores were. Maybe that's it, people do not want nuance and want a metaphor, an image, and violence to smack them upside the head. It provokes little thought and only near the end when the band of brother comrades ambush the fascists and kill them in the execution style of the captain did I think, yes, that is it even the communist who pretend to be liberators and on the side of the good, participate in the same violence as the fascists. We are all potentially fascists, no one is safe, even in the fantasy world. Although del toro maybe hints at this, he leaves us mostly with his one-dimensional carictaured approach to a time in spanish history that was filled with ambiguity, violence, and tore a country and people apart which resonates to this day and continues to divide and be an issue for spaniards in 2007. At the end I was barely moved and was left numb not by the obvious but by a with-what-did-I-miss daze that everyone else so clearly seemed to see in this supposed beautiful, thought-provoking movie. A movie in the end that is neither a good fairy-tale or insight into the spanish civil war or human nature.… Expand

   • 0 of 8 users found this helpful

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