The Devil's Backbone - great film but not the backbone of Guillermo del Toro's works (The Devil's Backbone (DVD))

Member Name: lula71

Product:	The Devil's Backbone (DVD)
Date:	27/02/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great intertwining of story lines, emotive and enlists our sympathy.

Disadvantages: Subtitling isn't always at its best

The Devil's Backbone or El espinazo del diablo is for me rather like the older, but potentially slightly less accomplished sister of Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth or El laberinto del fauno. Like Pan's Labyrinth however, it offers an incredibly accomplished intertwining of the supernatural narrative on the surface, and the undercurrents of the story of the Spanish Civil War.

Well, I am going to give a brief outline of the film but forgive me for it will be far less detailed than alot of the film reviews I have read on the internet, as for me there's nothing worse than reading a review only to discover there's not really much point watching the movie anymore as you know everything that will happen, and I don't want to ruin the plot for potential viewers!

The Devil's Backbone offers a poignant insight into the effect of the Spanish Civil War upon those who were caught up in it against their will, specifically women and children. Carlos, a young boy who remaining in blissful ignorance of the fact that his father has been killed, is taken to a remote orphanage run by the one-legged Carmen, and the ageing Casares, and abandoned there by his tutor. In heartbreaking innocence he fruitlessly chases the departing car of his tutor, spilling the contents of his suitcase along the way before accepting his fate and returning to the orphanage with Casares.

The orphanage itself is presented as a comfortless place, with limited resources - it is noted that they can barely afford to feed the children. Carlitos struggles to gain the friendship of the fellow boys who are governed by the adolescent bully Jaime yet he soon begins to realise that everything at the orphanage is not as it seems, that a vengeful spirit of a young boy, Santi, "el que suspira," has created fear among the inhabitants.

The narrative is however highly complex with several different storylines interwoven, a love triangle between the adults in charge, the ghost of Santi, Carlos's struggle to be accepted by the other boys, and the Spanish Civil War, of which the archetype of an unexploded bomb in the courtyard is a permanent reminder.

The effects are simplistic, and this adds to the chilling character of the film, it has a clear essence of reality about it, which is a complete contrast to Pan's Labyrinth, and which is rather a benefit than fault. However, it is not a film to cause sleepless nights - it enlists our sympathy rather than fear.

The cast are however second to none, with Fernando Tielve giving an incredible performance inthe role of Carlos and Eduardo Noriega, as Jacinto, demonstrating his ability to play diverse roles, I didn't even recognise him as being César from 'Abre los Ojos'.

But about the DVD itself... I bought this as part of the Guillermo del Toro trilogy comprising Pan's Labyrinth and Cronos besides, at what seemed to me a good price of around £19 but you can undoubtedly find it cheaper if you shop around - I have recently seen it on amazon for around £13 for the three film boxset. It is a Spanish language DVD which offers subtitles in English. What I found disappointing was that it doesn't offer Spanish subtitles, a feature that would be great if you were learning the language. In all honesty, as I find with most subtitled films, the subs could have been better translated - I felt a degree of the sentiment was lost through translations that were far less emotive in English than they are in the Spanish dialogue. However, this is an unavoidable problem with subtitling and the film doesn't suffer too dramatically as a result of this.

In general I would say this film is well worth watching, especially for a student of Hispanic studies, or someone with prior knowledge of Spanish as I feel it works far better in Spanish than through the English subtitles. I am not sure I would deem it a horror movie as it is rather more chilling than scary and ultimately you are led to sympathise with all involved. The ghost in itself is unsettling yet ultimately the true fear comes from the witnessed corruption of childhood innocence.

Overall an enjoyable watch, but I feel Pan's Labyrinth would appeal more to the masses, you just can't help feeling that The Devil's Backbone was produced on rather a small budget and might not have enough variety of settings and action to appeal to everyone.

Summary: Well worth a watch but probably not as dramatic as Pan's Labyrinth