The Devil’s Backbone (2001)
Devil's Backbone (2001) - source: Sony Pictures Classics
The Devil's Backbone (2001) - source: Sony Pictures Classics
Del Toro's next film is The Devil's Backbone, a dense and politically charged ghost story set during the Spanish Civil War, features one of the most haunting opening sequences in modern cinema:
Fade in. The camera moves toward a darkened doorway. "What is a ghost?" a voice asks. "A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again?" We enter the blackness of the doorway, and suddenly the blackness is disrupted as a set of doors open, and we watch from above a bomb falls to a rainy landscape pitted with explosive craters. The doors close, and we are returned to blackness.
The Devil's Backbone is …show more content…
Hellboy, a seemingly unrelated piece of trans-dimensional baggage, is adopted by paranormal expert Trevor Bruttenholm and raised as a human. Hellboy grows at an acclerated rate, and is soon conducting missions for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, Bruttenholm's secret agency that combat paranormal threats. "There are things that go bump in the night," John Hurt's Bruttenholm explains, "and we are the ones who bump back."
Hellboy' his central character arc is pure Del Toro: he is both powerful and vulnerable, a tragic monster searching for his better self. Hellboy's narrative, and much of its humor, revolves around his constant struggle for integration. (He files the horns on his forehead so he'll 'fit in.') Hellboy is driven by the approval of his adopted father, but curious about his demonic nature. The conflict intensifies when Hellboy begins to learn about the purpose of his enormous, stone hand.
Though Del Toro's changes to the narrative leave rob the film of Mignola's brooding sensibilities, Hellboy captures the cosmic struggle and absurd appeal of the title character. Ron Perlman is perfectly cast, and provides a gruff, lovable performance that sets his character apart from the cavalcade of mid 2000s comic
Devil's Backbone (2001) - source: Sony Pictures Classics
The Devil's Backbone (2001) - source: Sony Pictures Classics
Del Toro's next film is The Devil's Backbone, a dense and politically charged ghost story set during the Spanish Civil War, features one of the most haunting opening sequences in modern cinema:
Fade in. The camera moves toward a darkened doorway. "What is a ghost?" a voice asks. "A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again?" We enter the blackness of the doorway, and suddenly the blackness is disrupted as a set of doors open, and we watch from above a bomb falls to a rainy landscape pitted with explosive craters. The doors close, and we are returned to blackness.
The Devil's Backbone is …show more content…
Hellboy, a seemingly unrelated piece of trans-dimensional baggage, is adopted by paranormal expert Trevor Bruttenholm and raised as a human. Hellboy grows at an acclerated rate, and is soon conducting missions for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, Bruttenholm's secret agency that combat paranormal threats. "There are things that go bump in the night," John Hurt's Bruttenholm explains, "and we are the ones who bump back."
Hellboy' his central character arc is pure Del Toro: he is both powerful and vulnerable, a tragic monster searching for his better self. Hellboy's narrative, and much of its humor, revolves around his constant struggle for integration. (He files the horns on his forehead so he'll 'fit in.') Hellboy is driven by the approval of his adopted father, but curious about his demonic nature. The conflict intensifies when Hellboy begins to learn about the purpose of his enormous, stone hand.
Though Del Toro's changes to the narrative leave rob the film of Mignola's brooding sensibilities, Hellboy captures the cosmic struggle and absurd appeal of the title character. Ron Perlman is perfectly cast, and provides a gruff, lovable performance that sets his character apart from the cavalcade of mid 2000s comic