Evil and Innocence Dwell Within The Human Heart - Del Toro's View of The World

SPOILER ALERT: This entry is filled with spoilers of Cronos, Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth.

Guillermo del Toro is an extraordinary film-maker. He has given a new dimension to horror/fantasy genre. Films like Pan's Labyrinth and Hell Boy have not only been hailed by the critics, but have been immensely popular with the general public as well. Del Toro's genius lies in the fact that in this era of torture porn when extreme violence and gore is equated with horror, he knows that true horror comes not from the supernatural, but from humans. Also, only human's have the true power to counter the evil. His movies have a strong, beating heart which makes the audience truly care for the characters and their fate. That, to me, is one of the acid tests for a good film. When I start to care about the characters, I know that it's a good film.

A very interesting thing about his films is that inspite of being a horror/fantasy film, the duality of good-evil doesn't rest with the supernatural elements. Human beings are the evil ones and the supernatural elements are almost always rather benign. Also, the force of good is represented by human characters. Before I go any further, let me mention the films I am considering here. I am talking about Cronos, Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth. Am not counting Hell Boy here as it's a comic book adaptation and thus the story is not his own. I have not seen any of his other films.

Another strong element in these films is the power of innocence, specifically the innocence of children. We often see things through the eyes of the child and thus, we are forced to adopt the same black & white outlook towards the world. We see things not as cynics but rather with wonder. We believe in the power of good and know that good would triumph in the end, no matter how hopeless it looks. As children, we are forced to confront the adult notions we have built about supernatural and question what we fear. It's not the vampire in Cronos whom we should be afraid of, he is our loveable grandfather! The scary ghost in Devil's Backbone is only a helpless child, crying out to people to help him. The fearsome looking faun in Pan's Labyrinth is really a friend, trying to help us reach our goal.

The evil comes from politics and power. Men with too much power and the endless lust for more create horrors beyond any that a supernatural can dream of! The fight ultimately lies between humans, with the supernatural playing the part of a benign force, helping good. War, especially the Spanish civil war seems to be something Del Toro strongly associates evil with. Both Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth are set around it.

Finally, the end in these films are always tragic but hopeful. This is consistent with the viewpoint of a child, which we assume while watching these films. Inspite of the great tragedies that happen in the end of these 3 films, there is always a ray of hope. The vampire in Cronos is able to rest with his granddaughter, who loves him. The girl in Pan's Labyrinth finds her magic kingdom where she is the princess, even though in this world she is actually dead. Even after the death of so many innocent characters in Devil's Backbone, the remaining orphans make their way out to the town, while the ghost of the doctor watches them from the orphanage with the gun in his hand, ready to protect the children if need be.

God Particle, Conscious Universe & Leaps of Reason

Another non-film article.


A leading daily publishes a weekly spiritual section. Needless to say I rarely read it. But today there was an article on the famous "God Particle". It was written by 3 people. 2 of them are scientists at prominent US universities and the other is a spiritual-inspirational speaker.

The name, God Particle, originally intended as an illustration of its illusive nature, soon became a media darling. I simply call it by its true name, Higgs Boson. Once the name stuck, there were inevitable religious and spiritual connections being drawn to the poor particle. Not surprising really. Religion detests science and scientific methods. Ask a religious person to provide evidence or scientific rationale for his/her god and they would say it's a matter of faith. But, if there is ever the slightest hint of any supernatural phenomenon in the natural world, the religious are the first to become scientists and parade that as evidence for god. Case in point being the infinite images of Virgin Mary and Jesus in a tree trunk, the holy word of Kuran in  cloud formation and the idols of Ganesha drinking milk! Religion picks stuff from science they are comfortable with and denounce the other things which question their faith. So, once the world knew that physicists are looking for something called the "God Particle" and that it is somehow essential to the theories of physics (Most of them had no clue what the theory was and what was the role of Higgs Boson in it), the media started taking interest in it. May be too much interest. The media frenzy we have seen recently over the discovery of Higgs like particle is inspiring, but too many of them were focusing on the God part and not the Particle part.

The article in question did not dwell too much on the science behind the Higgs Boson. Rather, it went on to make some interesting conjectures about the implications of the discovery on science and spirituality. There is no doubt that the discovery is one of the monumental achievements of physics in the last few decades. This gives us a solid ground to build upon. Being more or less sure of the Standard Model, we can now build upon it without the nagging fear of it all crumbling down. Yes, there is always the chance that there would be some flaw in the model and not all the work based upon it would be fruitful. Infact, it is almost inevitable that there would be parts of the theory which would not be universally true. Most of the theories of physics hold true only under specific conditions.

The article, however, went on to point out that the quantum model of the universe has destroyed the solid, classical model and then it made a leap of reason I didn't quite follow. From the quantum model, it went on to talk about the 'obvious' indication for the existence of a universal intelligence. To quote the article, "The Universe evolves, regulates itself, takes creative leaps and exhibits exquisite mathematical rigour and beauty. The hallmarks of intelligence are there, waiting for the next paradigm shift." The article then goes on to say that the word 'intelligence' is tricky in this day because it implies intelligent design. So, to avoid it they called it Consciousness. They are suggesting a Conscious Universe instead of an intelligent one. Bravo!

I agree with most of the sentence, except for 2 parts. One, I don't see any evidence for the universe taking 'Creative Leaps' and second, I don't see the hallmarks of any intelligence. If anything, the statement indicates strongly that there is no intelligence or consciousness dictating the universe. Let us evaluate the points mentioned in the sentence.

It first talks about an evolving universe. That is the surest sign of the absence of a creator/moderator. Evolution is a gradual, slow and uneconomical process. If I was to create a watch (theists love the watch), I will make the watch as perfect as I can. And if I am the omnipotent God, then I would surely make a perfect watch. I will not spend millions of years, making millions of models, each model only a little different (different, not always better) from the previous and 99% of the models so bad that they broke down. That is how evolution works. Why would an intelligent or conscious designer make something with so many trials and errors! His success ratio is worse than the dumbest kid in the school!

The next point in the article is a self regulatory universe. Well, that practically says that there is no need of a God. Self regulation of the universe comes from the laws of nature. The laws themselves are intrinsic parts of the mater and energy that form the universe. If the laws were any different, the universe wouldn't exist in the form it does now. So, there is no need for a God to regulate or create the universe. The natural order of things take care of itself. Once Laplace was explaining the celestial model to Napoleon. When he had finished explaining the things, the great emperor asked Laplace, where was God in his theory. Laplace replied, "I have no need for that hypothesis in the model".

As for taking creative leaps, I see no evidence for that. The universe takes no leaps at all. Things happen gradually and according to the laws of nature. A creative leap would be if one fine morning we wake up to find a new planet in the solar system or a new, totally unique species of animal roaming the earth. That would be a creative leap. Instead, what we see around us is the result of slow and gradual evolution of things, whether celestial or life form. The Universe does not take any creative leaps at all.

Finally, it talks again of the rigorous mathematical laws followed by the universe, which only proves that the universe follows mathematical patterns. It does not imply any divine, intelligent or conscious presence in any way.

The leaps of reason taken in that article were quite huge. They are all prominent scientists, so it's quite possible that I was not able to follow their leaps of reason. But it was written for the general public. Shouldn't they have explained the things more clearly, if they did have any rational link? How do you arrive from the quantum theory to a conscious universe? To me, there is no link.