Reel Politique: Directors Project, Guillermo del Toro
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Guillermo del Toro (9 October 1964, Mexico -)
Ranking: The Near Side of Paradise
Don˜a Lupe (1985, short, and writer)
Geometria (1987, short, and writer)
Hora Marcada (TV series, four episodes, 1988-1989: Invasiô, 1988; Con todo para llevar, 1988; Caminos de Ayer, 1988; Hamburguesas, 1989, and writer)
Cronos (1993, and writer)
Mimic (1997, and writer)
The Devil’s Backbone (2001, and writer)
Blade II (2002)
Hellboy (2004, and writer)
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006, and writer)
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008, and writer)
The Witches (2008, and writer)
Tarzan (2010)
Doctor Strange (2010)
Deadman (2010, and writer)
Champions (2010, and writer)
Saturn and the End of Days (2011, and writer)
The Hobbit (2011)
The Hobbit 2 (2012)
Guillermo del Toro appears to practice cheerfully what prominent directors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, such as John Ford, were forced to endure, that is, alternating profitable crowd pleasers with the more personal projects they were then “permitted” to do. Thus in the case of del Toro, an intended horror hit such as Mimic, made, disastrously, for the Weinstein Brothers (who instructed, by the way, local branch publicists to torment regional reviewers who handed out negative reviews), is followed by del Toro’s supremely polished and ambiguous political-horror thriller, The Devil’s Backbone, which is then followed by the studio assignment and actor vehicle Blade II, and so on. The difference is that del Toro seems to enjoy his genre oriented cartoon movies as much as the serious dramas. He doesn’t discriminate among the films narratively, visually, or morally, , and and ideally nor should the viewer.
His enthusiasm for genre pieces such as Blade II and Hellboy come from his roots in comic book culture and the fantasy make up field. Del Toro comes out of the world of special effects makeup (nine films and TV shows from 1987 to 1995), and as a fantasist he famously keeps a notebook into which he constantly works out new and different creatures, who then go on to populate his creature crowded films. With his first feature, Cronos, del Toro look like a candidate for the kind of odd, intellectual, often gross horror films that create slavish fans as the auteur himself stays mostly under the national radar, toiling in near obscurity as his fans passionately advocate for his work. The terrible Mimic nearly derailed him, but with The Devil’s Backbone, shot in Spain, del Toro revealed an unexpected depth and political sophistication that was to adrenalize his career. His addition to the Blade is widely considered the best of the franchise and did much to solidify that half of his career.
del Toro’s films tend to be about eccentric quests and about how the “underworld” invades the over-world through a porous demarcation. Hellboy literalizes this in a commercial manner, but the theme is consistent with his two masterpieces thus far, The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth (though it is probably safe to say that if these two films did not have supernatural or special effects elements they wouldn’t have garnered the attention they did from his genre-inclined fans). He seems to be fascinated by the interconnections of things, and his signature image is that of interlocking gears, usually on a gigantic scale, or toys that can open up or rearrange themselves seemingly as free agents. These shifting gears, in their most cinematic use since Chaplin in Modern Times, seem to emblemize del Toros’s view of time as inexorable, relentless, irreversible, and vaguely menacing. This near despair in the face of time’s implacability is tempered only by the joy del Toro takes in populating time’s underground with his varied creatures.
Slated to take the reins of The Hobbit from Peter Jackson, who will continue to produce, del Toro’s approach is easily imaginable. While Jackson’s work is airy and light while still elegiac, del Toro’s approach tends to be dark and dense, his frames crowded with imagery rougher and striving for less “realism.” There will either be a seismic battle for control of the look of The Hobbit between these two titans, or Jackson’s producing hand, determined to maintain continuity with the trilogy, will prevail out of allegiance to the fans.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a commercial sequel, but del Toro, also credited as the writer of the script from characters created by Dark Horse comic book author Mike Mignola, brings a great deal of humor and a light touch, at least in the first half, which alleviates the film’s ultimate tedium as yet another comic based, special effects laden work proffers a second half that descends into standard anime-inspired fight scenes in which cartoon characters battle each other boringly to mounting but hollow exhilaration.
Unfortunately, the weight of del Toro’s career at this point tilts heavily toward highly commercial genre work in a tone and visual style mostly (but not completely) indistinguishable from the lot of other comic book adaptations, and less toward his highly original hybrids of genre and political thrillers, which situation keeps him thus far just out of the Pantheon. The future also seems tilted toward adaptations and fantasy (only Saturn and the End of Days indicates any continuity with Backbone and Pan). On the other hand, del Toro tends to associate himself with a lot of films that don’t necessarily come about, so the del Toro fan remains hopeful that his more complex projects will rise to the top.