The Devil’s Backbone (Guillermo Del Toro, 2001)
The Devil’s Backbone is about a ghost in an orphanage but hidden beneath this theme is Guillermo Del Toro’s feelings on the Spanish civil war. The film starts with a boy (Jaime) holding another dying boy (Santi). The film then shows a young boy called Carlos who arrives at the orphanage with two Republican loyalists. Carmen and Dr Caesarea take Carlos in and put him with the rest of the boys.
Soon after arriving Carlos begins to become haunted by a ghost called Santi. Carlos hears that Santi used to be a boy at the orphanage but went missing when the bomb landed in the middle of the courtyard. Carlos gains Jaime’s respect overtime and become suspecting of the groundskeeper Jacinto. Carlos looks through Jaime’s sketchbook while he’s asleep and finds a drawing of Santi (The Ghost).
Jacinto uses his relationship with Carmen to find the keys to the safe where the gold is stashed. As Dr Casares goes out to sell some medicine he notices one of the loyalists who brought Carlos to the orphanage being lined up and shot. Fearing he will reveal the golds location, Dr Casares and Carmen prepare to flee with the boys.
Jacinto ruins their plans however when he blows up one of the buildings and the car with gasoline. This kills a large number of the boys and teachers leaving only the main boys and Dr Casares. He now stays at the orphanage with the boys preparing for Jacinto’s return for the gold. Jaime also tells Carlos that it was Jacinto that killed Santi and threw him into the water only for Jaime to run into the courtyard when a bomb drops out of the sky and lands. Fortunately the bomb doesn’t explode.
Carlos is no longer afraid of Santi and wants to help bring Jacinto to him. After Dr Casares dies from wounds caused by the explosion, the boys lure Jacinto down to the basement where they team up on him with hand-crafted spears and injure him. They push him into the water where he struggles to swim due to his pockets being full of gold. Santi then drags him to the depths and as the boys leave the orphanage to head to town, Casares’ ghost watches them from the doorway.
The film was made by Guillermo Del Toro and was published in 2001. The film begins the loop of Guillermo Del Toro publishing a personal film and then a blockbuster to fund his next personal film. Guillermo Del Toro wanted to create a film that shows the horrors of the Spanish civil war and his feelings toward it. So he hides this under a typical genre film being related to ghosts. Throughout the film there are countless examples of where the Spanish civil war is mentioned: the bomb, Dr Casares watching a loyalist he knows be executed and fleeing the orphanage with the gold used to back the republican’s treasury.
The film is told in a linear fashion and events take place in order. Part way through the film there is an example of a flashback to a scene which we saw at the beginning of the film showing the full version of Santi’s death revealing a large secret. The film was easy to follow and there were no major twists.
I found the film interesting but I wouldn’t choose to watch it again. The Devil’s Backbone isn’t the type of film I’d enjoy watching, however I still wanted to carry on watching throughout. The director Guillermo Del Toro created the film as one of his personal messages, this one being about the Spanish civil war. The message was hidden within a ghost story but it was clear to see how he felt about the Spanish civil war. I would rate the film is 3.5/5.