This video essay traces the thematic and aesthetic links between Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone (2001), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), The Shape of Water (2017), and Pinocchio (2022), showing that the through-line spanning a twenty-year period involves a critique of the relationship between militarism, masculinity, and violence.
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Lisa DiGiovanni (2024) studied this question.