not just about fascist spain, more universal ideas
I just wanted to post something to suggest to people who don't understand the appeal of this film, that you don't need to have a specific interest in the politics of Spanish fascism to find deeper meaning in this film. For me I can understand the director using the loss of innocence of a girl realizing her family is far from perfect, as an analogy for his feelings about his countrymen in fascist Spain. But any idealist has to at some point deal with living in a world where the majority of his fellow men are conforming with a hive-mind to something he finds reprehensible, whether it's living in a fascist country, watching your country get whipped into a patriotic frenzy to start a war, or even just suffering through endless discussions of who is going to win American Idol. Sometimes it's hard not to become a "misanthrope".
One of the things I found meaningful was how fear is used to try to control people. Isabel scares Ana in an attempt to maintain her position of power as the older sister. Fear of the "other" is always used to make people conform, it is only through not fearing the "monster" and having the courage to see things for yourself that you can find the truth and gain self awareness.
Oddly the film I find similar is "To Kill A Mockingbird", it too is now taught as being "about" a specific cultural period, racism in the South. But it to me also works on another more universal level as a story of gaining self-awareness: the monster boogey-man turns out to be quite something else, the weak father turns out to be a man of great courage, and the man the community rallies around is the villain. Only by not conforming to what everyone else thinks does Scout gain self-awareness. In 'Beehive' things are much subtler, there really are no heroes or villains. The feeling you are left with is more of confusion and despair, but just as Ana can realize her cold father and secretive mother do still love her, we can hope that we can come to value the good things in people we may be tempted to reject (even the 22% who still thing GWB is doing a good job!).
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