The Devil's Backbone is a social and political commentary, as the story takes place at the end of the Spanish Civil War. It is a tale of revenge, greed, and the thin line between the world of the living and the world of the dead. The recurring images and symbols throughout the film reinforce these themes.
Color Symbolism and a Veil Between the Worlds
The first scene after the opening sequence, when Carlos is first brought to the orphanage by his tutor, Señor Ayala, is dominated by two colors: red and gray. Carlos’s jacket, the car that he arrives in, the doors, and even the walls of the orphanage, are all gray. The bomb in the middle of the courtyard, the bricks on the orphanage walls, and the room from which Carmen and Dr. Casares are watching Carlos’s arrival are predominately red. Even Carmen’s hair is a brilliant red. Red permeates many of the scenes, but tends to be more pronounced whenever there is violence.
When Carlos is in the orphanage’s dormitory his first night there, he is unable to sleep. He traces a name on the wall, “Santi,” and hears a sigh, which is then accompanied by a silhouette on a red curtain. Carlos asks, “Who are you,” as the shadow touches the screen, as if he were trying to reach out. The curtain serves as a literal representation of the thin veil between the worlds of the living and the dead.
When he pulls back the curtain, there is no one there, but somehow, two jars fall and spill the boys’ water supply. Carlos gets up to investigate and sees footprints in the water, and catches a shadow running away. When the other boys get up to see what happened, Jaime tells Carlos that he will have to get more from the kitchen, and says that no one has ever been caught. One of the other boys asks him, “What about the one who sighs,” implying that one of them has been caught. When Carlos asks who this person is, Jaime asks if he is going to come or not.
Jaime fills his jug first and tells Carlos he will wait for him outside. When he leaves, a rack of knives falls, and Carlos goes over to investigate, which leads him to the doorway from the opening scene. While in the cellar, he has his first encounter with “the one who sighs,” who puts his hand on his shoulder and quickly vanishes. When Carlos turns around, there is nothing there, save for blood hanging in the air. The bright red of the blood contrasts the gray of the cellar and Santi’s body, and is repeated several times throughout the film.
Santi's Ghost in Limbo
When Carlos goes to Dr. Casares to get a cut, caused by Jacinto, fixed, he asks the doctor if he believes in ghosts. Dr. Casares says that he is a man of science, and shows Carlos jars that have infant bodies suspended in water. These bodies have “the Devil’s backbone” and are, supposedly, children that shouldn’t have been born. Dr. Casares says that it is nonsense, and that it is an effect of disease and poverty. The liquid that the bodies are in is called “limbo water,” which is made of various spices, clove, and rum. Supposedly the water has curative properties, and Dr. Casares sells it in town, and the money helps fund the school. The water looks similar to the water in the pool in the cellar, where Santi’s body is. The fact that it is called “limbo water” is another reference to the line between the living and the dead.
While one definition of limbo is a place where the souls of unbaptized children dwell, other definitions include, “a place or state of neglect or oblivion,” “an intermediate or transitional place or state” or “a state of uncertainty.” Taking these definitions, it makes sense Santi’s body is also suspended in “limbo water,” because everyone in the orphanage pretends that he doesn’t exist (neglect or oblivion), and he is in a place of transition – i.e., he is dead, but his soul or ghost continues to haunt the living.
At night, the boys are sitting around, reading comics. One of the orphans says that his mother used to say that the earth was so dry and the air so hot that “the dead get stuck halfway to heaven.” Jaime gets annoyed and tells them that that’s nonsense, and Carlos says, “It’s like the one that sighs,” to which Jaime responds by walking away. This is yet another reference to Santi being between the two worlds, or being stuck in limbo.
Important Images in the Devil's Backbone
The most important images in the film are the bomb and the pool, where Jacinto dumped Santi’s body. The bomb serves as a constant reminder that the film takes place during the Spanish Civil War, a time when many young boys became orphans when their fathers went to fight. The pool serves as a reminder of Jacinto’s greed and violence – if he weren’t so hungry for Carmen’s gold, Santi would have never seen him trying to open the safe, and would still be alive.
Another important image, albeit one that only appears once, is that of an apple that Carlos picks up after a blast that kills many of the occupants of the orphanage. Apples symbolically represent knowledge, as in Genesis, when Eve eats the apple from the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. By picking up the apple, Carlos becomes like Eve, and rushes upstairs to share his knowledge with Jaime. Unfortunately, the apple is burnt, signifying that the knowledge came too late to save those who were killed in the explosion.
The Devil's Backbone is dominated by symbols and images that contribute to the film's overall themes, some blatant, others subtle. Careful attention to these images and symbols help provide the viewer with a deeper understanding of the film as a whole.
Tayla Holman - Tayla is a student at Hofstra University, where she is majoring in print journalism and English with a concentration in publishing ...
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