Babel
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Movie Reviews of Babel
Movie Review: The Tower of Babel
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Bible says God was angry when man tried to reach heaven by building a tower (later named Babel); he stopped the work by devising different languages that made understanding impossible. Babel came to mean noise and miscommunication In the years richest, most complex and ultimately most heartbreaking film, Inarritu invites us to get past the babble of modern civilization and start listening to each other." Peter Travers
A bus in the mountains of Morocco rounding a curve and a tourist is shot. A Mexican child care worker in San Diego trying to find someone to care for the young children she is responsible for. A young woman in Tokyo learning to live as a deaf person. Two young goat herders in Morocco shooting at random wondering how far the bullet will travel. All four of these stories of parents and children coming together, what do they mean?
Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, are interpreting the concept of Babel to the way we live now. In our daily lives we are threatened by terrorism. There is a big difference between rich and poor anywhere in the world. The film centers on these four families, and how they come together is often confusing. But, hang in there and you will be rewarded.
Brad Pitt is an actor you have not seen before. Tough, gritty and at the same time loving. Cate Blanchette has a role that requires little speech but more expression. The two goat herders and their families live quiet lives. The Japanese father is recovering from the suicide of his wife. His daughter, Rinko Kikuchi,is rying to grow up known mostly as a deaf person. The Mexican woman finds Hell with the Border Patrol.
"This is a serious movie overflowing with memorable acting, unforgettable images, searing tragedy, unexpected humor and an eloquent plea for international understanding. And while it's by no stretch of imagination light entertainment, it's fundamentally a more optimistic work than either "Amores Perros" or "21 Grams." Lou Lumenick
This is the world we live in. The fear of all is common to us all. The poverty is felt by many and recognized by few. The violence is an everyday part of life. The isolation that we feel from one another. This marvelous film speaks to us all. It is visually stunning, the photography is overwhelming at times, the view from the Moroccan mountains versus the view from a Tokyo high-rise. The dirty, noisy desert of Mexico and the quiet desert of Morocco. We will ruminate about this film and its meaning. We will discuss with friends and family. In the end we will all have a little better understanding of the world we live in, at least a peak . Highly, Highly Recommended. Prisrob 3-26-07
Movie Review: One Brick More in the Rebuilding of the Tower of Babel
Summary: 5 Stars
As my fiancee and I were leaving the theater, we heard a discussion in front of us about the film:
"But why 'Babel'? What does that mean?" asked the wife (I presume).
"You know... babble... with two 'b's." replied the husband (and again).
Well, almost.
As you probably know, the title of this film refers to the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. According to that story, there was once a time when mankind was united in language, in country and in purpose. And, at that time, man decided to build a great city and a great Tower that could reach on to Heaven, itself. God, horrified at the prospect of man being able to do anything that he set his mind to (yeah, that's the rationale given...), decided to make such cooperation impossible, then and in the future, by dividing man into the several nations and tongues. We were given different languages so that we couldn't communicate clearly with each other; so that we would be divided amongst ourselves, and could no longer cooperate to reach for the sky (and attaining the sky is only possible through cooperation).
Babel is, in part, an exploration of how good a job God did.
Each of the four stories of Babel (a family of Moroccan goat-herders; the couple they accidentally shoot at; the couple's children and housekeeper in San Diego; a Japanese businessman and his deaf-mute daughter) revolves in some way around communication or culture, and how our difficulties and differences stand in our way.
That such communication and superficial differences might be our only *real* barriers is presented subtly, yet well, by providing us with scenes and themes in each locale which are universally human: the two Moroccan brothers tussling for dominance; the Japanese teen's struggle for acceptance and understanding; the joy and celebration of family and love in Mexico; and, the powerful intimacy between loved-ones, when death might be approaching. These people are all human, and their struggles and triumphs are familiar. In showing us these scenes, we learn to see past the subtitles and languages to the people behind them. We see that, whatever confusion God may have wrought might yet be undone, if only we were better able to understand one another.
This movie strikes one blow against God's project, in helping us to better understand each other, and in that (and several other aspects others will touch on, such as direction, acting, excitement, etc.), the movie is a great success.
Five stars.
Movie Review: A Very Real Set of Stories
Summary: 5 Stars
Babel is three individual stories very loosely related. Each story takes place in a separate part of the world. The border between Southern California and Mexico is the setting for the story about two American children and their undocumented Mexican care-giver. Morocco is the setting for the story about a Moroccan boy and his siblings, as well as the setting for the story about two American tourists reviving their marriage (perhaps) through unexpected violence. Japan is the setting for a story about a deaf girl exploring her teenage sexuality and desperately seeking intimacy and physical affection.
The film is not easy. It is not a light-hearted romp or an adventure movie. Babel is an art house flick. Some people will not like it. In fact, some scenes are physically upsetting. In the same way the climax of Requiem for a Dream provoked nausea in some, Babel's Japanese rave club scenes could cause an epileptic seizure in some people. I don't mean to say the images are split into four and shown all at once in a visual and aural overdose like in Requiem. Quite the opposite. Babel splits the images up with sections of silence and pieces of blackness, giving the audience bursts of fullness contrasted with longing and hunger, forcing the audience to physically, not just emotionally, empathize with the character and her story.
While each individual story is told chronologically, all the stories are told at once so that there is some jumping back and forth between time and space. Some audience members were confused by this and thought the plot had gaps though it didn't. I like this type of storytelling because it's more real to me. It's the way real people tell stories, jumping around from place to place and back and forth through time. It's the way human character is revealed naturally through conversation and events. We learn about each other in these flashes of insight, not in building blocks.
I left the film feeling like I hadn't completely done what it asked, "If You Want to be Understood...Listen." I had listened, and loved the soundtrack by the way, but I didn't completely understand the movie. I'd have to watch it a dozen more times to feel like I really "got" it. Babel is one of those highly nuanced films that's like an onion: you can peel away the layers upon layers, but there may not be a true core. It's not the kind of movie that has a message. It's the kind of movie that gives you a tiny glimpse into someone else's life, a sort of superficial understanding.
Movie Review: Some good ethnographic filmmaking along with a strong indictment of US xenophobia
Summary: 5 Stars
A more intelligent film than your average box office draw and more demanding of its audience.
I was warned that the film was depressing, and its larger message is grim, but the way the film plunks us down in the daily life situations of two Third World and one First World, but very foreign, country, and the up-close-and-personal stay we make in each of those places, is rare in Hollywood movies.
A previous reviewer dismisses the characters as "stupid people doing stupid things". What's engrossing about this film is that the characters who engage in such folly are so lovingly drawn and portrayed, reminding us that perfectly well-meaning folks can commit grave mistakes with broad repercussions due to their own lack of foresight and the irrational reactions of the larger world around them. This is a movie that makes you think AND feel. You can't help but cringe at the missteps that take the characters into disturbing places and experiences.
Even more troubling is the fact that people do these sorts of things all the time. People do pack themselves into air-conditioned busses to drive through the countryside (and rejuvenate their marriages) with little or no understanding of the circumstances of life for the people they pass along the way. When they are forced to get down from the bus, it occurs to them to be scared of the locals, whom they might well imagine to be terrorists.
As for the acting, while it was nice to see the box office draws of Brad Pitt and Kate Blanchett, the lesser known actors were even more compelling. Gael Garcia Bernal and Adriana Barraza are terrific; Rinko Kikuchi, Koji Yakusho and Yuko Murata also put in very strong performances; and the choice to cast local unknowns in Morocco was a refreshing addition to the use of Hollywood stars.
When the character of Cheiko, the angry Japanese teenage deaf-mute who seeks love through sexual advances, stands naked on the balcony of the penthouse apartment she shares with her dad, and looks out over the urban landscape of postindustrial Tokyo, the human predicament is poignantly presented. Other viewers read sexual innuendo into her father's embrace, but instead it seemed more of a father's belated and feeble attempt to comfort and protect the daughter who is fast growing beyond him into a woman.
Movie Review: one bullet can effect everyone
Summary: 5 Stars
in the bible, it is said that a united group of humans took up the task to build a great tower to reach the heavens. God, observing these many people united in the contruction, sought to destroy the tower and scatter the humans to the farthest reaches of the globe and confussing the languages, never again to be able to build the tower. in Babel which derives it name from the tower, the lives of many intersect with just a single action that affect all the people in more then one ways. a follow up to his 2003 flick, 21 Grams, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu delivers a searing drama that can definintly be called this years Crash (though a heck of a lot better) using the premise of the biblical story, we see four interwoven stories that all are somehow connected to a single event. two kids playing with a gun suddenly gets find themselves in a very nasty situation. a husband and wife (Pitt and Blanchett) vacationing in Morroco suddenly find themselves in a perilous dilhema when they find themselves in a perilous flight of life and death. a nanny (Barraza) left in care of her employers children decides to take them to her sons wedding which leads to tragic events. a deaf Japanese girl (Kikuchi), angry at the world for her disability, seeks a way to rebel against her father and all those who have what she does not. it is then with a single gun fire that all these people connect with one another and how it all acumilates in an ending that will be happy for some, tragic for others. the true driving force of the film is the performences. Pitt brings his best performence since 12 Monkeys and it surprises me that he didn't get nominated. Barraza is supremly moving as the loving nanny but i feel the standout of the film is Rinko Kikuchi's fierce turn as the deaf teen Chieko. everytime she is on screen, she blares like a silent siren with such raw force and power that her performence joins the likes of other great none speakign roles like Marlee Matlin and Holly Hunter. the music also brings some depth to the film, Santaoalalla really blends in the music to make it all seem more real. my favorite scene is the very end (spoiler alert) when Chieko and her father hug on the balconey, it really got to me that scene. a truley epic film, Babel is definently one of 2006 most outstanding films.