Naqoyqatsi
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Movie Reviews of Naqoyqatsi
Movie Review: A Mind Trip Into The Human Condition in A Digital Age
Summary: 5 Stars
Naqoyqatsi is a masterpiece!The conclusion of a visual and musical journey into the condition of human beings that started with the booming chorus of Koyaanisqatsi, and the technological advances that allowed men to conquer space,passing by the effect of globalization on cultures and diversity in Powaaqatsi, and ending in the last scene of Naqoyqatsi with a digitilized human floating away into oblivion in a darkness of nothingness that is space.
It is a philosophical mind trip,almost psychadelic like no other film managed to take. But then again the 'qatsi' trilogy do not resemble any other film.
The sheer power of images is the narrative, actors, plot and essential core of this unique cinematic experience, blended perfectly with the music of Philip Glass, and loosely connected by their main theme,but vary greatly from the intense,the fast-paced,the spiritual, to the haunting.
Naqoyqatsi I felt was the closest to the original in terms of these images (the space rockets, the waves, the cars, the oil rigs..),and in terms of the initial message of director Reggio, and as such it becomes the prefect ending to this marvellous saga.
Yet what distinguishes Naqoyqatsi from the other previous two films is the music of Glass. In the last of this trilogy, he SURPASSES himself, and manages to write his best work to date, pieces of classical music that at times have the same structure of Koyaanisqatsi but vastly developed,at others loosely inspired by Shostakovitch's Introduction in The Gadfly but remaining original thoughout. All the score enriched by the melancholic and beautiful cello of the hugely talented Yo Yo Ma. This music touched me like no other soundtrack or modern music managed to do in a long long time,and contributed greatly in itself to giving a breath of life to the barrage of digital images. Minimalist music never sounded more melodic and effective as it did in Glass's score for Naqoyqatsi.
This leaves me with one point I have to make, which I think is vital,
Naqoyqatsi should be judged and reviewed with all three films in mind and not on its own.
Surely,by itself, it is a very ambitious and haunting piece of work, but when seen in the context of the whole trilogy as a fitting end to the journey taken throughout the three films,it becomes more poignant,and its impact much more effective.
The constant digital images might not be to everyone's liking,but then again nor probably will the message of the film:the condition that the human race have reached in this unstoppable and virtually insane technological progress.
These digital images can be seen as a mirror to that progress,that perfectly reflect that condition and the way we might very well be heading.
Naqoyqatsi is a MUST buy, a film that will captivate your senses,touch you deeply and make you think hard, a feat director Godfrey Reggio should be applauded and praised for.
Movie Review: Still another part of the world we live in.
Summary: 5 Stars
A film like this does not coincide well with the idea of using stars and numerical ratings to evaluate overal quality. This is a unique film. Even in the "genre" of films such as "Barakaa" and the other two "Qatsi" films... this film can be said to be unique. In that sense I think it has the most in common with "Koyanisqatsi" which of all these possible peers made the greatest inpact because at the time it was first released nothing like it had really been seen or done before. "Koyanisqatsi," still a masterpiece on home video, was originally a theatrical film with magnificent cinematography capturing the surrounding world set to a lush hypnotic score by Philip Glass. A lot of that information may seem redundant, that it was a theatrical film for example, but it bears mentioning because "Koyanisqatsi" was originally a unique presentation. It was something that had never really been done before, or at least something which hadn't been done on that scale. "Naqoyqatsi" is similar in that it is doing something different than the other films it is associated with. As a result it has far more in common with "Koyanisqatsi" than its other siblings. "Koy" was a film about the world we live in. "Nagoy" is as well. The difference is that "Koy" was about a world of physical surroundings. "Nagoy" is about a world of images, media, ideas, and the way they are presented to us through visual mediums. "Koy" was about the physical world we live in. "Nagoy" is a about the world we live in as it is presented to us by the tools we use to view it. As a result people who criticize this film for using stock footage may want to look at this film again and consider it from this point of view. The stock footage is what is "being filmed" just as the Grand Canyon and manufacturing conveyor belts were filmed in "Koy" or third world work camps in "Powa". Those films focused on captruing and commenting on our surroundings... "Nagoy" is commenting on what we watch when we turn on a TV. It wouldn't make sense to film these images framed inside a TV... but if you think of it in this way... it might make more sense what Reggio and Glass are doing. Better still also consider the very generous extras on this disc. An NYU symposium with Glass, Reggio and Jon Kane, the editor who is this film's Ron Fricke provides each with an opportunity to explain what they were after. Chances are though, if you approach this film looking to experience something different, the way filmgoers first approached "Koy", and so long as you don't expect "Koyanisqatsi III", the film will make the points it has to make for itself. I found this film to be tremendously thought provoking and as rewarding as Koyanisqatsi.Movie Review: Beyond "2001"
Summary: 5 Stars
Naqoyqatsi is an almost continuous light show (ala 1960's and 1970's rock concerts) that is very reminiscent of the mesmerizing 15-minute sequence at the end of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 masterpiece, 2001 A Space Odyssey. As the "2001" space explorer enters into his final destination, all connections with time and reality are left behind, as colors, shapes, and music are blended in an astounding way to make you connect to a new dimension. It was one of my personal favorite movie experiences of all time. I remember where I saw it, when I saw it, the person I saw it with, and I remember sitting forward in my seat along with everyone else in the theater as the space craft navigated through this amazing light show. I thought it was mind-blowing!
Well, Naqoyqatsi does the same sort of thing, but with year 2002 technology as compared with Kubrick's year 1968 technology. There are a lot of computer-generated images intermixed with actual images, images morphing from one thing to another, actual images with inverted colors, and with slow-motion, regular speed and fast motion intermixed. All of this is fueled by the Philip Glass compelling sound track which includes some very nice solo work by premier celloist Yo Yo Ma. Glass is a guru of Minimalist music, which is like Rock music done in a Classical music format. The images and music fit together like a hand in a glove.
Notice I didn't tell you what the movie was really about yet? Let me do that now. Nagoyqatsi is a Hopi Indian word that means" life as war", expressed in the movie as technology leading us down the primrose path to ultimate destruction. It is the third film in Reggio Godfrey's trilogy about life on this planet. The first film was called Koyaanisqatsi ("life out of balance"), and the second film was Powaqqatsi ("life in transformation"). The films are all very good and were made during a 25-year period from the late 1970's to early this century. Nagoyqatsi, I believe, was the best film of the three.
My only real complaint about the movie was that it presented a problem, the evils brought about by technology, without recommending a solution. Reggio was very up-front about this in the DVD special feature. My own personal view is that there is nothing wrong with technology as such, but with the people who use technology,like you and me and everybody else. In my view, sin is the basic problem on earth (with Christ as the solution). Anyway, that's my view, but I would have appreciated a view from the movie itself.
That said, my interest in the movie was artistic and abstract. If you want the movie's message (without a solution), it is there for you in spades. As for me, it was more than enough to just sit back and enjoy the light show. I thought it was beyond "2001", and that is saying a lot!
Movie Review: Last Thoughts on a Thirty Year Long Polemical Effort
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Godfrey Reggio and Composer Philip Glass, in 1975, began work on a trilogy of films, that collectively take on as their dominant theme, the disintegration and fragmentation of modern civilized life. The trilogy begins with 1982's "Koyaanisqatsi", which deals with the "way of life" of the peoples of the northern hemisphere. 1988's "Powaqqatsi" speaks of the influence of that way of life on the more primitive peoples of the Southern Hemisphere. This 2002 film, "Naqoyqatsi", both explores and attempts to predict, what life will be like in the globalized world of the future.
All three films form an abstract wordless narrative structure, achieved solely through the use of traditional or digital cinematography, accompanied by a musical soundtrack from composer Philip Glass. The titles of these films come from Hopi Indian philosophies, yet the vision of the films is not that of the Hopi peoples, but primarily that of director Godfrey Reggio, who left a Christian monastic life during his teenage years in order to better engage with the world.
It is difficult to determine what influence that monastic upbringing had on Reggio's vision, however. In Christian apocalyptic literature, such as in "The Book of Revelations", a story is constructed "in which the secrets of the heavenly world or of the world to come are revealed by angelic mediation within a narrative framework". "Naqoyqatsi" is not properly a part of that tradition, though it's dominant theme still seems to be the disorder of a world which is rapidly approaching a tragic end.
Extreems of love and despair both achieve their psychological power in a person's mind by denying contradictory evidence of their opposite. Extreems of love deny any quality of flaw in the beloved, while extreems of despair deny any possibility of a future communion with goodness. Clearly, the theme of "Naqoyqatsi" is a kind of "totalism" of despair, which utterly denies any of the fragile joys we may experience.
The images we see in the film are all true, yet a viewer is compelled to make some sense of their own personal journey within this contemporary life. Indeed, one feels obligated to seek a meaning beyond the "Naqoyqatsi" message. Ultimately, that is why this reviewer does not find Reggio's vision to be personally satisfying, even though these films are an astonishing artistic success. Within the qatsi world view, Reggio leaves the audience with little hope of finding eventual solace.
Movie Review: By far the best of the trilogy
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay. I saw this movie in November of last year, and even had the good fortune to meet Mr. reggio himself (I told him to watch "Dancer in the Dark", he said he loved Von Trier and I almost collapsed right there). Anyway, the movie. Of all the opening scenes in the history of cinema, I'd say the opening scene of "Naqoyqatsi" ranks in the top ten most beautiful of all time. The first image you see is an MRI image (made 3-D) of "The Tower of Babel", a painting by a famous Italian painter. It zooms in to show the incredible detail of the painting as the quite frankly INSANE music playing starts building up. Then begins a flawless, completely fluid transition from this amazing image to one even more amazing and, in my opinion, the most powerful in the film - the countless broken windows of an abandoned white building in Detroit. Now, when I saw this the first time, I had no idea where this building was or what type of building it was (someone here said it was a railroad station, though it looked to me like an apartment building). I believe the POINT is the anonymity, or better yet, the universality of the destruction and decay present in this image. It could be anywhere in the world. As Yo-Yo Ma's cello strikes out some of the most unforgettable music you'll ever hear, the camera sweeps to show the face of the ruined building in its entirety and believe me, it's one of the most haunting and beautiful images in the history of film. That's the BEGINNING of this movie! For the next 90 minutes, you're shown a panoply of images that define our times in all their confusion and strife, and all I can say is you probably won't get them out of your head for at least a week after seeing it. How can people call this a disappointment? What MAKES this film so beautiful is the integration of the real and the unreal, of the reality behind the image and the artificiality of the image itself. I believe this film is the synthesis of the trilogy, and that the filmaker's message is that life out of balance ultimately BECOMES life as war. Now, let's just hope it gets out on DVD soon.