Moved by the recommendations of several people (mostly strangers) I recently rented the 2006 Alejandro González Iñárritu film Babel. I had wanted to see the film for a while, mostly because one of my favorite actors, Gael García Bernal , is in the cast. (I later found out however, his role is pretty minor and doesn't get much screen time, but he's there nonetheless.) I'm not going to pretend to be a movie critic and go on about the intricacies of the plot, but I will say that Babel is a very well directed and cast "think film" that will leave you going "Huh...".
The plot takes you through four seemingly unrelated interweaving plots all around the world from Morocco, to Tokyo, Mexico and the US. It begins with an American couple, played by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette, who are vacationing in Morocco when tragedy strikes. Jump to Tokyo and follow a teenage girl carrying more baggage and personal challenges than a normal teenager should. Then cross the Mexican border to a traditional wedding and an untraditional return to the states. All four different plots could be created into a movie all on their own, and it can be hard at times to understand why we are seeing all these scenes in one DVD. However, González Iñárritu melds them beautifully.
The resounding theme to take away from this movie is how similar everyone in the world is despite being so very different. Another consistent theme is the need for communication and shows just how many barriers there are to complicate communication, either spoken or emotional.
The title, which is so ingenious in my opinion, comes from the Hebrew verb balal which means to confuse or confound. Also, according to the Bible, this is where everyone ended up after the great flood. Long story short, they decided to build a tower to Heaven, God got real pissed at them for this, and made everyone speak a different language as a punishment. (Temper, Temper...) This is also where we get our word babble. Anyway, because no one could understand each other, they scattered all over the world, which is why we have so many different languages today. It couldn't possibly have anything to do with the evolution of several languages which were spread by nomads and conquerers. Oh wait, evolution of anything is just a made up theory.
If you get the chance, NetFlix Babel. You may have to watch it more than once, and you may have to think, but it's worth the two hours of your life.
1 comment:
After I watched the movie, I read some critiques that said the Toyoko scenes seem disconnected, but I totally disagree. Without that link, it would be a film we've seen before. The questions of class were also interesting.
I, too, was disappointed by the small role for Gael Garcia Bernal.
And the evolution crack, ha.
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