Moviestrut - BABEL!!!
SPlDEY
Vegas 3,375 Posts
Not going to spoil anything, but I caught this shit yesterday, after I was dissapointed with The Horror Fest. I was hooked from the trailer. Alejandro Gonz??lez I????rritu killed it. I'm not even a fan of Amores perros or 21 grams. It's been a long time since I was semi-blown by a movie at the theatres. Everything was perfectly, timed and resonant. The acting was superb, even to the child actors. Brad Pitt was even reserved, and compassionate. Basically this movie was done 21 gram style, but it was actually more like Crash. With very realistic acting, and Beautiful Cinematography. Can't wait till you guys see the scene in the Tokyo Club. Each short story could hold on it's own. I was most impressed how the Japanese story almost took you into another movie. Some of you might hate it, but your taste in movies suck. I highly reccomend it! 
- spidey
Comments
Great selling point!
Yeah. Ya almost had me until you come off sounding like those condescending film snobs that used to work down at Le Video.
- spidey
haha! I hate those guys.
what the fuck is there to spoil? there is no big secret or huge turning point to this movie.
i saw this movie last week and while i "get" why it is supposed to be good, i was pretty dissappointed.
yes, analogies towards Crash, 21 grams and Blow may be semi-accurate, but this movie in itself has no great theme that you can take away from the film (i.e racism or drug trafficing).
the best & worst thing about this movie is that it will make you feel like shit. everything that could possibly go wrong for the characters in this movie does go wrong. so while i commend the director for making a movie that made me feel really uncomfortable, i was pretty dissappointed when i realized that i was not going to be taking much away from this movie.
I did find it hard to watch at times, though, due to the many long and drawn out periods of suffering in the film.
Don't go with an expectation of leaving in a good mood. But, I give them props for creating that atmosphere effectively.
I wonder how it will contend in terms of awards.
I was really dissapointed with this film and I thought it was pretty much un-watchable past a certain point. It does raise some questions which is always good about a piece of art: should there always be resoloution for a character in a movie or an actual theme that ties everything together, but I mean at one point I was like "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST WHAT OTHER SHITTIER THING CAN HAPPEN TO THEM!!?!?!? CAN THE NANNY AND FAMILY GET EATEN BY A CHUPACABRA WHILE CONTRACTING AIDS!" I mean really it just seemed like the writers where heavy handidly trying to project the idea that life isn't always great on the movie screen.
And the inclusion of the Japanese girls story just made the movie even more disjointed. I was waiting the whole time for the movie to reveal the reason how she matters to the film aside from her Father, who's barely in the movie, owning the rifle.
I was comparing this piece of shit to "Little Miss Sunshine" both are about a cast of characters with individual stories that neccesarrilly who suffer throughout the film and never get a nice and easy resoloution, but "Miss Sunshine" is actually good.
and while i agree that all films do not need to have some theme that is easily digestable for the audience, i was amazed how there seemed to be nothing other than the idea that "we are all somehow connected to each other"
and shit...i learned that from Kevin Bacon like 10 years ago.
You telling me? Between the bunch of "us" there's a huge Cali/NY/Austin/Toronto seperation of one degree, but that's a whole different thread.
SEMI-SPOILER ALERT
- can someone please explain what really happened with the japanese girl's mother's suicide? she shot herself? she jumped off the balcony? huh?
the former i believe....
as the dad said...the girl found her first so it kinda fucked her up...
but that to a "T" is what i am talking about...the writers touched on so many damn subjects that in the end, you can barely know what the fuck was going on...
my girl didn't even catch the sudden infant death syndrome shit reference with Brad & his wife. Again...has very little to do with the movie other than to make the audience member feel even shittier.
What was the nude girl standing on the balcony supposed to represent? Anything other than her vulnerability (motherlessness and virginity frustrations coming to a head)?
Not a damn thing. My ladyfriend said "damn the writer sure has as an Asian fetish". I was like " errr...um......
but what was the purpouse of her "showing the hairy monster"?
In the restaurant? Seemed to me that she was sexually frustrated and got pissed as hell that dudes were straight passing her by after finding out that she was deaf/mute. Hence the bathroom w/ the home girls/panty removal scene, which led to flashing the pubicles to get the attention of said dudes.
(Don't ya'll project and put that shit on me! It's happened to everyone at least once.
In the restaurant? Seemed to me that she was sexually frustrated and got pissed as hell that dudes were straight passing her by after finding out that she was deaf/mute. Hence the bathroom w/ the home girls/panty removal scene, which led to flashing the pubicles to get the attention of said dudes.
ha. i think he meant what was the point of ACTUALLY showing it.
Liar...you where feeling the housed-up version of Earth Wind & Fire. I see you glowsticking with your glowsticking-ass!
ha. i think he meant what was the point of ACTUALLY showing it.
Yeah...that was gratuitous. But, I wasn't too mad.
Hahaha, I did get hype! Left the glowsicks in the cab, though. DAMN.
i was feeling that!! is that a popular house remix?
It just left me completely indifferent. I wasn't moved in any way by it, and the whole thing just seemed contrived. A lot of people will like it, but it wasn't for me.
"Drug trafficing" is a great theme? You should try love, life, death, etc. for great themes... Furthermore, no racism or prejudice in this film?
Honestly, I don't even know where to start. The film doesn't have a "theme that ties everything together?" You could probably find this in any plot synopsis, but here: in Babel God created different languages so we couldn't understand each other. Worldwide our actions are interconnected (even though we might not realize this) and thus the lack of mutual understanding can have grave consequences.
As far as "should there always be resoloution for a character in a movie," this should not even be an issue in 2006. Sure I felt "cheated" when (SPOILER) Bill Murray's character was left spinning in Broken Flowers, but that's the point. If art is like life, how could there always be a resolution? Unless, however, films represent nothing but escapism to you, then yeah, there probably should be a resolution always. In that case, you shouldn't be watching films like this (which in my opinion left very little unresolved-- that's Hollywood for ya).
I really don't think Babel was great or anything (about 6/10 or 7/10 I'd say), but it's still a whole lot better than Crash, for instance.
Some of you might want to watch Michael Haneke's Code Unknown (Code Inconnu) from around 2000 which deals with similar themes on a less grandiose scale. It's a very intelligent film, but also pretty difficult in typical Haneke fashion (still one of his most accessible ones along with Cache). Don't go in expecting clear-cut "resolutions."
just for the record....i meant 'great' as in 'encapsulating'
not great as in 'great > good > bad'
but i do love the new Clipse rekord...so perhaps i do have a fondness to drug trafficing...hmmmmm??????
You sound mad.
Yeah? Ignorance does that to me sometimes.
You sound mad.
Haha. That was my main beef and broc with the film. When nanny left the kids in the desert, it was just a bit too much...running through the fucking desert in her heels.
This is why I liked the film. The main theme, as hertzog points out, is crisis in communication. Between brad and cate, btwn brad and the bus folk, btwn brad and the embassy, btwn brad and nanny, btwn gael and the cops, btwn the nanny and the cops, btwn the moroccan kids and their dad, btwn the moroccan cops and the kids and dad, btwn the japanese girl and her dad, btwn the japanese girl and the outside world.
The tender moments for me in the film were when there was some meaningful communication between the characters, again btwn brad and his wife, btwn brad and cate's kids and the kids at the wedding, btwn the japanese girl and the cop, btwn cate and the woman who smoked her up, btwn brad and the moroccan guide, btwn the japanese girl and the guy who later dissed.
The cinematography was incredible, the music was great (Gustavo Santaolalla killed it again), the story was interesting, though I agree the connections were tenuous, especially with the gun bit. Some of the scenes were really powerful/painful. It was totally emotionally charged to the point of being agressive and exhausting, but overall I thought it was worth seeing, and definitely in the theater for the scale.
Yknow it's funny, after the first time I watched Requiem for a Dream. I felt exactly this way. I think Aronofsky is a garbage director, but I can see what he was trying to go for, and he accomplished it. However like you said the whole time watching requiem I was just like come on give the fucking characters a break. That scene with Adriana Barraza Crossing the desert, lost and emotionally wraught was one of the most heart wrenching moments of the film. If anything her performance was the most realistic and powerful. I hope she's acclaimed for it.
*spoiler*
(Don't READ if you want to enjoy the movie)
However in contrast to requiem in this movie the characters outcome was more positive then negative. Yeah, the nanny was deported, but she has family in mexico and that's just how life is. Her resolve was the most realistic. The main couple drew closer together, the girl from tokyo grew closer to her father, The goat shepard family lost a son, but didn't have to go to prison as terrorists. Which will ultimately help the other son grow into a man.
*spoiler*
I was completely satisfied with the endings. The theme of the movie was communication, and how our actions are all connected with our lack of. The bit with the nanny and the tourists happening at the same time was a bit of a stretch, but it made for a great fictional story. If you wanted a cookie cutter ending go check out some Ron Howard or Spielberg.
- spidey