Movie Review - Babel - Meaningful
In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out--detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple’s frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo.
This is a movie I've heard a lot about, Oscar winner and various nominations up the wazoo, I wasn't really sure what it was about though. It's got a very strong 7.8 on IMDB (BTW as a side note, IMDB has gone all web2.0 and I couldn't even find the score on the new page, took me a while to spot it, I think partially because I've blocked the ads it ends up in a weird place).
From the name, Babel, I implied it might be something to do with language, or at least some kind of divides between humans.
I was right in a way, it's more about cultural divides though.
To surmise I would say the movie is about other people's stupid mistakes can effect your life so much..one small mistake or one oversight or one bad decision can totally change your life.
The examples in the movie are of course exaggerated and dramatised.
From the tag-lines, the movie is more about being lost, lost in the desert, lost to yourself or lost the world.
It an interesting concept though and bridges English, Moroccan, Japanese, Mexican and I think even a bit of French.
Must be a nightmare for the translator!
It's a beautifully directed movie with excellent cinematography, the composition of the shots are excellent, like perfectly taken photographs.
Brad Pitt put in a good performance, to be fair Cate Blanchett really didn't have to do anything except look pale, which she does just fine without the help of makeup.
The Japanese part of the story was a bit more confusing and I don't really see how it was linked to the other two parts (the whole gun thing with a bit spurious).
It would have made a good stand alone story though and was a strong part of the movie.
Somehow the movie reminds me of Crash as it deals with race, family issues and other hard hitting topics.
Anyway if you haven't watch Babel I highly recommend it, it's a pretty intense movie though so don't watch it if you feel like something light.
I'd give it a strong 8/10.
Tags: babel, babel-movie, brad-pitt, cate-blanchett, cinema, films, Movie-Review, Movie-Reviews, Movies, oscarsPosted in Movies | -
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9 Comments so far
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the trailer didn't seem to tell me much bout the movie though
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Boss Stewie: Well making a trailer for this movie would be challenging to say the least as it's more cerebral than tangible, there's no action sequences, there's no love scenes, there's no funny parts...so what do you show?
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I'm hoping to watch Shaun of the Dead tonight. It might not be Babel, but I found it at the library, so I've borrowed it.
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The Japanese bit explained on this part: Incest!!!
you see the last bit they were holding hands father and daughter, is because they were caught fucking and the mom committed suicide.......
although it has no indirect link to the main story, it tells you that any part of the world, a modern metropolis such as JAPAN can and will have such backward action such as inbreds or incest. which we mainly accused 3rd world country favorite past time like Iraq or Indonesia.....as example or such.....
good show..neglects on children brings end of the world..........zippped
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i'm sure i could come up with something.. lemme watch the movie firstt
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Dabido (Teflon): Excellent movie, I'm sure you'll love it.
terenceg: Ah no wonder, after reading a bit it seems an important scene relating to the incest story was cut-out..which makes it rather confusing.
Boss Stewie: Go go watch watch, clear already
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My mother and brother refused to watch it the first time. [In fact, they heap ridicule on me for watching a Zombie movie] Then, two days later they decided to watch it, so I got to see it a second time.
My mother loved the film, which surprised me.
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Incest? And she's virgin (at least according to her friend). Perhaps some lolita complex in there, but incest?
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[...] such as Babel, Syriana and even Constant Gardener come to mind as they all deal with conflicts. Extraordinary [...]