Babel

[livendive 8]

Who else has watched Babel thus far? I watched it last night with fairly low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. It's kinda similar to Crash in the way the storylines and represented cultures intertwine, but in ways that aren't quite as complex. The subjects tackled are a bit more black and white, but where Crash used dilemmas to provoke the viewer, Babel uses imagery that is sure to rile some. It is probably over half subtitled, with most of the story taking place in Morocco, Japan, or Mexico, and very much worth watching. I thought it was odd to see Brad Pitt in a serious film, and I think the Mexican woman gave a fantastic supporting actress performance. Definite thumbs up.
Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[bozo 0]

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Who else has watched Babel thus far? I watched it last night with fairly low expectations and was pleasantly surprised.
Blues,
Dave

Coincidently I watched Babel last night too.
It was very interesting. It was also chock full of political methaphor.....guns, suicide, terrorists, the plight of illegals. Once I got past all the subtleties it was a pretty good movie.

bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

[peregrinerose 0]

I also thought it was a lot like Crash, with the entwined story lines, and loved both movies.

Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda

[JohnRich 4]

I hated the way the plot jumped around to mostly unrelated stories. Each of the plot lines could have made a good movie by itself. But the sexual fantasy of a Japanese teenager had zero to do with the gun injury of an American woman in the Middle East. And the problems of an illegal Mexican nanny working in America had zero to do with the American mom injured in the Middle East. They just spent way too much time on things like that which had nothing to do with each other. I didn't like this format at all. Blech!

[livendive 8]

WARNING - SPOILERS LURK BELOW (but not particularly important ones)

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I hated the way the plot jumped around to mostly unrelated stories. Each of the plot lines could have made a good movie by itself. But the sexual fantasy of a Japanese teenager had zero to do with the gun injury of an American woman in the Middle East. And the problems of an illegal Mexican nanny working in America had zero to do with the American mom injured in the Middle East. They just spent way too much time on things like that which had nothing to do with each other. I didn't like this format at all. Blech!

You mean other than the fact that the Japanese girl's fantasies involved a cop who wanted to talk to her dad about the the gun he gave to a Moroccan who sold it to another guy who's kids used it to shoot an American tourist for whom the Mexian nanny was sitting during the trip? Actually, I agree...the plot ties were marginal, but I did like the separate stories and the way they each progressed, and even though none of them were particularly dependent on the others, the mixing it up was cool, especially with the different languages (including sign/silence). I can totally see how not everyone would like it though.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[JohnRich 4]

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You mean other than the fact that the Japanese girl's fantasies involved a cop who wanted to talk to her dad about the the gun he gave to a Moroccan who sold it to another guy who's kids used it to shoot an American tourist for whom the Mexian nanny was sitting during the trip? Actually, I agree...the plot ties were marginal...

Yep, seemed pretty stupid to me. If they wanted to cover how the wealthy Japanese businessman had been on a safari and that's how the rifle got into the Middle Eastern man's hands, that would have been fine. If they wanted to show the worried husband calling home to check on the kids in the care of the Mexican nanny, that would have been fine.

But spending a half-hour on the Japanese man's teenage daughter's attempts to get laid, were irrelevant. And spending a half-hour on the Mexican woman's trip back to Mexico to attend a wedding, were irrelevant.

[skydiverbry 0]

I watched this Sat. Without being a movie critic,it was not as good as I expected. Maybe I was an exception to the rule but,I thuoght the whole plot and the way it was presented was lame. IMHO.
Bry

--------------------------------------------------
Growing old is mandatory.Growing up is optional!!

D.S.#13(Dudeist Skdiver)

[Frenchy68 0]

I actually felt it was a fairly poor movie. Playing on clichés and easy emotions, with a plot that stretched at times way beyond credibility.
The fact that a movie is compared to another one (Crash) is usually not a good sign, as a good movie should stand on its own. And the standards of interwhined story lines belongs to Pulp Fiction IMO...

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

[livendive 8]

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I actually felt it was a fairly poor movie. Playing on clichés and easy emotions, with a plot that stretched at times way beyond credibility.
The fact that a movie is compared to another one (Crash) is usually not a good sign, as a good movie should stand on its own. And the standards of interwhined story lines belongs to Pulp Fiction IMO...

JohnRich almost got me to question him earlier about why he thought the mom/dad storyline was the primary, but in thinking about I realized it was kind of obvious. I thought that part was pretty boring. I just like the 3 subplots...the acting of the Mexican woman, combined with her not being afraid to be a "non-beautiful" woman...the psychosis of the deaf girl, presumably due to her realization of how much of the world is hearing based combined with feeling neglected by her father in the wake of her mother's suicide (I thought the silent parts were well done, as simple and obvious as they were)...and the naivete of the younger boy, sexually, in the shooting, and especially when eventually confronted with a kill or be killed situation despite the fact that his position was untenable. I personally wouldn't compare this movie to Pulp Fiction. Totally different style, and the intertwining, while billed as the style, wasn't particularly well-done or important to any of the stories. I'm still gonna stick with saying it was good though. I liked it, because although there wasn't a big plot payoff in the end, I couldn't bring myself to pause it and get to bed on time and just finish it tonight. The final scenes of each of the subplots were well-executed (actually, the Mexican woman thing peaked before its end, during the arrest & search). The final scene of the movie was disturbing and "sweet" at the same time...an odd combination of emotions.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[jarrodh 0]

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You mean other than the fact that the Japanese girl's fantasies involved a cop who wanted to talk to her dad about the the gun he gave to a Moroccan who sold it to another guy who's kids used it to shoot an American tourist for whom the Mexian nanny was sitting during the trip? Actually, I agree...the plot ties were marginal...

Yep, seemed pretty stupid to me. If they wanted to cover how the wealthy Japanese businessman had been on a safari and that's how the rifle got into the Middle Eastern man's hands, that would have been fine. If they wanted to show the worried husband calling home to check on the kids in the care of the Mexican nanny, that would have been fine.

But spending a half-hour on the Japanese man's teenage daughter's attempts to get laid, were irrelevant. And spending a half-hour on the Mexican woman's trip back to Mexico to attend a wedding, were irrelevant.

I agree completely. I think it was worth watching though.

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[johnsw71 0]

I was quite impressed by the film. Having been to northern Mexico, having lived in Japan and realizing partway through the movie that I also spent a very random but extremely interesting day/night in Tazzarine on a backpacking trip through eastern Morocco 10 years ago perhaps created some bias in my mind. The stark contrast between the three scenes and how the movie skips abruptly from desert scenes to the heart of Shinjuku in a flash was fascinating, creating an interesting look at how incredibly different situations on earth can be depending on where you are. I thought it was an interesting point made above about the connection between the blind girl and the Moroccan boy both discovering their sexual awareness. Perhaps since I wasn't expecting the three sub-plots to be neatly and strongly tied together, I thought the loose connection was sufficient to make the three midly relevant while demonstrating that humans can face very disparate hardships on the same planet. Of course, the gun theme was certainly woven into all three subplots and the message that guns can be the concrete tool that man needs to realize his inherent tendancy to fuck things up was also poignant. Great flick, if you ask me!

[smiles 0]

i rented babel, the departed and trailer park boys the movie........(took a week but no late fees!)

I felt Babel was the best movie I've seen in a long time. I agree totally with this synopsis:
re: "explores with shattering realism the nature of the barriers that seem to separate humankind."

http://www.movieweb.com/movies/film/68/3768/synopsis.php

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"We talk about the border as a place only, instead of an idea. I believe that the real borders are the ones that exist within us."
- Alejandro González Iñárritu

....acclaimed director Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 GRAMS, AMORES PERROS) explores with shattering realism the nature of the barriers that seem to separate humankind.

In doing so, he evokes the ancient concept of BABEL and questions its modern day implications:

-the mistaken identities,
-misunderstandings and missed chances for communication that, though often unseen, drive our contemporary lives.

SMiles

eustress. : a positive form of stress having a beneficial effect on health, motivation, performance, and emotional well-being.

[NWFlyer 2]

Finally watched it and all I can think is "meh." I was a pretty underwhelmed. I didn't hate it but I didn't think it was totally brilliant, either. Definitely overhyped. In the real of intertwined stories, I liked Crash much better.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[AMax 0]

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I hated the way the plot jumped around to mostly unrelated stories.

Looks like you wasted two perfectly good hours of your life ....

[Beerlight 0]

Gave it a 2 outta 10. Ranked it right up there with Syriana......meh.... They were trying to hard to make a good film, and forgot how.

[tigra 0]

Have you seen 21 Grams or Amores Perros? I watched 21 Grams within a week or so of watching Babel and didn't realize they had the same producer. I understand the 3 films make up a trilogy of sorts, but I haven't seen Amores Perros yet. Guess I am watching them backwards!

[twofast 0]

it was one of THE worst movies i've ever seen.
i was pissed off for a week.
i was like that wheelchair guy on family guy after watching 'steel vaginas'. 'my ass hurts. my ass actually hurts!'

[The111 1]

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Have you seen 21 Grams or Amores Perros? I watched 21 Grams within a week or so of watching Babel and didn't realize they had the same producer director.

I watched 21 Grams immediately after Babel, because I wanted to see something else Iñárritu had done. They were both enjoyable, although I enjoyed 21 Grams more.

I am not sure why people try to compare every new ensemble film to Crash. Although Robert Altman introduced the ensemble film decades ago, I still think it was most fully realized in PTA's Magnolia. Crash is not really deserving of being a "benchmark" althought it was a decent film. The one striking similarity between Crash and Iñárritu's films, to me, is the heavy-handed "character links" that are enforced through rigid physical connections. I.e. the gun that travels around the world and links everybody as it changes hands. I think this "connect-the-dots" approach spoils the ensemble film a bit, and I prefer the more generalized emotional connections that can be enforced by showing different people in different locations experiencing similar, but not necessarily literally connected, experiences. Another similarity to Crash is that two out of Iñárritu's three big films feature actual car crashes as one of the "heavy-handed connections" I mentioned earlier.

Babel had a nice score though, and some amazing musical moments, I particularly remember the scene at the end with the helicopter, even though it's been some time since I saw this movie in theaters.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[tigra 0]

I enjoyed 21 Grams more as well, probably for the same reasons you stated. Even before I could figure out what was happening, the characters pulled me in.

In Babel, I liked the storylines and characters but tying in the deaf Japanese girl as the connection to the gun seemed too heavyhanded.

I haven't seen Crash yet.