Babel

Z...

Z...

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
Recently I saw this movie with Cate Blanchet and Brad Pit.

Dont let these names scare you off cos this is not just another Holiwood move.

Its the story of meaniglesness of human existence. Of human pain and our inability to communicate with each other and also with our true self.

In the film we follow 4 stories - Family of goat herders in the hills of marocco
- American couple struck by grief over the lost child
- Japanese mute teenager coming to terms with her mother's death
- Mexican illegal immigrant in USA making one fatal decision

All these people are strangly connected with one old gun.

Lots of symbolism, great photography and great music

Strongly recommended
 
I agree, this movie was excellent. A very good portrayal of the law of accident, and how it creates lessons, usually immensely painful ones.
 
hkoehli said:
I agree, this movie was excellent. A very good portrayal of the law of accident, and how it creates lessons, usually immensely painful ones.
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Oh, I got to see it. It is like "Amores Perros", the other movie of the same film director Alejandro González Iñarritu. In "Amores Perros", Alejandro portrays the nature of human love based on the lower passions of sex, hunger and fear. It’s a movie that delivers you a shocking experience through the suffering of all its characters. At the best it leaves you with the longing to pursue something higher, which is for what is worth, IMO.

"Amores Perros" was so successful, that I guess the director had to make something "similar" in English. I would guess that all the stories are interconnected by one single event where all the characters of the movie meet although they don't know each other. In "Amores Perros", it was a car accident.

I'll add that movie to my to do list :)
 
Just watched it today. I thought i'd come here to discuss it afterwards, but what's to say? The movie says it all. I agree with all the comments. Very powerful movie. Strongly recommended.
 
I found watching this film quite uncomfortable - I couldn't get physically comfortable in the cinema and I found the whole thing uncomfortable and boring, actually deadening would be a better word. On the way home I felt a deep sadness and in light of what hkoeli says above about Babel as a portrayal of the law of accident, I realised that this is a good illustration of the General Law. In itself it is completely meaningless and it is only in our awareness and contemplation of events that lessons can be learned. The film is a 'slice of life' with no real beginning and no real end. A profound esoteric lesson whether intentional or not on the part of the director & screenwriter, and so I later awarded it a mental four out of five stars :-)
 
I watched it as well last weekend. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars just because Brad Pitt is too good looking to be a regular person. Hehehe. But even so, it was for me a very profound and deeply moving movie.
(In retrospect, getting Brad Pitt was probably a good move so that the movie would be more "mainstream"/popular and the average person on the street would be more inclined to watch it and hopefully pick up something useful from it. Damn those sneaky STO candidates! <shakes fist at the people listed in the credits>)


- MINOR SPOILER ALERT -


On the surface it seems just like another from the 'slice of life genre' but Babel "feels" "more real" in its portrayal of the 4 events and there is a lot to chew on for those that take the time to digest what the movie trying to convey.

What I mean to say is, the plots and characters and how they re-act/inter-act with each other are spot on; just how you may experience them in real life. Well, at least for some of the siutations that I have similar experiences with (e.g. talking to immigration officers when I enter the US), the "feel" of the portrayal of scenes of the movie that have similar settings are very accurate (i.e. manner of speech, gesturing, attitude of immigration officer).
It is as if you were a third party witness to real events that were unfolding. The only difference is you are a viewer in a movie theatre who is detatched from the scene that is unfolding so you can more objectively analyze and dissect what you are watching.

I also was kind of depressed after the movie ended because it is sad to see they the world is now. The only reason why I'm not depressed every second of my life is because I can still block out (i.e. not think about) the sorry state the world is in.

But depression is good! At least imho. It means I'm not dead yet and it means I still have at least two neurons still firing.

Side note: also got to watch Amores Perros (translation from the DVD subtitles: "Life's a -bee yatch-"). Same feel. But the depression I felt from Babel was much deeper.

--- MAJOR SPOILER ALERT ---




--- MAJOR SPOILER ALERT --- LAST CHANCE TO TURN BACK ---



I like the little bits of "mis-communication" scattered throughout the movie:
- the guide that translated "The doctor says she's going to be fine" when the doctor said that they needed to stitch the woman up or she'll bleed to death. That one was the most obvious.
- the mute girl automatically assumes that the cop's visit is about the death of her mother.
- how no one that the mute girl interacts with (except maybe her dad) gets the "message" that she doesn't want to feel like a monster because of her disability and wants to be liked/wanted.
- the US news coverage alleging that the accident was terrorism related.
- the Japan news coverage that gives the real deal on the accident and mentions that the US news coverage is labeling the event as a "terrorist act" again.
(what I liked was that the news coverage is thrown in like background "noise" to the "visual" scene)
- the goat herder father and his two sons running away after seeing the cops is mis-interpreted by the cops as guilt because they automatically assume that it was a deliberate act of terror and are later shocked to find out that it was just a kid who did all of the shooting (well, at least the accurate shooting).
- the other caucasians on the bus not grokking/understanding/empathizing with the desperation that is gripping the husband because he doesn't know what to do with the situation.
There's so much more "confusion" because of different languages and even some "not understanding each other even if we're speaking the same language".

I'll probably go through it again when it comes out on DVD.
 
I just watched this and - well - what a horrid, sad movie. Maybe I spend too much time exposing myself to the horrifically sad facts of day to day life on this planet; feeling the pain of the lot of human existence and how no one understands anyone else (in general) and how simply brutal, painful and lost this human existence can be - maybe because of that, I can't enjoy a movie that is just that.

There were also some logical inconsistencies - the characters did things that made no sense and made their lot infinitely worse due to that.

Sheesh - I don't know - maybe it was bad timing on my part - and I wasn't in the right 'mood' - but I ejected this dvd wishing I had not watched it.
 
Well I warned at the begining:

Its the story of meaniglesness of human existence. Of human pain and our inability to communicate with each other and also with our true self.
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Did you really expect to feel good after it?

I thought movie was brilliant- everything- from acting to photography and music, as the result its atmosphere closes on you like a deadly trap and even if you are asleep just for one brief moment you will be faced with full tragedy of human condition.

To involve you in this manner, for me that is what movie art is all about.
 
The movie left me feeling puzzled. Overall it seemed to be a drawn out way to basically show that a simple act can have far reaching affects.

What bothered me most was the ending. A young teen girl, standing naked out there on balcony with her dad. Who does that these days? And her mother shot herself in the head? What's that all about? And what could she have written to the detective in the note that we weren't made privy to? Seems to me the girl's dad possibly had an incest problem. That sort of fits with other 'gun' problem. Maybe I'm wrong though. Maybe it's only manipulation by the writer and director. Or maybe not.
 
Just saw this movie - it was quite good. It speaks volumes about humanity's current state of existence: the utter confusion and miscommunication in a world that's connected more than ever, the destruction of basic human interaction and emotion, and the "illusion" that's overtaking us all. The more machine-like we become, the more the Law of Accident takes hold, as Harrison points out above.

Spoiler Alert:
I loved how they mentioned how the U.S. government was "quick" to play the terrorism card to refer to the rifle incident. The media all over the globe was covering the "terrorist act" while everyone took their sweet-arse time to get basic medical help to aid the woman, apparently because of "political issues." Just goes to show how much our government cares about its people... just waiting to push their agenda in any conceivable situation but doing nothing to actually help those affected.
 
anart said:
There were also some logical inconsistencies - the characters did things that made no sense and made their lot infinitely worse due to that.
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Sounds like real life to me!
 
Logical inconsistencies do fit with real life ;-)

From Mouravieff's Gnosis Vol 1:

The ensemble of 'A' influences forms the Law of Chance or Law of Accident. Man is subject to its rule, yet if we examine the figure more closely we will perceive that each black arrow is counterbalanced, neutralized in some other part by another arrow equal in force and diametrically opposed, so that if we had left them to effectively neutralize each other the resultant force would have been equal to zero. This means that in their ensemble the 'A' influences are illusory in their nature, although the effect of each one of them is real, so that exterior man takes them for reality.
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Yep, I agree and I must not have made myself very clear, because my point was that I see this every single day - so it wasn't something I enjoyed watching.

I'm not saying it's a terrible movie or that any of you should not think it is the 'bees knees'- just that I did not enjoy it. There was no hope in it - at all - just tragedy, sorrow and isolated, powerless human beings. Never said it wasn't like real life.

;)
 
anart said:
Yep, I agree and I must not have made myself very clear, because my point was that I see this every single day - so it wasn't something I enjoyed watching.

I'm not saying it's a terrible movie or that any of you should not think it is the 'bees knees'- just that I did not enjoy it. There was no hope in it - at all - just tragedy, sorrow and isolated, powerless human beings. Never said it wasn't like real life.

;)
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Have you seen "Requiem for a Dream"? I actually think that this movie should be shown to every teenager during their school education. This movie causes an extreme and valuable shock. It also show a tragedy, sorrow and isolated, powerless human beings, victims of their own desires.
And another off topic issue: have you heard that Britney tried to killed herself? (apparenly..again) Oh no, it's not a show biz news flash, because there is something that caught my eye.

http://www(dot)earthtimes.org/articles/show/36669.html
Diagnosed with postpartum depression and lodged at the Promises Clinic for de-addiction in Malibu, California, allegations in the media suggest that Britney Spears recently proclaimed that she was the 'anti-Christ' and then tried to commit suicide by hanging herself with a bedspread. She also allegedly penned '666', widely considered Satan's number, across her recently shaved head.

“Last Saturday, she said she had the number 666 written onto her bald head. She was crying, and shouting, 'I am the anti-Christ!' The clinic people just didn't know what to do. Then she started screaming, 'I'm a fake! I'm a fake!' a source close to the troubled singer said to News of the World.
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Poor fabricated creature. I guess that something inside her started to realise the terror of her own situation.
Maybe many like her will feel the same presure. It's a tradegy indeed. I just hope that something can still be done for all.
 
Just saw this movie the other night. Very good, and yes, quite shocking. I liked the way that certain "cultural norms" in each different group of people were held up to be limiting and anti-humanistic, and ultimately the cause of greater suffering for all. And despite the "happy ending" for the American family, there was also a clear sense of warning that things could have turned out very different, if not for the "luck of the draw"... or perhaps the "grace of God".
 
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