Babel

Language: English
Cast: Brad Pitt (Richard), Cate Blanchett (Susan), Gael García Bernal (Santiago), Adriana Barraza (Amelia), Rinko Kikuchi (Chieko)
Producers: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Steve Golin, Jon Kilik
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writing credits: (Written multi-lingual in English, Spanish, Japanese, Berber, Arabic and sign language, with English subtitles) by Guillermo Arriaga, based on an idea by Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo Arriaga
Release Date: October 27, 2006
Production House: Paramount Vantage
Running Time: 142 Minutes
Rating: R

Review


Just as the Tower of Babel is awe-inspiring and impressive, even incomplete, the fractures feel of ‘Babel’ still manages to induce the catharsis the audience seeks whenever we watch seek temporary escape in the folds of a movie, play or an engrossing book. A babel of languages as well the film transcends the limitation of the verbal communication with the help of superb acting, great close up and the projection of intense emotions like: loss, fear, pain, anguish to name but a few. These emotions are the common thread that binds the four distinct tales set in Morocco, USA, Mexico and Japan.

Babel is the third film of the duo writer/director Alejandro González Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga. The sharp camera jerks and juxtaposition of scenes and stories is characteristic of the genre introduced by this duo in their films ‘Amores Perros’ and ‘21 Grams’. While this technique garnered Oscars for ‘Crash’ all it does for Babel is add to the grandeur of the story’s vast canvas, which literally spans the globe. The movie’s most famous stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett give a riveting performance of an American couple – Richard and Susan- whose holiday and life fall to pieces by a sudden merciless twist of fate – a stray bullet in the middle of Morocco.

Equally heart wrenching is the tale of the Moroccans who fired the bullet to keep jackals from their herd of goats but instead ended up wounding an American. The family of goatherds thus become the focus of an investigation to avert an international crisis as a result of the accidental shooting. That bullet is what binds these two stories. Now in a testimony to how ICT revolution has made the world a global village the movie moves moodily (the alliteration is fitting for this film) through the reporting of this shooting in a new story on Japanese television. There we see the tragedy a hearing impaired girl Chieko dealing with the loss of her mother and her inability to fit into the demands of her surrounding. Her life takes dangerous turns in the high-tech capital as she flirts with many disastrous situations in her search for affection.

Meanwhile in the North American Continent in the Mexican-American border one is thrust into the midst of a wedding party attended by the American couple’s children and their nanny Amelia accompanied by her rogue of a sibling – Santiago. The lustiness of the celebration is a welcome break from the grimness of Morocco and the superficiality of Tokyo - but here to harsh reality intrudes.

A movie that drains you even without a single concrete theme other than the extremes of human emotions – Babel is comparable to Shakespearean tragedies where the lives of all the characters are either destroyed or lost callously at the whim of destiny and human nature. In short the movie to watch if you want to be grateful your own life’s problems are nothing compared to those faced by the characters.

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