Babel (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Script, Acting, Music, Picture and Sound .
Disadvantages:	Limited special features .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

◊^^^Synopsis^^^◊

Babel is the compelling multi-cultural drama in which a tragic accident in Morocco sets off a chain off events that will link four groups of people who, divided by vast cultural differences, will discover a shared destiny that ultimately connects them. It focuses on 3 stories that, inevitably in any good film such as Pulp Fiction, interlock.

There is no real order to these three stories as they are ongoing throughout the film and the focuses pulls back and forth from each. For the sake of simplicity I will refer to them as story one, two and three.

The first story, set in Morocco – Africa, in the mountains away from civilization, and focuses on an unfortunate calamity involving tourists Richard and Susan (Brad Pitt & Cate Blanchett), who are on holiday in attempts to save their frail marriage after another unfortunate saddening incident back home, and two local Moroccan boys. This harrowing tale is the key story or foundation of which the other stories piece into for the link to be established.

The second story, set both in the USA and Mexico about a day later than the others, is one originally of simplicity and follows the life of a Mexican Maid/Babysitter, Amelia (Adriana Barraza), working for Richard and Susan by taking care of their house and two beautiful children. When Richard and Susan are held up in Morocco and can’t return home in time to take the children of Amelia’s hands before she attends her son’s wedding in Mexico she is unable to find a babysitter at such short notice so is forced to take the children with her. Hence the chaos begins. She is a Mexican with two beautiful white skinned and blonde haired American children.

The third story, set in Tokyo – Japan, follows the depressing and traumatic account of def teenager Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), who recently lost her suicidal mother, as she desperately tries to feel whole in Tokyo’s futuristic world in which sound plays a major part in people’s lives. In desperate attempts to feel like a normal teenager she will try to “fit in” as it were in anyway possible. Be it drinking, taking drugs and doing things she wished she hadn’t done. The story really focuses on her distressed attempts to feel whole and happy again. She thinks she will achieve this by having sex and sets out on a desperate yet distressing quest to loose her virginity with anyone her age to feel normal.

All the stories interlock with extreme precision in this wonderfully crafted Academy, Bafta and Golden Globe Award winning multicultural masterwork.

◊^^^Opinion^^^◊

The first thing I really notice about this film is its originality. Not many films offer three beautifully crafted and thrilling interlocking story lines that explore racial, physical, mental and cultural differences and prejudice that shouldn’t be in place in our modern “civilized” world. It also explores the language barrier. Now you may say this is in know way original as the language barrier has been depicted in the films and TV for a long time, you may say it has got old. But, jokes only get “old”. The language barrier has rarely been used differently to people shouting slowly in their own tongue to someone who doesn’t speak their language, for “comic effect”. I can assure you the way the language barrier is explored in Babel isn’t funny, it’s terrifying! It is very difficult to explain without giving important aspects of the film away so I shall try and explain in another context. Imagine a situation in which you are in another country and one of your loved ones needs help hurriedly and you desperately try explain to someone who doesn’t speak your language in another country where your loved one is and that they need assistance. I personally find that completely and utterly terrifying, it’s what nightmares are made of. In that respect the film builds a strong personal and urgent connection with the audience and is very effective in inducing strong emotions as it true to possible real life circumstances that could easily occur to the majority of people.

The film has a brilliant script with plenty of originality as I have mentioned. The script has been constructed extremely impressively and intellectually as it merges between the three stories leaving each on a cliff hanger every time a change is made which increases the tension and atmosphere of the feature as, like a good book, it keeps you guessing and feeds you little amounts of information at each time to keep you hooked and on the edge of your seat throughout the movie experience. This is a very technique as it leaves you time to think about the previous part of the previous story whilst the scene is establishing in the next part of the next story. Therefore this makes the film very intense as you leave each story at times of tension and during the next establishing shots you are left to think through the possible outcomes, most bad, some good, making the overall experience deep and powerful throughout the motion picture.

The film is extremely realistic. This is obviously a huge advantage to the movie as it increases the overall effect it has on its audience considerably. Although if you’re the sort of person who likes to escape from real life by watching films that give a feel good factor and are obviously unrealistic this film is not for you as it focuses on hard hitting real life situations. In that respect, if you’re that sort of person, this realism can be a serious negative aspect. The film also contains large amounts of very explicit pre teen and early teen nudity which obviously adds to the realism and helps to explore cultural aspects but also could thin the audience that the film receives. This aspect of the film may indeed put many people off and I would hope not put people on as it were.

◊^^^Acting^^^◊

The film has a simply gigantic cast for what it is. Almost as much as war films. So when I say as a whole, the acting was reasonably good I am acknowledging quite an achievement. Individually on the other hand the acting is particularly noticeable, which is strange as this would usually suggest that it is bad making the film bad. But on this occasion, as in some films, the acting isn’t very noticeable as it is so advanced it is almost totally real, therefore originally appears plain.

There are a couple of individual performances that stand out in the film for very positive reasons. An extremely convincing performance from Adriana Barraza who plays the Mexican maid adds to the variety of emotions the audience feels and I am sure would have extremely moving effects on parents. Another extremely convincing and mature performance came from new face Boubker Ait El Caid who plays Yussef, the younger of the two Arab boys. This performance stands out in my mind and I hope to see him in something else in the future as the child actor has large amounts of potential. There are two more performances that stood out. Rinko Kikcuhi as a depressed def girl and Garcia Bernal as a persecuted outgoing Mexican.

This is surprisingly a film that’s not all about the big names. Although Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett were very good, they weren’t good enough, to show up other members of the outstandingly talented cast. Acting wise, the film was flawless.

◊^^^Picture and Sound Quality^^^◊

The picture quality was outstanding although the cinematography was rather inconsistence. I shall elaborate. The cinematography in parts is simply phenomenal especially wide shots showing the vastness and beauty of contrasting landscape and skyline in the film, from the sandy orange and brown mountains of Morocco to the neon illuminated and extrovert sky scrapers of Tokyo. Although in other parts, mainly close ups, the cinematography is unimaginative and quite boring. The idea behind these extreme close ups or ECU’s is that emotions will be portrayed more effectively and when used rapidly so that the same shot is on screen for a matter of seconds increases the tension, pace and intensity of the film. In this case, it does in fact increase the pace of the film but gives a messy feel to some scenes that has no real positive effect on increasing the intensity or tension of the film and to be honest, in this film, was a mistake. Luckily this technique isn’t used that often so doesn’t really spoil the film but in parts does have a negative effect.

In conclusion the picture quality is truly exceptional and makes for a great movie experience although is let down slightly by lapses in the consistency of the cinematography that in places can be poor.

As for the sound, it is impressively clear throughout which is remarkable bearing in mind a great deal of the film was filmed in the desert and therefore the sound would usually acquire negative properties such as unwanted background noise. This, impressively, was not present in the sound and made for a substantially better sound quality than the average film.

The music plays one of the most important roles in the entire film and is used to extreme effect, possibly the best music in a film this century or even dare I say it, ever. The music is crucial as the scene is constantly changing throughout the movie it switches between several different countries and cultures regularly and therefore the scene has to be set all over again and to do this quickly and exceedingly effectively music specific to the country and culture is used to re-build and set the scene. In this respect the music is key to the films existence and success and reflects the culture of each of the three stories brilliantly.

◊^^^Film Summary^^^◊

In conclusion the film is an original multicultural masterpiece that explores many aspects of ethnical differences in a successful, truthful and hard hitting manor. The films realism stands tall and impressive mainly due to the outstanding performance by the cast as a whole. The script is also extremely impressive and needed to be for such tender subject matter. The Award winning sound is the most remarkable feature the film has to offer and as I have mentioned is crucial to the films success. The film is certainly one of the best of the year and is without doubt worth watching. It really is one of a kind and hopefully will go down in cinematic history.

◊^^^DVD Package^^^◊

The DVD is interestingly and originally presented. The cover uses overlapping images from the separate stories which successfully represents the structure depicted in the film as it revolves around three interlocking stories. As for the back it contains the usual information you would expect to find: The blurb, cast, runtime, special features, sound, aspect ratio, “Warning – Strobe Lighting” and a few photos.

◊^^^Special Features^^^◊

• Moving Picture DVD Menu
• Still Image Scene Selection
• Subtitles – English, English for the hearing impaired.
• Theatrical Trailer

◊^^^DVD Summary^^^◊

The DVD is very well presented although is seriously limited when it comes to special features. It has less special features than the average DVD and only offers fundamental features. I myself don’t care too much for Special Features but if you do, I would recommend purchasing a special edition.

◊^^^Price & Availability^^^◊

Amazon.co.uk: New and Sealed – £12.98 – 31 Used/New from - £8.95
eBay.co.uk: Avg. Buy it Now - £12 – 20 Results

◊^^^Technical Details^^^◊

Certificate: 15
Duration: 138 mins
Year of Release: 2007
Genre: Drama / Thriller
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)
Region: 2

Director(s): Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writer(s): Guillermo Arriaga

Cheers,

© Guy Davies (www.freewebs.com/firelightphotography) 2007