Latest 5 Reviews Here is what people are saying about the Babel [Blu-ray]
"Complex, but Rewarding"
2009-09-13
- Reviewed By User: A22RY8N8CNDF3A
This is trilogy of stories that slowly evolve into a common theme and connections. Languages, cultures, classes, and countries weave into a fabric of common connections.
A rifle is the center of the film. It becomes part of a local goat herdsman's property in Morocco. He has two young sons (Said Tarchani and Boubker Ait El Caid) who take care of the goats but also play with the rifle. During target practice with rocks one son inadvertently takes a shot at a tour bus. Both sons see the bus stop and realize something is wrong. They run back to their home and hide the gun as they realize what trouble they started.
Traveling in the tour bus in the back roads of Morocco are Richard and Susan (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett). They are a wealthy young couple who have just lost a child. Their other two children are at home in San Diego with their illegal Mexican housekeeper and nanny, Amelia (Adriana Barraza). Susan has been irritable and upset most of the trip. After a meal she does not enjoy they get on the tour bus and start down the winding back roads of Morocco. Susan leans against the window and the gunshot comes through hitting her in the shoulder near the neck. Richard and the Tour Bus passengers panic and try to find hospital or help near by as Susan is bleeding and in much pain. Finally they find a small town nearby, but still need competent medical care.
Richard calls home to tell Amelia she needs to stay with the children longer than expected. Amelia is upset as she was planning on attending her son's wedding in Mexico. She makes a decision to go anyway and take Richard and Susan's children with her. They have great fun at the wedding and Amelia's son does not want her to leave Mexico. She says she has to return with the children - and her nephew drives them back. Immigration officials cause a problem and near disaster in the desert when trying to come back to the United States.
Then the film zips to Tokyo and a rich widower (Koji Yakusho) who is tied to the rifle that shot Susan. He worries and is torn about his deaf daughter (Kinko Kikuchi). She is angry she has no hearing and no mother. Her anger at a sports game upsets him. He seems to talk to her about her attitude (There are no subtitles). She is upset when boys back away from her when they realize she cannot hear. She wants to be loved and have a life of fun and boyfriends like other young girls. She is bold, promiscuous, determined and angry. Her actions are both shocking and sad.
This is a very intimate peek into each life. It is deeply, darkly emotional and yet very thoughtful on the love of families as well as cultural misunderstandings. We see humanities connectedness and how we all make mistakes whether rich or poor. Life is complicated as is this movie.
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"Goes Nowhere"
2009-08-08
- Reviewed By User: A12RMAJXRPQWTY
This film relates to two popular concepts: the "butterfly effect" and "when it rains it pours." I feel this film is a slick attempt to manipulate these concepts. In Babel the butterflies are very big and it rains in the desert.
A rifle is fired carelessly in Morocco. A Japanese girl is devastated by her mother's death. A nanny decides to take two children under her care across the border into Mexico without their parents' permission. These events all come together and have a traumatic impact on many different people. People suffer in this film.
Particularly slick and exploitive is the segment about the deaf teenager. Her story is only very tenuously connected to the others. The viewer must decide why it is included.
A lot of money was spent and a couple of star actors were hired. For what purpose? What do we learn? Who was entertained? The actors followed their directions and the script...to nowhere.
"Babel"
2009-08-04
- Reviewed By User: A2QKPHE8LFNW6J
This movie has the similarity like the Crash. It has mini stories that all come together at the end. If you have seen Crash I think this is a better version of it.
Babel is such a fitting title for this movie that focuses on the theme of universal pain and hope. All the different barriers we face with the clash of cultures were very well demonstrated. Great movie, but it was a little too real and frustrating at times.
I cried at the end, way too much for my own good. I sat there with my tear-stained, mascara-smeared face and was surprised at my outburst of emotions. It was just so powerful and wonderfully moving...or maybe I just get too into movies. Anyway, I highly recommend it.
Several stories set in places around the world are related only by a freak accident with a rifle: An American couple (Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchette) are on a tour bus in the Moroccan desert when the wife is shot by a some poor children who are trying out their new rifle. Back home in San Diego, the couple's housekeeper takes their children across the border into Mexico with near-tragic results, while the rifle is traced to a businessman in Japan.
The separate-but-ultimately-related-stories technique is similar to that used in the movies Crash and Traffic and used just as effectively. Each story is grim and edge-of-your-seat intense; I don't think I took a deep breath during the whole movie. All of the actors are excellent as is the location photography. We see some good, bad, and a lot of ugly in various cultures as families deal with unexpected events.
The title relates to the Tower of Babel, where God confounded the people's language so they couldn't understand each other. Certainly, each story has frustrating moments of poor communication that become matters of life and death. Though the movie is long, the tension never lets up and I was really caught up in the drama. Highly recommended.
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"Complex, but Rewarding"
"Goes Nowhere"
"Babel"