In Alejandro Iñarritu’s cinematic world, the order of things is subverted. Time is chopped and events are shuffled. Cars become, not media of safe transport, but catalysts of tragedy. And one fatal shot from a rifle becomes the means to salvation.Such is the case with his film, BABEL, the third of his trilogy of heart-crunchers, first of which was Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch) and then 21 Grams.
In BABEL, just as in the former two, various lives from three different places intersect, but this time in a shooting accident involving two Moroccan herd boys and an American wife (Cate Blanchett) and her American husband (a gray-haired, 10 years older Brad Pitt)on a bus tour around exotic Morocco. The two Moroccan boys engage in a fatal target practice on a passing bus to test the range of their new rifle and accidentally shots a sleeping American woman aboard (Blanchett). The reverberations of that one rifle shot spans miles across seas: In San Diego, a Mexican nanny is forced to take along her American ward of two blond kids to her son’s wedding in Mexico. Meanwhile, in Japan, a deaf-mute high school girl struggles to feel wanted and understood by normal boys her age.
BABEL is a film about the very thing that binds us: language. But Iñarritu challenges the notion of language, both spoken and signed, as effective conveyors of the message. It also serves to destroy, to create barriers, to deafen ears. What he offers instead is this: A bullet communicates better than words. It is not made to destroy lives but to destroy the veneer of people’s indifference. In its process of destruction, it exposes people’s fears and hopes.
Here, Iñarritu delivers.
All reviews -
Movies (7)
A bullet can speak louder than words
Posted : 16 years, 4 months ago on 22 July 2008 09:49 (A review of Babel (2006))0 comments, Reply to this entry
The Pink Panther review
Posted : 17 years, 4 months ago on 18 July 2007 07:19 (A review of The Pink Panther)The movie can be quite ridiculous but it has its redeeming moments. I especially liked the "wallflower-ninja thing" at the climactic party and the steve martin and jean reno unexpected dance production. and oh! i can never forget the james bond spoof. clive owen's appearance was great!
0 comments, Reply to this entry
Must-see
Posted : 17 years, 8 months ago on 7 March 2007 08:29 (A review of Babel (2006))This film is cathartic.
0 comments, Reply to this entry
Must-see
Posted : 17 years, 8 months ago on 7 March 2007 08:19 (A review of A History of Violence (2005))i love this film. it's very literary. the conflict and the tension is so well handled. i like the complications. and everyone should watch out for viggo mortensen's fighting scenes. it's both violent and humorous.
0 comments, Reply to this entry
Great movie that will make you think
Posted : 17 years, 9 months ago on 6 February 2007 08:23 (A review of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan)Yes, it will make you think a lot. It will make you think about America. It will make you think about the western ideals superpower nations flood the world with. It will make you think about racism, bigotry, western feminism, anti-semitism,poverty in third world countries, sexism and all the wrong things about this world.
It's a very reflective movie with tons of irony. Borat himself is an irony because Sacha Baron Cohen, a British actor and a Jew plays him.
Borat challenges the viewer to rethink their perceptions about certain things. We may say and think that we are cultured individuals because we have been educated on western education but perhaps we may act otherwise in front of a "backward" man like Borat.
It's a very reflective movie with tons of irony. Borat himself is an irony because Sacha Baron Cohen, a British actor and a Jew plays him.
Borat challenges the viewer to rethink their perceptions about certain things. We may say and think that we are cultured individuals because we have been educated on western education but perhaps we may act otherwise in front of a "backward" man like Borat.
0 comments, Reply to this entry
This movie is a must-see. One of Miyazak
Posted : 17 years, 10 months ago on 25 January 2007 12:15 (A review of Howl's Moving Castle (2004))Hayao Miyazaki has done it again. This is another of his engaging works which is a brain trip on the high, fantastic road of the subconcious. But like all his other fantastic works, this one has a heart. You still know and feel that the experience is familiar, each character's dispositions only right, and the troubled circumstances the characters are plunged into, comic yet inevitable (in the film's world).
The animation is great too. This is really worth buying and watching over and over again. it is perpetually exciting.
The animation is great too. This is really worth buying and watching over and over again. it is perpetually exciting.
0 comments, Reply to this entry
Uwe Boll should be gutted
Posted : 17 years, 10 months ago on 22 January 2007 03:29 (A review of BloodRayne)This is one of the worst movies I've seen.
well i saw the movie because the game was great, the trailer looked exciting, kristanna loken looked hotly lesbian, and actors i've respected and admired were signed in. but you can never trust that a great game would translate into a good movie despite it's great cast of actors or promising storyline because it's most likely bound to be (under)written with lots of Hollywood rubbish.
i wonder why ben kingsley or billy zane signed for it in the first place? they all look and sound uninspired in their acts. ben kingsley and michael madsen say their lines dryly. kristanna loken's moves look unpracticed and the bad camerawork doesn't do well at least in trying to flatter whatever artistic bit of it left.
really disappointing. uwe boll is really the master of error.
well i saw the movie because the game was great, the trailer looked exciting, kristanna loken looked hotly lesbian, and actors i've respected and admired were signed in. but you can never trust that a great game would translate into a good movie despite it's great cast of actors or promising storyline because it's most likely bound to be (under)written with lots of Hollywood rubbish.
i wonder why ben kingsley or billy zane signed for it in the first place? they all look and sound uninspired in their acts. ben kingsley and michael madsen say their lines dryly. kristanna loken's moves look unpracticed and the bad camerawork doesn't do well at least in trying to flatter whatever artistic bit of it left.
really disappointing. uwe boll is really the master of error.
0 comments, Reply to this entry