D-R-A-M-A: Babel

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They Live

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http://imdb.com/title/tt0449467/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/babel/



Hey Guys,

Just saw Babel and I'm still not so sure how I feel about it. Anyone else have a strong opinion, positive or negative, about this film? I'm curious to see what everyone else's impression was.

Inarritu has skills, for sure, but it felt a little too heavy handed . I felt distanced from the drama more than engaged by it. I really liked Amores Perros and 21 Grams, but I guess Babel just felt a little forced to me. Not as effortless.

As I said, not sure where my thoughts are with this one as you can probably tell. Help me out guys.

Also, which of the four story lines did you find most compelling? For me it was probably the Japanese girl Chieko...again, don't know why yet.......

Suffering is universal, I get it.....What else has Inarritu and writing partner Guillermo Arriaga got for us?

Think it's especially relevant when considering the up and coming DramaFest.
 

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just got back from Babel... and I thought the film was superb (but not without some minor grips that kinda threw me off)

cinematography = amazing of course... an abundance of handheld, intimate shots... high speed filmstock really gave some shots nice grain and texture... very kinetic camera movement but without getting too "gimmicky".... at times the film was SOO caustic I felt I was going to just hunch over and barf.... there were some very nice desert shots with the blue sky exposed perfectly and the characters in the foreground werent dim or dark, in fact they were lit in such a natural way that they didnt even look lit... they didnt even look like the had any bounce on them.... everytime I get on this super dupr HD kick, I see a film like this and it really reminds me just how ORGANIC and BEAUTIFUL film is..... film will never die IMO

editing = simply amazing.... caustic, intense, atmospheric.... there were some beautiful moments of contrast.... loud to silence, bright to dark.... top notch editing... and the score was minimalistic, bleak but uplifting at times.... I think the editing was possibly one of the finest points (technically) of this film

acting = superb again.... even the minor characters were completely amazing.... everything felt authentic from a performance standpoint (now some of the dialogue was kinda ify... I'll get to that)

story = dont get me wrong, the story was good but some of it felt a little "tacked on" or some of it felt as if they were trying desperately to link up the japanese girl with the morrocan incident.... some of the scenes were kind of "ehhh".... but thats not to say the stories were terrible, in fact they wee compelling but the way he chose to weave some of these storylines were kinda.... well.....

dialogue = very good, multiple languages, sign language.... some of the written dialogue wasnt completely believeable but nothing to write home about

8.99 out of 10
 
Yeah, I agree with you pretty much all the way, which is why I'm still confused.

I thought the acting was incredible. The young boys, the Japanese girl, the nanny. Top notch.

The cinematography was beautiful, no doubt.

The editing artistic and skillful.

The score haunting and appropriate.

The themes interesting and important.

But I still wasn't fully engaged by it all. I don't know, apathy might be an appropriate word. I guess I can't buy some of the story elements, and the character's actions. I think maybe that's what it is.
 
a few specific things that bothered me...

the dialogue between the morrocan family after the boys did the shooting, when they are talking about terrorists and whether or not it was a terrorist attack.... this part seemed poorly written and not believeable..... I dunno, I guess it just seemed like you could tell it was "written" ... just didnt seem authentic to me

the fact that the japanese girl was naked when the father comes home (the part where she is on the balcony)........at this point I was starting to think deep down Innaritu has some kind of fetish for seeing this young chik naked

and I know that Innaritu is mexican and he truly wanted to capture an authentic mexican feel (when the kids first get into mexico, that montage..... and then the next montage during the wedding) but it seemed a little un-balanced when compared to the Morrocan storyline... and even the japanese storyline..... I"M NOT SAYING that these werent well done.... in fact they were VERY well done but I felt that he should have balanced it out by treating the other storylines with that kind of spot on detail and authenticity (mainly Morroco)




SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DONT READ UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE SPOILED!!!!!!!!!!!






I was relieved to see at the end the children were found and the japanese girl DIDNT jump off the balcony.... as it was getting close to the end, Innaritu was piling on the tension so thick that it was starting to become nihilistic..... I was starting to think, man this is just gonna be an UTTER f**king bummer..... word.
 
great little review here: http://www.avclub.com/content/node/54540

I pretty much agree though the reviewer is maybe too hard on the writer (after all being a writer is a lot harder than being a critic).

Think this review might address your confusion. I also was disappointed compared his first two, but still very worthwhile. I was not moved emotionally in any way over the second half of the film - and Cate did not work for me at all.
 
yeah that review is pretty spot on.....

that said, the writing wasnt HORRENDOUS

just a tad skattered and tacked on (at parts)
 
adaml said:
and Cate did not work for me at all.
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yeah, she kinda gets established as a frigid b*tch in the open air eatery..... you almost kinda want her to get shot (haha, ok thats an over statement)
 
hoofandmouf said:
yeah, she kinda gets established as a frigid b*tch in the open air eatery..... you almost kinda want her to get shot (haha, ok thats an over statement)
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I'll say this. They were definately whiny Americans...given, the situation they're thrust into is horrible...but there seemed to be a lot of

"WHY DON'T YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?!?!"

"WHAT??? YOU DON'T HAVE A HOSPITAL EQUIPPED WITH WESTERN MEDICAL EQUIPMENT NEARBY IN THE MOROCCAN DESERT?!?!?!"

Catch my drift? The review in Entertainment Weekly talked about this, and I thought it was kind of funny.

I hate it when people don't speak english in foreign countries. Don't you?
 
just seen it, i liked the script untill about the last quarter i guess. after that it got a bit forced.

thats the only negative thing i can say about this otherwise beautful film.

how about the disco scene with the deaf japanese girl. that was one of my fav scenes!
especially when you go into her perspective and everything is silent and she sees the others dancing
and having fun and she starts dancing too.
 
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When you intercut storylines, you are performing a juggling act. While you can present 3 or more different stories and have them intertwine, you also run the risk of distancing the audience if they are not allowed to get involved with characters and their story. I think that was Babel's main problem.

It might not have been the script, it could have been the editing choices. Usually overactive cross-cutting occurs when the director sits in the dark of the editing room and gets panicky that a sequence is boring, or is not working.
 
It wasn't the editing. Guillermo Arriaga (spelling?) was at the Savannah Film Festival recently for a screening of Babel, and did a Q&A afterwards. Somebody asked him if the narrative jumps were made in the editing room and he simply wrote each storyline individually, and he emphatically stated that no- what you see on screen is how it was written.

In all honesty he seemed like a genuinely nice guy- much more so than Tommy Lee Jones, who was at the festival as well and came across during his Q&A like a bit of an asshole (and slightly stoned at that). Guillermo spoke briefly on the breaking of his partnership with the director of Babel- apparently there were several scuffles between the two regarding pacing, dialogue, etc that continued through most of the production. He said that while he'd enjoyed their collaborations, he would probably not be working with (the director of Babel) again.
 
Babel

Babel

How was the shot at the end done? The one where the japanese father is with his daughter on the balcony? Was it done with green screen? Two shots spliced together?
 
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I took this at a screening on nov 30 or dec 1(i forget) of Babel at the museum of the moving image

Cache money video
He said the way he did that shot was zooming from another building for the first 25%. then for the other 75% he took stills and put them together to fake it.
 
I saw this movie today. I thought it was a mess. Heavy handed, slap me in the face with the "message."
 
Ahh, Blaine, digging up an old thread I started. I concur with some of your statements. Definately heavy handed. Don't know if I thought it was a complete mess though.
 
Blaine said:
I saw this movie today. I thought it was a mess. Heavy handed, slap me in the face with the "message."
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yeah, that's what my girlfriend said. and it's why i haven't seen it. maybe i'll check it out sometime but (obviously) i'm in no hurry.
 
DVX-Ben said:
I'll say this. They were definately whiny Americans...given, the situation they're thrust into is horrible...but there seemed to be a lot of

"WHY DON'T YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?!?!"

"WHAT??? YOU DON'T HAVE A HOSPITAL EQUIPPED WITH WESTERN MEDICAL EQUIPMENT NEARBY IN THE MOROCCAN DESERT?!?!?!"

Catch my drift? The review in Entertainment Weekly talked about this, and I thought it was kind of funny.

I hate it when people don't speak english in foreign countries. Don't you?
Click to expand...
Sadly, many tourists don't have the same tolerance as you. A lot of Americans who come to Thailand expect Thais to speak English and get VERY angry when they don't or when they don't have the same luxuries as the US. And everyday I see foreigners treating the locals rudely because of it.

In my condo building the property managers call sometimes to help them translate because a foreigner wants to rent a unit or has a problem with the bill. Most of the foreigners ask the management, "Why can't you speak English?" I've even had to translate conversations between foreigners and their Thai girlfriends. (What?!?!) The Thai girl is always expected to speak English, even though the relationship takes place in Thailand. About 95% of the Thai/Foreigner marriages have the Thai girl speaking English. I guess being a superpower means we expect the rest of the world to adapt to us. I'm guilty of it too sometimes.

At the local pizza place I've seen many foreigners get angry and walk out because the waitress didn't understand English and got their order wrong. This one woman got furious because she asked for a coke with no ice, but the waitress brought it with ice. If not having ice is so important then why don't you learn how to say "No ice" in Thai!?!?! (It takes one minute to learn.) Another woman was on a bus (with her son) and she went crazy because the bus wasn't moving. She was yelling at the bus driver (in English), "Why aren't we moving? You said 5 minutes!!!! It's been 5 minutes!!!!!"

The movie Babel isn't far from the truth as far as some tourists lack of understanding and tolerance goes (especially the rich foreigners like the characters in Babel). Pitt's wife freaked out about the ice, but he didn't. It was only after his wife got shot did he freak out. Which is understandable. I think we all would get frustrated with the lack of medical attention when our wife is dying and we're half-way around the world.

I finally got to see Babel two days ago and was a little disappointed. I was hoping for more. Something that would explain the meaning of life and why we can't all get along. Guess my expectations were too high. D'oh!! :) :)
 
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