D-R-A-M-A: Babel

I actually think that Brad Pitt is one hell of an actor, but for some reason a lot of people don't like him, though not that that seems to be an issue with this film. It's good to see him getting the recognition that he deserves.

I think I'll go check out the film this weekend...
 
david fincher mad me love the guy as an actor i think sometimes takes roles he shouldn't but hes a great actor in my book.
 
his character in 12 monkeys is great!

My biggest problem with Babel, the coincidences are just too much, all the bad things that are happening are so out there, that it gets annoying. I did enjoy the Japanese chick going to the club, that was about it.
 
PK Gillock said:
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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Sadly I have many of the same or similar stories to tell from Japan. I havent seen Babel yet so Ill wait to link the comparisons. But truly somethings I have seen are ridiculous.
 
tommyinla said:
You're missing out... it's a good movie.
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sorry, i've seen it. seeing a man about a mule is a line that keeps being reiterated through the movie (if i recall correctly). pitt and duchovny each say it in reference to having to take a piss. anyway, it was lame, lame, lame, dumb, attempt at a joke. nevermind.
 
Zak Forsman said:
sorry, i've seen it. seeing a man about a mule is a line that keeps being reiterated through the movie (if i recall correctly). pitt and duchovny each say it in reference to having to take a piss. anyway, it was lame, lame, lame, dumb, attempt at a joke. nevermind.
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Oh... haven't seen that movie in such a long time, I just remember the basic plot and the characters.

DC said:
"Floyd" from 'True Romance' - yeah! :thumbsup:
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The pothead, right? Another movie I saw a loooong time ago...
 
DVX-Ben said:
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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So the point of this movie is that no one suffers like brown-skinned people in the third world: The nanny gets deported and loses her livelihood; the Morrocan father loses his sons and his livelihood while the Americans and Japanese live "happily ever after" in a sense. I liked this movie although it wasn't very emotionally balanced. I think the girl should've killed herself and the note she gave the cop ought to have been her suicide note. Or maybe we should've discovered that the Japanese tycoon killed his wife with the same rifle and covered up her death. And the American wife should've died. She seemed so ungrateful even when those Morracans were trying to help her. The first-world folks should have lost something more.
 
Anyone want to take a stab at the contents of the note that the Japanese girl wrote and passed on to the cop? I felt slighted when it wasn't revealed...

Kind of like Bill Murray whispering something into Scarlett's ear at the end of Lost in Translation. Arrrrrgg!
 
nmbuconj said:
Anyone want to take a stab at the contents of the note that the Japanese girl wrote and passed on to the cop? I felt slighted when it wasn't revealed...

Kind of like Bill Murray whispering something into Scarlett's ear at the end of Lost in Translation. Arrrrrgg!
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you're talking about two movies titled Lost in Translation and Babel and complaining when they illustrate the notion of ineffective communication?
 
Zak Forsman said:
you're talking about two movies titled Lost in Translation and Babel and complaining when they illustrate the notion of ineffective communication?
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Go figure...:beer:
 
Zak Forsman said:
you're talking about two movies titled Lost in Translation and Babel and complaining when they illustrate the notion of ineffective communication?
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I thought Lost in Translation was an excellent movie. But I like Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson...
 
I finally saw this movie!

I've both wanted to see it and not wanted to see it so much over the last four months. I thought Amos Perros was one of the wildest most interesting movie experiences I'd had in a long time. And then I thought 21 Grams (title?) was absolutely terrible. It was so slow and depressing. There wasn't a single smile in the movie. I hated hated hated that movie. So that left me wondering which Innaritu was going to show up for Babel.

I have to say that I thought this movie was mesmerizing! A really really really great movie. And I'm still not sure why I liked it so much because, on the surface, it seemed just as heavy-handed and depressing as 21 Grams. So why do I like one depressing movie and hate another? I think it's because I enjoyed these characer's situations more. They were more interesting.

As for the poster above who says that the movie's message is "whitey always wins", I hardly think the message was anywhere close to that. Everybody in this movie gets screwed (well, except for the Japanese girl - cough cough). I would argue that Brad Pitt and Lord Of The Rings chick came out of this the most depressed out of anyone (and that's a big statement - because there was some major depression in this movie). Couple that with the director being Mexican, and I don't think there was any statement being made there at all.

I can't deny, however, in the last Brad Pitt storyline scene, where the dramatic music is playing and the helicopter is swooping down and he's running his wife into the helicopter, that I didn't think it would be hilarious if, after the helicopter lifted to about a hundred feet, one of the Arabs blasted it with a rocket launcher and the whole thing blew to pieces. Unfortunately, I'm 100% certain that Irratu doesn't have a sense of humor.

Oh, and he DEFINITELY has a japanese schoolgirl fetish. I don't think that's in question at all. As far as that last beautiful pull-away shot on the balcony, I still don't understand how he did it. He took pictures?? What?? Okay, I'll go take some pictures of the Sears Tower and then do one of the most amazing dolly shots ever done. No problem. What does he mean he took pictures? It doesn't explain how he took them from mid-air or how he made her and the city move in the picture. Anybody who can explain this a little more clearly?

Anyway, I'm glad I didn't see this before the Oscars cause I would've thrown something at the TV after it didn't win best picture.
 
I saw this before the Oscars and was not surprised it was up. I thought it was playing on stereo-types. On purpose. Or at least how some people in different parts of the world might view others in other parts.

I thought the virgin girl was over done writing wise but well acted.
Who really would act like that? Alot of it was true but the stripping for
the cop and naked on the balcony at the end...ehh. She would have to
have a whole lot of problems, not just the 'I can't meet anyone' thing.
Still had to feel for the kid though.Most of it seemed accurate.

Everything else mostly rolled right along. The kids with the gun and the accidental shooting. I can buy that. The American 'I'm special because I'm American' kind of thing was overdone writing wise. But, maybe some might think that. The nanny, same thing, a nanny of x number of years would not leave a kid in the desert. Not a kid she thought of as her own. I didn't buy it.

But it was a very good movie and entertaining. And to some degree made me think about perceptions. Worth watching again but I'm not ready to put it in the classic category. It was a big undertaking that's for sure and I'm happy for everyone involved.

***On a side note: One of my favorite shorts stars Brad pitt called
Contact(1992) [not the feature film]. I saw it years ago and never forgot it.***
 
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