D-R-A-M-A: Babel

I read this post online and It makes sense to me...

Babel is a film that makes people feel smart for liking the it.

Personally, the acting was good, the shots were good and even certain parts of the story was good... it was good drama.

But it seemed like everyone in the movie was doomed from the beginning. They all made the wrong choices and I don't think the characters had a chance to come out of it in a good way... they were all f*d and you come out of it and you don't feel good nor did you learn anything new. And tying it all neatly in one big coincidental story was just too much.

Yeah its a messed up world, so what's new? It wasn't as spectacular as it was hyped up to be.
 
I completely disagree. I feel like I learned a lot. How desolate it actually is in Afghanitan. How you can't just dial 9-1-1 and the U.S. Embassy comes and gets you. How there is still a procedure and political red tape. How people assume, from even the slightest accident, that they're under attack by terrorists and the way their fear escalates the problem way beyond something deal-able. How scary it must be to have a doctor looking over you who has less education than you do. I feel like I earned more about Japanese culture. I feel like I learned more about trying to cross the border if you're Mexican. How strict they are and how stereotypes play into the equation even if the border patrol is, himself, Mexican. I thought the choices were unique and interesting.

It's definitely a movie that took its time. And there's no arguing that Irratulatu really likes to have his characters suffer, sometimes to the detriment of the drama. But while I vaguely understood that problems like these happen, seeing them in a professionally "recorded" medium really brought it home.
 
I was very disappointed with this movie. It tried way too hard to make a profound commentary on humanity, but that's all there was to it. It was too empty to make any real impact on me. It seemed like they were trying to bank on the success of Crash so they just told a similar story but with an international cast addressing global issues.
 
Eastside Parkway said:
It seemed like they were trying to bank on the success of Crash so they just told a similar story but with an international cast addressing global issues.
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I saw the same parallels.
 
c.g._eads said:
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Oh, and he DEFINITELY has a japanese schoolgirl fetish. I don't think that's in question at all.
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Who doesn't, lol. And never mind the architecture. Ever since I was a kid I've wanted to go there. But I digress.

c.g._eads said:
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As far as that last beautiful pull-away shot on the balcony, I still don't understand how he did it.
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I got that impression right off the bat when I saw it. I've only watched it once so far but I remember seeing/sensing some fuzziness on the character outlines as the cam pulled back which suggests green screen. I think that with a helipcopter shot or cg models or even more expensive scale models together with green screen and motion capture is a possibility. But only because the fuzzy edges on the characters. Otherwise seasoned chopper pilots could handle this no sweat but the repercutions of an accident would be enormous and thus insurance and other major red tape.
-The same type of shot was done in the first few minutes of 'The Hudsucker Proxy'. That was scale models. But they zoomed in, not out.

Edit: That's it for me tonight. Gotta go. Cheers.
 
I mean come on. The moment where she flashes "the monster" to the guys at the neighboring table. Tell me that wasn't exploitative. There was no need to put that in the movie.

Oh, and I didn't feel this as a Crash rip-off at all. That's like saying Crash was a ripoff of Magnolia. Sure they had interweaving storylines and characters. But I think they were all very different movies. And Crash basically told you it's theme right up front. This movie was more subtle.
 
like i said c.g. ive dated asian women my whole life.... they are some japanese and chinese girls so far i seen that are like that...

sex freaks.... i know from experience and from loss:-/
 
Eastside Parkway said:
It seemed like they were trying to bank on the success of Crash so they just told a similar story but with an international cast addressing global issues.
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Babel went into principal photography 5 days before Crash was released in theaters.
 
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c.g._eads said:
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?
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The crane was on a building across the street. He pulled away as far as he could get using the crane and lens combo he used. He then continued to shrink the film image to make it look as if the camera was still receding. The background was time lapsed still photography of the city added in to create the impression that the shot was "real" ... he admitted at the Q&A I attended that the view of the city you get in that shot does not exist in real life as different parts of the city were cut together to create that visual feast.
 
c.g._eads said:
I completely disagree. I feel like I learned a lot. How desolate it actually is in Afghanitan. How you can't just dial 9-1-1 and the U.S. Embassy comes and gets you.
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It was Morocco.
 
Hairy Lime said:
Babel went into principal photography 5 days before Crash was released in theaters.
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This is such a good point.

People saying that Babel is a ripoff of Crash is a ripoff of Amores Perros / Magnolia...

The phrase is parrallel creativity, it may be completely ridiculous, but as you pointed it out, some of the films are completely unrelated and/or were filmed/written/produced before the other movies came out.
 
Babel is way better than Crash anyway. Crash was so sloppy and poorly-written/executed. Really nothing artistically unique or socially relevant about it, not to mention the characters, or caricatures I should say, were so paper-thin they almost weren't even there. But it thinks it is socially relevant because it's about racism, though it doesn't have anything to say that hasn't already been said, much better I might add, in other films. I really don't know understand the hype around Crash.
 
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Babel was well directed, impressive photography and editing, had great acting and a fantastic score. However, the script was pretentious and moralistic. Very forced together to show "forces of destiny" at work. The script let down this beautiful movie. Made it from excelent to merely good, or above average.
 
I haven't read this entire thread, so forgive me if I'm way off. I'm really, really, really tired of these six-degrees-of-who-gives-a-crap movies.

Performances were all great, but I've had some great performances in my bathroom that I wouldn't want to share with the world.

When are these self-absorbed Altman-rip-off vanity pieces going to go away? Crap.

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whoa, that's a harsh statement overland. I didn't think there were that many of these films made (one every two years or so compared to the 18 world war 2 movies we get a year). And maybe this is blasphemy, but this movie was ten times better than any of the long, poorly directed, uninteresting snore-fests that Altman made. Someone told me I should check out Altman's film library and I will always regret the time I wasted doing so. What boring films!
 
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