Babel is one those few movies which is made from the beginning to the very last scene with the one thing - excellence. Its extremely eccentric choice of plot and its execution make it another modern-day classic. The four seeming different stories in four very different cultural backgrounds are beautifully shown to convey similar messages to provoke our thoughts and indulge into discussions.
Four different story lines continuing in three different locations... and not in the same time frame either. It was really the director's challenge to keep us equally interested in each story while having a deliberately weak link among themselves. The story set in Japan might seem entirely disconnected from the beginning, but frankly, who cares? It was extremely well-written and well-acted, and conveys the similar central theme about family importance or how we take wrong decisions. The two stories set up in Morrocco are indeed excellent. Besides the film's central themes, they also portray the still-existing cultural prejudices between the developed and the third-world countries with a bitter ironic twist about the importance of death in these two cultures. One could say that it's somehow a slap in the faces of those of us who talk big words about terrorism from our easy chairs.
And how can I express enough praise about the film's overall acting? From celebrated actors like Brad Pitt and Gael Garcia Bernal to the unknown faces who portrayed Youssef or Ahmed or Cheiko, somehow they all managed to be inspired by the film's inner elegance and let out their best efforts. And they were accompanied by the most brilliant screenplay and cinematography as well.
Babel is not a film to watch in a tired mind. Make sure you have the enough time and circumstances to just sit back and think, after you see this film.
Four different story lines continuing in three different locations... and not in the same time frame either. It was really the director's challenge to keep us equally interested in each story while having a deliberately weak link among themselves. The story set in Japan might seem entirely disconnected from the beginning, but frankly, who cares? It was extremely well-written and well-acted, and conveys the similar central theme about family importance or how we take wrong decisions. The two stories set up in Morrocco are indeed excellent. Besides the film's central themes, they also portray the still-existing cultural prejudices between the developed and the third-world countries with a bitter ironic twist about the importance of death in these two cultures. One could say that it's somehow a slap in the faces of those of us who talk big words about terrorism from our easy chairs.
And how can I express enough praise about the film's overall acting? From celebrated actors like Brad Pitt and Gael Garcia Bernal to the unknown faces who portrayed Youssef or Ahmed or Cheiko, somehow they all managed to be inspired by the film's inner elegance and let out their best efforts. And they were accompanied by the most brilliant screenplay and cinematography as well.
Babel is not a film to watch in a tired mind. Make sure you have the enough time and circumstances to just sit back and think, after you see this film.