by Everett Jensen

Created on: June 23, 2008

Babel
directed by Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu
written by Guillermo Arriaga
starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garca Bernal, Ko-ji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi, Mohamed Akhzam

Here we see four intersecting stories that call forth images of the Tower of Babel, a massive structure that was to be built by men who spoke on language to "reach the heavens" and establish a sort of dominance over the sky. In the biblical telling, found in Genesis 11, their God became upset with this hubris and decided to confound their language and scatter them across the earth thereby quashing the creation of the temple and reminding his creatures of his own tangible power. In this film, language proves to divide individuals as communication often breaks down throughout the narrative.

The story is loosely constructed around a single crashing event. Two Moroccan boys are trying out a new rifle their father recently purchased from an old man in the village. They have been told that the rifle has a range of three kilometers and they are testing it by shooting at rocks. Then a tour bus comes into view and they decide to shoot at it. They hit it and run away terrified. The bullet strikes Susan (Blanchett) who with her husband Richard (Pitt) is attempting to escape the horrible death of their youngest child back home. They have left two young children behind with their nanny, Amelia (Barraza). Amelia cannot find a sitter so she takes the children with her to Mexico to attend her son's wedding. On the way back she is detained and deported because she doesn't have a permission slip signed by the children's parents. In Japan, Chieko (Kikuchi) is a deaf-mute girl struggling with her sexuality. She acts out publically in order to gain male interest, culminating in an attempted seduction of a detective named Kenji Mamiya (Satoshi Nikaido). Mamiya wants to know about the rifle Chieko's father Yasujiro (Ko-ji Yakusho) sold to the man in Morocco. Chieko invites him over and proceeds to remove all her clothing in order to be touched by a man who doesn't consider her a freak.

The frantic pace of this film exploits the confusion that shocks the senses with events that plague the imagination with every frame. A single poignant event brings an essence of terrible uncertainty in a world where voices often go unheeded and the essential struggle for unity is forever thwarted. Each of the primary characters are caught unwittingly by the throat in a mystery that disrupts the very fabric of their lives.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>