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. Youthful play is transformed into a terrorist incident by the all-seeing American media eye. A slight lapse strips a woman of her comfort and security as haranguing justice brings her low and removes her from a land she's called home for sixteen years. Another woman is cut down simply because she happened to be sitting precisely where the bullet hits. A frustrated girl mourns intensely for the death of her mother and cannot find a release for pent up sexual tension. Helplessness and despair mark each of them with a coded blight. They are transformed by circumstances that afflict them from without.
This film articulates the idea that seemingly random events can cause catastrophes across the globe. It's the idea that for every positive there must be a corresponding negative in order for the universe to remain balanced. Still, there are merely many bad things throughout this film. Dead babies, gunshot wounds, deportation, terrified children, horrifically depressed young women bent on at least considering suicideall of these aspects of the film make for an exceedingly grim viewing experience. It's difficult to find any hope to cling to in the end. Everything is broken, shattered, and brought into clear focus as the effects of a world that remains out of balance because not enough good is being introduced into our lives. Are we merely mad people who are being punished for the same hubris that destroyed the unity of the would-be builders of the Tower of Babel? Do we deserve anything more than unmitigated horror and a crass devaluing of the proper functioning of life in balance with all the stars aligned? There is a black terror at the heart of this film. This is the cinematic equivalent of bodies upon bodies being piled up and devoured by effervescent flames.
This is fear. It's a toast to the futility of our impossible lives. The more good we put in, somewhere else others are suffering unduly. We cannot speak to one another freely and this gulf in communication has led us into conflict after conflict. We want to be released from all blindness into a carousel of touching that dark place where the impetus of our hatred resides in a core envelopment. This disjointed film routinely rages beneath its magnifying glass and displays a temper that continues to plague the age. For all this, there is much beauty to be found here. The dusty hills of Morocco suggest a wide open solace that is undermined by the cruel isolation that berates the senses with a bleak reminder of the sinister forces of separation. Still, it's a drive to create a Temple in one's glory that plagues the hearts and minds of individuals who continue to make their own attempts to reach heaven. We cannot sit still long enough to capture the essence of what we perceive amidst all this loneliness and self-reproachment.
Wonder and terror reach the mouths of babes throughout the course of this film. Yussef (Boubker Ait El Caid) and Ahmed (Said Tarchani) find themselves amazed at their accuracy and ability to hit the tour bus. They are brought into ruin by the ramifications of Ahmed's alarming actions. The two young children of Richard and SusanDebbie (Elle Fanning) and Mike (Nathan Gamble)- are overjoyed at the spectacle in Mexico City and exceedingly frightened by being left behind in the desert by Amelia's nephew Santiago (Gael Garca Bernal) who is fleeing the police after a run-in with the border patrol. Like most of the threads in this film, there is no closure with Santiago's actions. He merely disappears with the cops in hot pursuit.
The performances in this film are unilaterally excellent. Brad Pitt is rugged and demonstrative as his character tries to understand the shooting of his wife. Pitt brings a physicality to this role and possesses a nervous tension that sells his character's great fears. Cate Blanchett certainly looks stunning near death. Her countenance reflects the agony of her character as she fights for life. Blanchett exudes a quiet dignity that lends Susan a grace during her trying ordeal. Susan maintains a tenacity throughout that grounds her in a definitive reality. Blanchett slips into the skin of Susan with an audacity that rings true. Amelia Barraza brings a warmth to her character that is made present by Amelia's interactions with the children. Rinko Kikuchi is eternally graceful and imbues Chieko with a combination of elegance and aggressive psychosexual maneuverings that prove to undermine her ability to express herself in that realm. Kikuchi is commanding as a deaf-mute who longs to reach out and be noticed by someone who can see her for who she is. Kji Yakusho is solid as Yasujiro, Chieko's father. In his few scenes he exhibits a definite presence that is orchestrated through his bearing.
Overall, this film is an occasionally convoluted investigation into the various ways that life can become a brutal exercise in mere survival. It looks into the eye of terror that we all find ourselves staring into now and again. There are no answers in this film to questions that remain mostly unsaid. It's a film about impasses and the difficulties one find's in mastering certain moments when the whole thing comes crashing down. Atrocity informs our lives, this film seems to be saying. None of us can escape certain tyrannies that perhaps might devour us if the circumstances prove to be right. We reach for Babel and we are reduced to the rather insignificant beings we actually are. No matter how high we go, ultimately the reward for our actions is chaos, fear and death.