‘Babel’ loose ends will lose many viewers
In the months following the Academy Awards, many of the winning
films (and some of the ones that lost) are re-released in theaters
or quickly put out on DVD for a second wave of viewing.
‘Babel’ loose ends will lose many viewers
In the months following the Academy Awards, many of the winning films (and some of the ones that lost) are re-released in theaters or quickly put out on DVD for a second wave of viewing.
One such movie is “Babel,” the latest circuitous drama from director Alejandro González Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga. It was nominated for seven academy awards, including best picture and best original screenplay – though it took home only the Oscar for best original score. The movie spans four countries, three continents and mixes in four languages.
Other films by the pair include “21 Grams” and “Amores Perros,” which loosely translates to “Love’s a Bitch” in English.
Their first collaboration “Amores Perros,” came out in 2000. It was nominated in 2001 for a foreign film academy award.
All of the films have focused on a tragic event and how seemingly random people are connected with it. The films are never light or uplifting, and focus on the underbelly of human nature.
Like Babel, the film moved back and forth in time and switched from one storyline to another. Only at the end of the film does it become clear that the horrific car accident at the beginning of film is what connects a homeless man, a dog owner and a model. Everyone ends up alone or betrayed by their loved ones, but the actions of each person still make sense.
Babel has a similarly depressing story arc, but in order to believe all the people are connected one must suspend their belief in logical. The premise of the film is that a Japanese hunter gives a rifle to a Moroccan guide as a gift after a hunting expedition. The guide then gives the gun to a neighbor whose sons are to use it to keep jackals away from the goat herd. While the boys, who are around 10 to 12, are competing over who is the better shooter, the younger boy decides to shoot at a passing tour bus.
The most well known stars of the film, Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, play American couple Richard and Susan who are on the tour bus. Susan is hit by the bullet. While Richard struggles to find medical care for his wife and the U.S. embassy assumes the shooting was a terrorist attack, the couple’s children are home in California with a Mexican nanny.
Adriana Barraza plays Amelia, the nanny, and she is watching over Debbie, played by the cute-as-a-button Elle Fanning, and Mike, played by just as cute Nathan Gamble. Amelia has requested a day off work to go back to Mexico for her son’s wedding, but with Susan’s injury the couple has asked her to cancel as there is no one else to watch the children.
Amelia and her nephew, Santiago, played by Iñárritu and Arriga film vetran Gael GarcÃa Bernal, decide to take the children across the border. The wedding goes well, but when the car load returns to the U. S. border, Santiago raises suspicion with a few sarcastic remarks to the border patrol officer. In a panic, he drives off with officers in pursuit.
While all this is happening, scenes from Japan are intermixed. Chieko, the daughter of the Japanese hunter, is still stunned by the suicide of her mother. The deaf-mute girl shows her body to anyone one who is interested – and plenty who aren’t.
By the end of the movie, one is left wondering if the name “Babel” has more to do with babbling on and on than with the biblical tower that shares its name. While the switching from story to story, and moving back and forth through time worked in “Amores Perros,” it becomes confusing in Babel.
And in order for the connection between the people in different countries to work, there are more than a few illogical moves.
First, one must believe that the Moroccan boys would shoot at a bus of tourists just to prove that one is a better shot than the other. Then viewers must believe Richard would opt to keep Susan in a tiny village while waiting for an ambulance rather than have the tour bus drive in the direction of the nearest medical facility.
We also must believe that the American couple had no relatives or friends who would have been willing to take Debbie and Mike for a day so that their nanny could return to Mexico for one day for the first time in 15 years. Further still, one must believe that after driving for hours and celebrating all night at her son’s wedding, Amelia would insist on driving back to the United States rather than spend another day resting with the children in Mexico.
And when approaching the border, we have to believe that illegal immigrant Santiago would mouth off to the border patrol.
And that’s not even mentioning the day-long quest to find someone to have sex with her by Cheiko, the Japanese teenager.
The film preaches that human actions all lead to tragedy and there is no reconciliation in the end. To Iñárritu and Arriaga, all I can say is, “Come on guys. Is life really that bad?”
