Babel
In a Moroccan desert, two boys fooling around with a gun take a pop at a passing bus – this detonates a chain of events that will link the two boys, an American tourist couple's (Brad Pitt & Cate Blanchett) frantic struggle to survive, a nanny (Adriana Barraza) illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children, and a Japanese teen rebel (Rinko Kikuchi) whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. Also starring García Bernal.
Reviews & comments
Variety
pressEffectively building dread and emotional tension as tragic incidents triggered by human stupidity and carelessness steadily multiply, this film, like "21 Grams" in particular, employs a deterministically grim mindset in the cause of its philosophical aspirations, but is gripping nearly all the way...
The New York Times
pressIn the end Babel, like that tower in the book of Genesis, is a grand wreck, an incomplete monument to its own limitless ambition. But it is there, on the landscape, a startling and imposing reality. It's a folly, and also, perversely, a wonder...
Sydney Morning Herald
pressThe story of the Tower of Babel turns up in Hebrew and Muslim texts, as well as the Bible, but the basic gist is that men tried to build a stairway to heaven and God subverted them by giving them different languages. They could no longer understand each other, so the whole construction fell apart...
San Francisco Chronicle
pressIt's a film of unquestioned visual artistry, and the filmmakers' empathy and human understanding are apparent moment to moment, scene by scene. But despite sensitive performances, it's an experiment that fizzles...
Rolling Stone
pressIn the year's richest, most complex and ultimately most heartbreaking film, Inarritu invites us to get past the babble of modern civilization and start listening to each other...
New Zealand Herald
pressThere are some truly heartfelt moments in this film, with Inarritu using tragedy as a catalyst for most of these characters to reconnect to each other. However, there is also a pervading sense of gloom as Babel illustrates how significant the barriers created by language can be...
Hollywood Reporter
pressThe filmmakers succeed brilliantly in weaving these stories together, taking time to explore depth of character and relationships. The suspense builds throughout as everyone involved becomes lost in a place they don't understand with people they don't know if they can trust...
A slow moving movie but well worth the watch. It interweives the lives and connections of different people and different cultures, bringing them all together in an abstract way. Some scenes were not worth the film time given them, but overall a fascinating film that captivated me until the end.
Kinda nicely put together and well told but the story became a bit obvious well before the end and, well, hasn't that "6 degrees of separation" thing been done (and done and done)?
There are almost too many storylines in this movie. It is a very 'earthy' movie, which stirs up emotions. It is not for the faint hearted (or romantic) and I would not go to it if I were epeleptic (no joke, it has a nightclub scene with all to real disco lights). It comes across as a very 'serious' movie, that has had a huge amount of technical effort to...
Babel is a film that interrogates the aspects that unite us as humans- tragedy. It is well shot and the images that the film presents are moving and poignant. The highlight of the film was the story of the Iraqi boys that foolishly play with a rifle their father has given them. One shot from the rifle puts in motion a series of events that link many...
Whilst somewhat drawn out, this is a movie that draws you in as you see the Morracan life style centred around one family who "come by a rifle" and the mistake that only a boy could make affect the life of a touring couple who have left their children at home with their Mexican carer. As what happens in the home of the tourists in their absence and the...
It was a while before the threads started to form the story, perhaps thats the brilliance of it. Dont miss this movie.
This is a good as the reviewers suggest. Innaritu does a great job of weaving three stories of peoples in 3 vastly different parts of the world together to present a compellin drama. And it seems by his comment at the Golden Globes he has a sense of humour too. I look forward to his next movie and trust Flicks will be sure to advise us all when it arrives.
This film captures real life crises and how humans cope with these problems in so many different ways. The emotion in this film is so captivating that you dont want it to end. When you leave the cinema you feel as though you actually knew the characters in the film and were part of their lives. It has been a long time since I have experienced that in a...
A very convincing production justifies each nuance in this human drama. The performances of all the actress and actors is flawless, made possible by the intricate script. The rich tapestry of life and causality are examined in this movie. A non-chronological format provides the justification of all parties' actions, and the impact of circumstance. An...
Variety
pressEffectively building dread and emotional tension as tragic incidents triggered by human stupidity and carelessness steadily multiply, this film, like "21 Grams" in particular, employs a deterministically grim mindset in the cause of its philosophical aspirations, but is gripping nearly all the way...
The New York Times
pressIn the end Babel, like that tower in the book of Genesis, is a grand wreck, an incomplete monument to its own limitless ambition. But it is there, on the landscape, a startling and imposing reality. It's a folly, and also, perversely, a wonder...
Sydney Morning Herald
pressThe story of the Tower of Babel turns up in Hebrew and Muslim texts, as well as the Bible, but the basic gist is that men tried to build a stairway to heaven and God subverted them by giving them different languages. They could no longer understand each other, so the whole construction fell apart...
San Francisco Chronicle
pressIt's a film of unquestioned visual artistry, and the filmmakers' empathy and human understanding are apparent moment to moment, scene by scene. But despite sensitive performances, it's an experiment that fizzles...
Rolling Stone
pressIn the year's richest, most complex and ultimately most heartbreaking film, Inarritu invites us to get past the babble of modern civilization and start listening to each other...
New Zealand Herald
pressThere are some truly heartfelt moments in this film, with Inarritu using tragedy as a catalyst for most of these characters to reconnect to each other. However, there is also a pervading sense of gloom as Babel illustrates how significant the barriers created by language can be...
Hollywood Reporter
pressThe filmmakers succeed brilliantly in weaving these stories together, taking time to explore depth of character and relationships. The suspense builds throughout as everyone involved becomes lost in a place they don't understand with people they don't know if they can trust...
A slow moving movie but well worth the watch. It interweives the lives and connections of different people and different cultures, bringing them all together in an abstract way. Some scenes were not worth the film time given them, but overall a fascinating film that captivated me until the end.
Kinda nicely put together and well told but the story became a bit obvious well before the end and, well, hasn't that "6 degrees of separation" thing been done (and done and done)?
There are almost too many storylines in this movie. It is a very 'earthy' movie, which stirs up emotions. It is not for the faint hearted (or romantic) and I would not go to it if I were epeleptic (no joke, it has a nightclub scene with all to real disco lights). It comes across as a very 'serious' movie, that has had a huge amount of technical effort to...
Babel is a film that interrogates the aspects that unite us as humans- tragedy. It is well shot and the images that the film presents are moving and poignant. The highlight of the film was the story of the Iraqi boys that foolishly play with a rifle their father has given them. One shot from the rifle puts in motion a series of events that link many...
Whilst somewhat drawn out, this is a movie that draws you in as you see the Morracan life style centred around one family who "come by a rifle" and the mistake that only a boy could make affect the life of a touring couple who have left their children at home with their Mexican carer. As what happens in the home of the tourists in their absence and the...
It was a while before the threads started to form the story, perhaps thats the brilliance of it. Dont miss this movie.
This is a good as the reviewers suggest. Innaritu does a great job of weaving three stories of peoples in 3 vastly different parts of the world together to present a compellin drama. And it seems by his comment at the Golden Globes he has a sense of humour too. I look forward to his next movie and trust Flicks will be sure to advise us all when it arrives.
This film captures real life crises and how humans cope with these problems in so many different ways. The emotion in this film is so captivating that you dont want it to end. When you leave the cinema you feel as though you actually knew the characters in the film and were part of their lives. It has been a long time since I have experienced that in a...
A very convincing production justifies each nuance in this human drama. The performances of all the actress and actors is flawless, made possible by the intricate script. The rich tapestry of life and causality are examined in this movie. A non-chronological format provides the justification of all parties' actions, and the impact of circumstance....
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