Monday, November 26, 2007

movie review: "Babel"


Scott asked me to let him know what it was I didn't like about "Babel" so that he could hear a trustworthy opinion about it before he watched it (Scott, thank you for the vote of confidence!), so I thought I'd just post a brief review here while I'm at it:

"Babel" is about four different groups of people--two Moroccan goatherd boys; a husband and wife traveling in Morocco; their children and their Mexican nanny back in California; and a deaf-mute Japanese girl in Japan (Tokyo?)--and how all of their lives intersect. Conceptually, it's a very interesting idea, because it's not till the end of the movie that the viewer finds out how they're all connected; and the viewer then realizes that these people's lives all intersected in one brief moment that occurred toward the beginning of the film. From that angle, the film was very well-made and thought-provoking, in that it brings home how we cannot view ourselves as individuals completely independent of others: Each of our actions, each of our decisions has some kind of significance because even in some small way, each of our actions/decisions affects people we've never met and might never meet, people who are continents and (in a great sense) years away.

I have a tag for this concept: "brighten the corner where you are". It's a concept I believe in very firmly and have discussed in this blog before.

Linguistically, it was also interesting: in each of the four groups, there were communication difficulties resulting either from personality differences (emotional and social barriers) or from linguistic differences (Arabic - English, Spanish - English, Sign Language - spoken Japanese). Very effective in portraying the "Babel" aspect of human relationships.

Okay, now for what makes me recommend not watching this film: a boy, approx. 12 years old, being shown masturbating; the same boy being shown spying on his approx. 14-yr-old sister as she takes off her clothes, and both of them enjoying it; and another teenage girl exposing herself multiple times to various people, then taking off all of her clothes and trying to seduce an older man (full frontal nudity).

Some might claim "oh, this is what makes the film so real, so true-to-life" etc. Well, even if that were true, those are still things that were unnecessary for advancing the plot; there are other methods that could have been used for character development and portrayal of character psychology; and I think it's exploitative to have child actors filming scenes like that.

So conceptually, the film had some very good ideas; but the execution of those ideas left something moral to be desired. The scenes with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett were very good, as were the ones with the CA kids and their Mexican nanny. But I could have done without some of the rest.

5 comments:

Luke and Lauren Weger said...

I would agree with your review of "Babel." At the end of the movie I wasn't sure what to think...but I was sure that I had just wasted 2+ hours of my life!

The Raabs said...

Thanks! That was a good review. I have so often wondered why (although I know why - Mammon motivates a lot of things)good stories and good movies are purposefully ruined with useless and unnecessary bad language, sexual content or violence.
It frustrates me that people stoop to such levels when they needn't have done.
Well - another movie I know I will not be seeing ;-) Thanks again!

thegermanygirl said...

Luke: I'm with ya on that one! Ed and I even stayed up late to watch it, and later I was really kicking myself for having given up that good sleeping time!
Yes, we should have just turned it off and gone to bed.....but we just kept thinking maybe it would get better. Guess that's what we get for thinkin'. ;o)

Scott: You're welcome for the review! I'm always glad to be of service. :o)
I, too, often wonder why otherwise good story ideas have to be ruined by extraneous immorality. When I mentioned this to my mom, she said, "Well, that's how Satan always works: attaching something evil to something good, so that the evil looks better."
My dad commented, jokingly, "I thought it was Hollywood doing that."
To which my mom replied: "Who do you think Hollywood works for?"

Touché.

Anonymous said...

sounds like that movie, L.A. Crash.

thegermanygirl said...

Is it L.A. Crash or just Crash? We tried watching one called Crash last week and turned it off after about 15 minutes. F--- this and that every few words, and very graphic sexual content. Made me sick to my stomach.