Babel(2006) : A movie that should have won the academy for best picture.
A confused noise made by a number of voices is the meaning of “Babel” which is a third hyperlink movie under the “Death trilogy”, all produced and the directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. This movie comprises of stories from three different countries(Japan, Mexico and Morocco) which gets interlinked.
The story in chronological order starts with a businessman from Japan who goes to morocco on a hunting trip and gifts his guide a rifle. And the rifle ends up with the guide’s friend who needed it for his own reason. The friend’s son accidentally shoots the rifle on a tourist bus and the bullet gets hit in the neck of Susan (Cate Blanchett) who was travelling with her husband Richard (Brad Pitt).The tourist’s children were alone with their nanny Amelia (Adriana Barraza)in America. In order not to miss her children’s wedding in Mexico , the nanny takes both of the children with her and on the other hand the investigation on the rifle’s owner takes us to Japan where the owner lives with her daughter who thinks that physical contact and using drugs is the only way to live life as she is suffering from depression due to her mother’s death and the portrayal of her life is shown outstandingly well. In this movie, the things characters are doing, are exactly the things that we will do if we will we in their positions which makes the film so realistic.
The film also got nominated for seven academy awards including the “Best picture” and “Best director” which were according to me very deserving but ultimately the film got only one academy which was for the best music written for motion pictures. The performances from every actor was equally good and realistic. Brad Pitt ,in spite of doing a role in the movie “Departed” decided to feature in “Babel”. But ultimately that year we know which film bagged the best film academy award and that was “Departed” which was produced by Brad Pitt himself. The cinematography which was done by Rodrigo Prieto was just seamless , the way he captures the situations and problems of different people in different countries was just outstanding which also earned him a nomination at “BAFTA”. The background scores were great which created emotional connection towards the characters.
The message and meaning of this brilliantly directed movie is how disconnected and isolated we feel if we ends up with the people from different culture or religion. The director , Alenjandro Gonzalez Innaritu want us to think deep on the chaos the nature has made by separating and diving us into different religion who also speaks different languages. Yes, in this movie the lives gets intertwined and its always not necessary that lives gets only intertwined by internet, cell phones or mass media but it can also occur differently and Babel for me has shown this thing in an awesome fashion. The way Alejandro connects the different stories in his films are just really commendable. The film contains everything- a brilliant screenplay, great direction, strong performances, seamless cinematography , emotional and gripping score and what not. This movie may taste different to everyone and some may even not want to eat it but I think it is one of the best movies made under the genre of “Hyperlink Cinema”.
The Top 3 picks from the movie:
- Best performance: There truly is no single best lead performance here, everyone supports each other. But if I have to pick one ,I would pick Adriana Barraza who player the role of being a nanny of Brad Pitt’s children.
- Best scene: For me the movie is filled with some remarkable scenes but the one which stands out is the one where ,before leaving with the injured wife in a chopper Brad Pitt turns around ,opens his wallet and offers money to Akhzam for his huge help but Akhzam refuses to accept the money which shows that there is some goodness left in this mankind present on earth.
- Rating : Babel for me is one of the most important and greatest films I’ve ever seen which also made me a fan of Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu . The movies deserves every applause from the viewers. And in terms of the applause I would like to give “Babel” 4 stars.
