Film: Babel
Genre: Drama
Release Date: November 10th, 2006 (wide release)
Distributor: Paramount Classics
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 2 hrs. 22 min.
Review by Sirus

Starring:
Cate Blanchett
Brad Pitt

Babel is an interesting movie that takes you through the story not from just one perspective but from four. The movie starts you out from the perspective of a small Moroccan family consisting of two boys, one girl, and their parents. They are goat farmers for a living and we see a transaction between them and a neighbor who has aquired a rifle. Their neighbor sells them a rifle which they then test fire outside. When the neighbor leaves with his payment, the father travels with him to go into town and pick up much needed supplies.

While the father is gone, the two boys take the Goat herd out into the hills to feed. While the boys are out in the field, one of them decides it would be a good idea to shoot the rifle some more and see if it really can shoot three kilometers as the neighbor had said. They start shooting at a nearby rock but then decide it is too close and not really three kilometers. They then walk to the top of the hill and decide it would be a good idea to shoot at the cars driving on the nearby road. After a few shots that miss, they shoot and hit a bus. Upon seeing the bus stop and pull over to the side of the road and people screaming, they run back home.

Later in the movie we see the shooting through the perspective of an American couple who was on the bus, one of whom was hit by the boys shot. We also see the couple’s children at home with their Hispanic nanny who decides to take the children down to Mexico for a wedding of one of her family members. Finally, we see a blind-mute Japanese school girl who is also somehow connected to the events in Morocco. Throughout the movie we are told how each of these people is connected to the events and we see a moderately fitting conclusion to everything.

Babel does a great job showing the emotion of all the characters in all the situations they face. I really felt for the Japanese girl and all she went through trying to be accepted by the boys in the clubs. I also felt for the Moroccan boys who were too young to realize how stupid a thing they had done. The movie is also well directed with a lot of well shot Moroccan, Mexican, and Japanese shots. I was gripped the entire way through, constantly wondering what would happen to all the characters and was satisfied by the ending we are told.

Babel is rated R and per that rating has a decent amount of nudity although mostly brief and never shown in any sexual way. I would recommend Babel to someone who enjoys foreign films and seeing the way things work in multiple cultures at the same time. There are a lot of conflicts that come from the clashes between cultures that are appalling and at the same time seem like that’s how it could really happen. While Babel is a great movie, some people may not want to see the negative images in it because it is not uplifting or inspiring like a lot of other movies. Movie goers who are willing to see a very negative emotional movie will find a compelling, well written experience that is very different from a lot of the other movies in the theaters.

Final Score: 4.5/5 stars