Babel

I went and saw Babel the other night with one of my friends. Why Babel? Here's why:

Friend: "What's the rating of the new Hannibal movie? One and half stars? What else is out?"
Me: "Ummm..."
Friend: "We could go see Stomp the Yard."
Me: "Shut the hell up! What about Babel?"
Friend: "What's it about?"
Me: "I don't know, but Brad Pitt is in it..."

That's all I knew, but it was enough. Brad Pitt (along with Edward Norton, Matt Damon, Jeremy Piven and a few others) is an actor for which I'll attend almost any movie, regardless of how little I know about it. After Babel, I'm seriously rethinking that policy.

So what's wrong with Babel? With a Golden Globe win, seven Academy Award nominations, and an excellent cast, it seems like that would be a difficult question. Short answer: This movie is the 2006 NY Yankees- All the pieces work, they just don't add up to much.

My biggest problem is that the movie just doesn't make any sense if you're watching it. It isn't hard to follow, or confusing, it just doesn't make sense. Without knowing beforehand what the movie is trying to accomplish (hint: it's part anti-globalization, and more about difficulty in communication, hence the title), none of the stories tie together very well, and there are four of them. I'd give you a warning that there are spoilers ahead, but in this case, they aren't spoilers. Knowing what this movie is about would make it a whole lot more enjoyable to watch, kind of like taking time to learn the language before going to an opera. This movie is about knowing what happens next, about reconciling a bunch of seemingly unrelated events into something understandable.

Story 1: Moroccan man buys gun, gives it to his sons to shoot jackals threatening the goat herd, sons shoot at tour bus, hitting an American tourist. Police come to arrest shooter (using overhanded third world police brutality) end up in unnecessary shootout with Moroccan man and his kids, killing one.
Story 2: Man (Brad Pitt) and wife (Cate Blanchett) are riding in said tour bus, on vacation to try to cope with the death of a child from SIDS, and trying to sort out the complications in their marriage resulting from this event. Wife gets hit in the neck with bullet, no medical help immediately available, American government labels this terrorism, Morocco insists it isn't, and won't let American choppers fly in to provide medical assistance. (Swipe at US Government) Other people on the tour bus refuse to stay, leave man and wife with Moroccan locals, who help (kind of). (Swipe at industrialized peoples in general)
Story 3: Children of said Americans on vacation in Morocco are staying in the care of illegal alien caregiver. Mexican caregiver has son's wedding to attend, can't find someone else to take care of the kids, parents largely unsympathetic to her plight (Swipe at US arrogance) so she takes them to Mexico. On her way back, she is stopped by a-hole border patrol agents, prompting her nephew (driving the car) to make a run for it and drop them off in the desert. She eventually leaves the children in the desert to go find help, finds help, results in her deportation back to Mexico. (Less specific swipe at US border policy)
Story 4: Asian deaf-mute teenager coping with suicide of her mother and the resulting gulf between her and her father fights handicap using exhibitionist behavior (i.e. She attempts to sleep with everyone and anyone) and is unsuccessful. Her father happens to be the tourist, who while in Morocco, left the gun with a local guide as a tip.

Exhausted by reading that? I'm tired out just by writing it. The two real focal points of this movie are the gun, and the Asian girl. The gun is the vehicle for the anti-globalization message, and it goes something like this. American gun exported to Japan, Japanese man uses it for trips taken to escape from the problems at home, leaves gun in Morocco where teenage boys use it to wound an American tourist (resulting in the death of one and the probable destruction of their family), wounded American tourist and her husband can't find someone to take care of their kids, prompting the Mexican story that results in deportation for the Mexican nanny, and probably jail time for her nephew. The only story that ends happily is the American one- man and wife reconnect over trouble, kids end up being rescued in the desert. All of the non-American stories end in tragedy, with the exception of the Japanese one, which doesn't end badly per se, just nothing is resolved.

If the point of this whole thing is that globalization is bad for the world with the exception of America (and somewhat less the Japanese), then I can accept that. I don't agree with it, but I'll concede that the movie is powerful in its attempt to convey this message. My problem is that unless you majored in allegory at the University of Colorado, you aren't going to pick this up just from watching the movie. You're going to have to search the internet for a couple hours trying to find some reason not to label the previous two plus hours a total waste of your life.

The other focal point of this movie is the story of the deaf-mute Asian girl. Whereas most of this movie is murky and unclear as to what it wants to accomplish, practically anyone (with the exception of a possible blind-deaf person) can pick up on the damage that being unable to communicate can cause to a person. I'm not going to spend much time on this part for two reasons- 1) This post is already way too long and 2) I need to do some laundry and go grocery shopping before heading down to Quicken Loans Arena for Cavs-Lakers @ 3:30- but I will say this, there are a couple parts of this story that are brilliant. Example- One scene shows the girl entering a club, and alternates between third person shots of the action with the pounding music overlayed, and first person shots with all the sound muffled close total silence, and the camera focus switching to flashing lights. For a second, my sympathy for deaf people changed to empathy, but then I remembered how miserable this movie actually was to watch, and I went back to just feeling sorry for myself.

Conclusion: this post needs to be rewritten at least once, and don't go see Babel, unless you're J. Morgan and you pick up on all the subtle symbolism the first time.