Babel

Babel, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (2006), was distributed by Paramount, which is owned by Viacom. Big stars in the show are Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt. The film, set in Morocco, contains four interlocking stories, which are all connected by a single gun, that all converge at the end to reveal a tragic story of the lives of humanity around the world. In Morocco, a troubled married couple are on vacation trying to work out their differences, meanwhile, a Moroccan herder buys a rifle for his sons so they can keep the jackals away from his herd. This gun was purchased from a wealthy Japanese hunter, whose daughter is dealing with rejection, the death of her mother, the emotional distance of her father, her own self-consciousness, and a disability (deaf-mute). Then, on the opposite side of the world, the married couple's Mexican nanny takes the couple's two children with her to her son's wedding in Mexico after being told no one else can look after them for her, only to come into trouble on the return trip, resulting in them being stranded in the desert.

Throughout the film, nearly every camera shot appeared to be hand held, which was made clear through the shakiness of the camera. I think this added to the films sense of realism which made the narrative more believable for the audience. There was a wide range of different angles and shots used to convey different meanings, for example the shot from the japanese girls point of view in the night club shows the audience how she hears and sees things. It also makes them sympathise with her as everyone around is able to listen to and appreciate/enjoy the music, whereas she has to imagine what it would sound like. Another great camera shot is the reverse shot when we're first introduced to the married couple. They are sitting at a dinner table in a Moroccan desert, the reverse shot shows each characters expressions as they argue. This also tells us a bit about their personalities and marital situation straight away.

The costume in the film was all kept very cultural to the different characters backgrounds; for example, the Moroccans are wearing rags and robes, the wealthy Japanese business man is always seen wearing a suit, and the middle class Americans are wearing casual jeans and shirts. This could also give the audience an idea of their social background. The main and most significant prop in this film was definately the rifle, as it linked every character and their story together. Lighting in this film was mostly natural throughout, as the night and day scenes were shot using natural lighting sources. Although, in the club scene in Japan, there was lots of colourful artificial lighting to create a party atmosphere, which contrasted the dim artificial lighting in the huts in Morocco.

Again, the music in the film was all kept quite cultural to the different scenes in the different locations, like the techno sounds used in the Japanese scenes, and the exotic Mexican music used in the wedding party scenes. There was a variety of diegetic and non-diegetic music used; for example, the diegetic music included the car radio, the telephone conversations, the live band at the wedding etc, and the non-diegetic music was the overlapping of the cultural music on a particular scene. The most memorable use of sound in this film for me was in the club scene in Japan when the camera was cutting from the girl to the crowd of people. everytime the camera was on the crowd, the audience could hear the loud techno music, but when it cut to the girl, there was silence. Again, I think this scene is very effective as the audience are able to experience what she is going through which allows them to empathise with her.

Editing in Babel was amazing as it was used to control the four seperate narratives and bring them together to make up the overall plot, which was shown through the quick jump cuts to new locations. There is an interesting scene where editing is used to tell one characters story in the shot of another characters story, for example, when the Japanese girl is watching the TV at her house, the news comes on and there is a report about the American woman who was shot.

I think Babel was a good film, although, I'm not really sure what the Japanese family had to do with it. The father supplied the rifle, but thats the only connection he had, and the Japanese side of the story was all about his daughter. This confused me a bit, as did the end scene where the American man is in hospital talking to the nanny and his children on the phone. If that was all happening at the same time, then the nanny shouldn't have answered the phone because she was deported. The rest of the film was pretty good. I particularly liked the way all four stories fit together so well. The narratives combined provides a powerful story and an equally powerful looking glass into the lives of random people around the world and it shows just how connected we really are.