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BABEL |
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People connected by odd
strands from their lives
of TheColumnists.com
One of the most arresting and absorbing films of 2006 is "Babel" by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarrito, which uses the same story technique and nearly the same theme as last year's Best Picture Oscar winner "Crash."
"Crash" linked a number of disparate people in urban Los Angeles to a series of highly serious crises that were in some way influenced by the personal attitudes of contemporary Los Angelinos toward race. At the heart of the drama was the fact that most of these people didn't take time to know people of other races, but operated on the basis of broad, often bigoted assumptions.
"Babel" tackles a similar issue on a global basis, linking people in the desert hills of Morocco to people in modern Tokyo, suburban Southern California and northern Mexico. Again, they have problems that are mostly caused by the inability to understand each other because of diverse cultures, different languages and the often bigoted assumptions we make about people we don't know.
Though it may sound quite complicated, "Babel" actually moves briskly and never lags in excitement. You're involved in the stories of people that the movie forces you to get to know, even though they're from cultures you may not understanbd and may even fear.
Richard and Susan (Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett) are an American husband and wife on a vacation in a remote part of Morocco, riding on a tour bus with lots of Americans they don't know and Moroccan guides they don't trust.
At the same time, we meet a Moroccan hill country family. The father has just acquired a high-powered rifle that he hopes to use to keep predators away from his goats. His two young sons see the rifle as an object of extreme value because one has to be thought of as "grown-up" in order to be entrusted with its use.
The rifle comes to the Moroccan family indirectly from a Japanese tourist who used it for hunting on a recent trip to Morocco and made a gift of it to the man who served as his guide. Meanwhile, back in Tokyo, the Japanese man's daughter, who's a deaf mute, is coming to sexual maturity and is trying to attract boys in competition with her girl friend from their deaf school.
While all these separate lives are progressing, we also meet the children of Richard and Susan, who are back in California with the Mexican lady who takes care of them when their parents are away.
The chain of events that links all these stories begins when the two Moroccan boys are vying to see who can use their father's rifle most effectively. One of them starts firing shots at distant targets with no apparent success. One of the targets he chooses is the tour bus climbing a mountain road far below them.
One of the high-velocity bullets comes shatters the bus window and strikes Susan in the chest. Seriously wounded and losing blood rapidly, she clings to her husband, who rages at the Moroccan tour guides, demanding medical attention and some place where his wife can lie down. The other tourists immediately assume the American woman was shot by Muslim terrorists--and they raise hell with the Moroccans, insisting on leaving Richard and Susan behind so they can get out of danger themselves. That touches off what turns into an international incident involving the U.S. government and the Moroccans.
With the Susan's life in jeopardy, the couple's trip itinerary comes to a halt and they don't return home on schedule. Amelia, the Mexican woman taking care of their children, not knowing what has happened, realizes she's going to miss tbe wedding of her son in Mexico if she doesn't leave. So, she decides to take the children with her across the border.
Slowly we realize distrust of other people compounds all the problems these central characters are going through. At times, the linkage seems quite silly, especially as we follow the exploits of Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), the deaf teenager who is so anxious to have sex that she goes without her underpants to teen hangouts and cheerfully opens her legs when the right boys are watching. Another time, she strips naked to attract the attention of a handsome young police detective who's trying to reach her father.
But most of the time the linkage is tense and dramatic. For example, we wring our hands as Richard desperately struggles to keep his wife alive in a dirt-floored village hut while the authorities argue over who should take her to a distant hospital. And we cringe as the drunken nephew of Amelia (Adriana Barraza) insists on driving them all back to the States--and rams his way through a government roadblock.
"Babel" is directed with a crisp pace by Mexixan Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Amores Perros") and very effectively makes its points about our inability to communicate with each other and our sometimes unwillingness to trust each other because of our tremendous lack of understanding about our different lives.
Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi both are nominated for Oscars in the Best Supporting Actress category, although Brad Pitt, who does a very good job, was overlooked in either of the male acting categories. Inarritu is a nominee in the Best Director category.
The complex integrated storyline doesn't always work so well, but overall "Babel" is an engrossing film that has something worthwhile to say about the human condition.
©2007 by Ron Miller. The "Oscar" logo and the phrase "Academy Awards" are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. This column first posted Feb. 19, 2007.
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