ourblog

Babel is the name of a movie of the Mexican director Alejandro González Iñarritu which was writing by him and the writer Guillero Arriaga. This film is led by some well-known actors as Gael García Bernal, Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchet.

This movie got the Golden Globe to the best movie drama in 2007 and was nominated to six Oscar but, finally, it only obtained the prize on the best soundtrack category.

According to the Bible, Babel was a celebrated tower erected by men who were culturally united in order to reach Paradise. Irritated by this enterprise, God destroyed the building and condemned humanity to speak in different languages. Incapable of communicating with each other, since then man has consequently known division. The Mexican director updates the biblical myth by transposing it on three distinct continents. The first segment takes place in the United States, on the edge of the Mexican border.

A nanny cares for the children of a couple travelling in Morocco. As her son is getting married in Mexico, she illegally embarks on a traumatic journey with the children. In the Moroccan segment featuring an American couple (Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt), the wife is accidentally wounded by a bullet shot by some kids. The weapon, a rifle, offered to a local guide by a Japanese tourist. And on to Japan, in a parallel story the turmoil of a deaf and mute teenager who has a conflicted relationship with her father. All things considered, the story engages with its shot, but never reaches its target.

Everything in the film is geared toward the Third World. From the precarious situation of undocumented Mexicans which finds a direct echo with the destitute Moroccan families, couples in crisis, dysfunctional families and the shadow of terrorism hang on this sum with clear stakes: to embrace all contemporary pains and to exonerate the affected heroes. Pontificating to the extreme, Babel does not need divine intervention to see its beautiful work bury itself: it crumbles right under our impotent eyes.

Babel is unpredictable and shocking, with compassion hanging on for dear life. Holds you tightly within its grip through its lengthy running time and forces you to empathize with a large cast of international characters and their individual quests in a visceral way.