Babel



"Listen"

A 2006 film conceived by writer Guillermo Arriaga and director Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel was released to mixed reviews, but still earned seven Oscar nominations. It won for Gustavo Santaolalla's score.

Babel is an ensemble piece headed by Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt; they play an American couple, Richard and Susan, who are vacationing in Morocco trying to sort out their marital difficulties. But then, she's shot by two local boys fiddling around with their father's new rifle. As Richard tries to get help with much difficulty, the couple's Mexican nanny takes their kids to Mexico for her son's wedding. Meanwhile, in Japan, a deaf schoolgirl, Chieko, tries to overcome the death of her mother and her own sexual frustration.


 * Anachronic Order
 * Bedouin Rescue Service: Off-screen.  May verge on a Deus Ex Machina.
 * Bilingual Dialogue: Mike and Debbie can understand their nanny's Spanish fairly well, but they don't seem to speak it.
 * Deliberate Values Dissonance: A central part of the film. A cultural emphasis on personal space makes life awkward for the deaf teenager, who must touch others and be touched in order to get anyone's attention. And the Moroccan man who takes care of Susan
 * Also, Mike and Debbie at the wedding in Mexico as they play with the other children there. When their nanny's nephew Santiago beheads one of the chickens they played with, they are rather shocked while the Mexican children just shrug it off, since the latter are used to seeing livestock being slaughtered.
 * Fan Disservice: The audience is treated, first with a view of Chieko's pantiless crotch, and later a full frontal shot of her naked body, but, given the context, the scenes are devoid of titillating overtones.
 * A young boy masturbating while thinking about his sister.
 * Four Lines, All Waiting
 * Going Commando: Chieko takes off her panties to give the boys sitting at the next table in a restaurant an eyeful of her private parts. Later on, she goes out without wearing any under her short skirt.
 * Idiot Ball: What kicks off the entire plot. "Hey, look, we have a rifle. Let's shoot at a moving bus because that's always a good idea!".
 * And let's face it, most of the characters carry it at some point. What about the Mexican nanny, for example, leaving the children alone in the desert?
 * Heck, her whole storyline. How could she possibly think she could take those kids to another country and their parents would either never find out about it or be totally okay with it when they did?
 * I Need a Freaking Drink: Detective Mamiya orders another shochu after his emotional encounter with Chieko.
 * In Medias Res:
 * It Got Worse
 * Meaningful Name: The title of the movie. The Babel Tower was being built as an effort to get higher up than even God himself, but he got pissed and destroyed the tower. He condemned humankind to speak different languages, so they can't understand each other. The title of the movie is very, very subtle.
 * One Degree of Separation: Strained to the breaking point with Chieko, whose
 * Oscar Bait: Oh, boy. All the contained acting, the angsty storylines, and the intercultural poverty or whatever. Classic Oscar favorites, all of them.
 * Sacred Hospitality: Among the Moroccans who shelter Richard and Susan.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Santiago's fate after  is never revealed.

""Technically, Babel may seem to be an example of the Idiot Plot, in which at many points one word or sentence could clear everything up. But these characters are not idiots, and desperately want to utter that word or sentence, but are prevented because of (a) the language barrier, (b) their cultural assumptions, (c) the inability of others to comprehend what they are actually saying, and (d) how in that case everyone falls into an established script made of prejudice and misunderstanding... This is a film about people who do what we might do — if we were them.""

- Roger Ebert