Babel

As a “small” Brad Pitt fan I took it upon myself to watch his latest film Babel. Unsure as to what to expect from the Hollywood doyen, I decided to give it a watch.
It’s fair to say that it’s no feel good film, but it does shine light on some issues that we can all relate to. Not so much the shooting of busses or crashing through international borders, but that sometimes we all feel unheard and need to be listened to, regardless of age, race or religion. Although the stories are set all over the globe, from Mexico to Morocco and out to Japan, the way they link together enhances one strong theme, the need for international understanding. This is reinforced by the films references to the global issue of terrorism, and highlights the cultural ignorance that is associated with it.
It has some disturbing scenes that evoke a variety of contrasting emotions, such as guilt, sorrow, disbelief and understanding to name a few. Each character slowly becomes lost (emotionally or physically) in a place they don’t know or can’t understand. So much seems to happen as the film continuously jumps between its three main story lines, exploring the character relationships, whilst slowly allowing clues and answers to filter through to the audience.
As the story continued to weave together the three extremely diverse environments, it began to create a unity that reminds us of just how small the world is and how our actions affect others. I felt the film was trying to get us to understand that although sometimes we feel so insignificant and unheard, we are all responsible for our behaviour and can all make a difference.
Although it appears to deal with some vast subject areas like cultural ignorance, politics and terrorism to name but a few, I felt these issues did not distract from the individual characters stories, or the general message of the film. It merely used them as a contextual aid in which to highlight the problems with modern civilization, with the hope that the audience would give some thought to these issues once the film had ended.
Overall I found Babel to be thought provoking and intense film with strong characters, depth, integrity and an underlying message echoed through its title, ignore the babble and to listen to each other.