Wife & I just saw Babel. What was the point?

[OffWithTheirHeads]

Aside from blond chick in trouble turns out O.K. Swarthy people living miserable lives get fucked, which I could have told you in 2 minutes. I thought it was three hours of very slow, very boring nothing. The wife feels pretty much the same way. And then, it's apparently up for best pic so somebody must have seen something we didn't.

Anyone want to take a stab at enlightening us plebeians?

[Little Wing]

1. Beats me

Artsy piece of junk with a few big names. Pointless.

[momster]

2. Thank You!

I hate a movie where you walk out of the theatre saying 'that was it?' Babel...like several other recent critically acclaimed films...seemed completely pointless. Or at least, offered nothing that a reasonably well-informed liberal wouldn't have thought about a zillion times already.

[The Straight Story]

3. To confuse you, ala the term babel. See - it worked! ;) (nt)

[Booster]

4. Entirely different movie, but I felt the same when I heard that

Little Miss Sunshine was up for best picture. WTF? Must have been a worse year than we thought.

[cdnwannabe]

6. I thought it was a great year for film....

I'd sure like to know what you people are looking for? Mostly with independent film, I think there has been a renaissance in film in recent years - coincidentally since 9/11. But if you need happy endings and easy answers all the time, I guess you would be dissapointed.

[Booster]

7. Did you see "Little Miss Sunshine"?

[cdnwannabe]

8. Yep - loved it! I hope Alan Arkin wins the Oscar for best supporting...

He picked up the BAFTA yesterday.

[cdnwannabe]

5. I thought there was a tremendous amount of humanity in the film...

especially with the Japanese girl's character. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Who says there has to be a point? Can't it just be reflections on the human condition? It's called a character study.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

10. I'm with you. I enjoyed it, too.

Some great acting and directing, and the Japanese girl's story was an intense character study. I think I LIKE movies that seem to no point. Go figure.

But who says we all have to agree about movies? Someone else on this thread didn't like "Little Miss Sunshine", another movie I thought was great.

It's all a matter of taste.

[Imagevision]

9. This movie was appropriately titled; "Babel" meaning nothing but babel!!

[Time for change]

11. Not me

I didn't like it either.

Depressing too.

Maybe the point was anti- police brutality. :shrug:

[Leopolds Ghost]

13. Oh, but come on.

I said this on the Kingdom of Heaven thread... people don't seem to "read" movies anymore

It's like, people get upset if a plot is complex or even if it's just executed in a deliberately subtle manner, they get angry and call it pretentious for talking up to the audience... Heck, sometimes it IS pretentious but if people really can't "read" movies then it's like we've been conditioned.

I mean, you can take a child to a classic movie and he may not understand any of it, but he will not get angry about the things he doesn't understand, and he might like it anyway. Once we grow older, we become conditioned. it's like we get used to movies being a certain way.

Heck, Babel was pretty standard "art film with an interlocking ensemble plot with a generic overriding message connecting all the plots" and that in itself is a type of movie that film-buffs have become conditioned to accept.

[Leopolds Ghost]

12. This is the second time in a week I seem to be in the DU minority when it comes to film

that everyone seems to hate (most DUers who replied to my recent thread
considered Kingdom of Heaven "tolerable popcorn fare, but not exciting enough.") Geez louise! And film buffs wonder why Hollywood only puts out fluff.

I have serious issues with Babel in the sense that I could see the plot coming from a mile away, and it was -very- slow paced, but you can't deny that the theme of the movie is very subtle and well thought out, even though it's ultimately pretty basic.

Every story line in the movie is about the failure to communicate.

Didn't anyone read the story of the Tower of Babel?

I thought the movie hit us over the head with this like a brick.
People really did "get" it right?

it was all about the failure to communicate, not about violence or blond women getting rescued. arglebargle

[crispini]

15. The theme was subtle? Uh, no.

It did, as you say, hit us over the head with it like a brick. That was part of what I disliked immensely about the movie. It had "look at me, I am A Big Important Art Film" written all over it. It was slow-paced and pretentious as hell. It is possible for something to have a theme, or a deep message, and also be entertaining. This film wasn't entertaining or interesting in the least. It sawed one note -- angst -- and did it over, and over, and over again.

Honestly, the annoying thing to me is that there are a zillion GOOD art house flicks out there, and this snoozer got wide release because of Brad Pitt. Great. Way to turn people off art films.

[FrenchieCat]

14. Hated it....

lessons from this "film"...
Don't go to Morocco on Vacation, cause you never know what will happen like you might lose your life,
Don't hire a Mexican babysitter, cause your kids might end up almost dead in the desert,

Also learned that Japan is as bad as the United States in terms of parenting, and
kids are screwed up all around the world, and sometimes they die due to it...or get their families killed...
Don't hand you kid a gun, even if you live on a farm or in the desert!
.....should I go on? :eyes: