I recently watched Babel, and, yes, I agree with popular opinion that it, along with Pan’s Labyrinth, among a few other films that I haven’t yet caught, constitute the best movies released last year.
Babel is not unique in the epic scale of its interlocking, intertwining narratives of different lives - the brilliant Crash immediately springs to mind as another example of this increasingly popular visual storytelling technique. But the rich collage pieced together with its impressive array of, truly, culturally diverse characters in equally enthralling yet melancholic settings underlines the one specific concept of communication - or, perhaps, the incongruity of it between Man.
The everyday problems characters grapple with culminate in mistakes made: mistakes that escalate into large-scale disasters. There is a feeling that everything is an act of circumstance, but this circumstance is sometimes first mentally conceived and subconsciously directed by the interaction and relationships the characters share - the strained, distant relationship between the father and Japanese deaf-mute youth, aggravated by the death of her mother, provides no guidance to her sexual frivolity; the Mexican housekeeper who has the dilemma of attending her son’s wedding or taking care of the children she is trusted with, while her American employers face an exacting ordeal with a bullet wound in Morocco - real communicative breakdowns that are seemingly born out of unknowing neglect and simple choice of priority, yet are subsequently tragically blown out of proportion.
The characters are not all cursed to doom and badly behaved, though. There are certain heroes in the film: these are the people who can straddle the divide and negotiate around the clashing of contrasting ideas, cultural biases, and ineffective communication. They know how to carry themselves well in the messy web of globalization and the resultant modern mystery that is civilization. Juxtaposed against the confusion and folly that is the conundrum of conflict, they provide a hope and stand for what is right, or, at least, agreeable and noble.
One thing that struck me, though, was the adept use of music to convey the raw emotion expressed by the unwitting characters. I particularly take to this idea of melody as the base, primal form of expression that everyone can understand. The strands of language (there are four spoken in the film, at least) and other sophisticated forms of communication (body language) might serve as a bridge to other cultures, and also within smaller familial groups, as well. At the same time they are a distorting filter through which ideas get warped and things go unsaid and misinterpreted. Music, however, especially in a Hollywood production sense such as this, is universally recognizable; simply understood. However, the music manages to sound exotic at the same time, apparently comprising a selection of indigenous instruments where appropriate in Morocco, and also including a few heart-thumping disco tracks contributing to the seedy atmosphere of the Japanese metropolitan underground scene.
The film is also particularly savvy at addressing several popular and controversial topics hogging the international media limelight today - terrorism, the moral decadence and degeneration of youth, strained modern relationships, among various others. Whilst not providing anything preachy, the movie lends the idea, through heart-rending scenes shot in a variety of striking angles, that being perceptive, sensitive and tolerant toward others - strangers, family, or otherwise - might lead to a better world for us all. The ending is acute: a sense of calm after much destruction sets in, paving the way for, perhaps, a final tone of compromise between the unintended motivations for conflict - or maybe it is just shy of suggestive of the cyclical nature of the process of cause-and-effect: the process that plagues everyone in dynamic everyday interaction.
Babel is the work of a true artist at home with his craft. The director has weaved the complex layers of story, deliberate moral ambiguity, cultural exposure and personal feeling into a sublimely profound yet arrestingly entertaining movie. And that has to be applauded. I love it.
