Babel

2006 • 143 minutes
4.1
212 reviews
69%
Tomatometer
R
Rating
Eligible
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About this movie

In Babel, a tragic incident involving an American couple in Morocco sparks a chain of events for four families in different countries throughout the world. In the struggle to overcome isolation, fear, and displacement, each character discovers that it is family that ultimately provides solace. In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out -- detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple's frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. Separated by clashing cultures and sprawling distances, each of these four disparate groups of people are nevertheless hurtling towards a shared destiny of isolation and grief. In the course of just a few days, they will each face the dizzying sensation of becoming profoundly lost -- lost in the desert, lost to the world, lost to themselves -- as they are pushed to the farthest edges of confusion and fear as well as to the very depths of connection and love. In this mesmerizing, emotional film that was shot in three continents and four languages -- and traverses both the deeply personal and the explosively political -- acclaimed director Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams, Amores Perros) explores with shattering realism the nature of the barriers that seem to separate humankind. In doing so, he evokes the ancient concept of Babel and questions its modern day implications: the mistaken identities, misunderstandings and missed chances for communication that, though often unseen, drive our contemporary lives. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal, Kôji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi lead an international ensemble of actors and non-professional actors from Morocco, Tijuana and Tokyo, who enrich Babel's take on cultural diversity and enhance its powerful examination of the links and frontiers between and within us.
Rating
R

Ratings and reviews

4.1
212 reviews
Zachary Bregman
August 20, 2015
Poetry - true and elaborate poetry- is even more difficult to create on film than on paper. By far. And on film, it is far more difficult to create within the restrictions of mainstream cinema than within a short independent project. Inconceivably more difficult. Think of it. To wrest the most subtle and personal form of human communication- to instantiate ineffible experience and thought- from a process that takes months to complete, involves the management of a hundred or so people and entails the expense of millions of dollars. Capturing a vision of uniquely authentic drama on film is hard enough and in the 70-odd year history of modern cinema those directors who, over the course of their careers, have excelled at this are a select group of probably less than 35 names. Orson Wells, Stanley Kubrick, John Ford, Elia Kazan, Igmar Bergman, Akira Kurasawa, Jean Renoir, Max Ophuls, John Casavettes, Robert Altman, Frank Capra. Can this list be tripled? Sustained and effective suspense is also difficult to encode with the tools of cinema, of course, and its list of dedicated career masters is likely even shorter. Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, Carol Reed, Michael Mann, Fritz Lan
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L. Sieu
April 30, 2013
This movie just goes to show that the delussional just how far they think they can wag the dog. Absolutely absurd with all the stereotypical emotional threads to push a political agenda. Please... go do some real research and analyze facts instead of collection evidence biasly to fit immature belief systems.
3 people found this review helpful
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Broke Ann Broken
February 6, 2016
I don't have cable since it's all boring B.S.. I usually only rent a documentary. I'm really sorry that that Babel didn't receive the recognition it deserves. People stare at the idiot box, and can't good from great anymore. If anyone knows of any other movies by this writer, Please let me know. On the box it said it was a trilogy. I don't care about what language it is.
9 people found this review helpful
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