Babel (2006)

Director:

Alejandro González Iñárritu

Writers (WGA):

Guillermo Arriaga (written by)
Guillermo Arriaga (idea) ...

Release Date:

10 November 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

If You Want to be Understood...Listen

Plot:

Tragedy strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching off an interlocking story involving four different families.

Plot Keywords:

Children | Rifle | Mexican | Morocco | Mexico

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 27 wins & 75 nominations

Cast

Brad Pitt	...	Richard Jones
Cate Blanchett	...	Susan Jones
Mohamed Akhzam	...	Anwar
Peter Wight	...	Tom
Harriet Walter	...	Lilly
Trevor Martin	...	Douglas
Matyelok Gibbs	...	Elyse
Georges Bousquet	...	Robert
Claudine Acs	...	Jane
André Oumansky	...	Walter
Michael Maloney	...	James
Dermot Crowley	...	Barth
Wendy Nottingham	...	Tourist #1
Henry Maratray	...	Tourist #2
Linda Broughton	...	Tourist #3

Also Known As:

Babel (France)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, some graphic nudity, sexual content, language and some drug use.

Runtime:

143 min

Country:

France | USA | Mexico

Language:

English | Arabic | Spanish | Japanese | Japanese Sign Language | Berber | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Ireland:16 | Finland:K-15 | Canada:18A (British Columbia) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | USA:R (certificate #42677) | Sweden:11 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/Manitoba/Ontario) | Norway:15 | Denmark:15 | UK:15 | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16 | Singapore:M18 | Iran:18+ | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Brazil:16 | South Africa:16 (LN) | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:18 | South Korea:18 | Malaysia:18PL | France:U | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Japan:PG-12 | Netherlands:12 (DVD rating) | Netherlands:12 | Czech Republic:15 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Azabu-Juban, Tokyo, Japan

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Almost all of the film, even the driving scenes, was shot using a hand-held camera.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: After the wedding, Amelia, her nephew and the Jones children use the Tecate border crossing to reenter the USA. After fleeing, we are shown a sandy, wide desert where they wander. Actually, the Tecate border crossing is in the mountains, there is no such desert within a reasonable distance on the USA side. What is shown looks like an Arizona border crossing.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Hassan: It's almost new. Three hundred cartridges. The guy who gave it to me said you can hit as far as three kilometers.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Alec Baldwin/Christina Aguilera (#32.5)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

The Joker (ATFC's Aces High Remix)

Poetry

Alejandro González Iñárritu's direction is brilliantly layered and intricately woven. He deftly uses different film stock, imagery, sound, and stories to weave a single tale out of four disparate ones, a talent he's shown in other films.

The story by screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga and Iñárritu has one incident ricochet around the globe, and peeling back the layers of culture to show the frustrating inability to communicate, and the poignancy and universality of familial love.

Each story is complete, but a series of snapshots that leave as many questions as answers. As the stories unfold, the backstories and the futures of the characters are chock full of possibility and pain. As one commenter during the Q&A said, it was frustratingly beautiful. Each storyline deals with family and conflict from the inability to communicate or to understand.

All the performances are incredible, and very touching. Brad Pitt did an excellent job, and the always outstanding Cate Blanchett, a powerhouse actor if there ever was one, has the least screen time of any of the leads. Few can do so much with so little. But the really outstanding performance is Rinko Kikuchi as a deaf-mute Tokyo teen.

To say any more would possibly lesson the experience, so let me just say this: it may seem confusing at times, but by the end, it will seem like poetry.