Babel (2006)

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

Director:

Alejandro González Iñárritu

Writers:

Guillermo Arriaga, Guillermo Arriaga (idea),

Stars:

Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Mohamed Akhzam

Won 1 Oscar. Another 37 wins & 85 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

4 interlocking stories all connected by a single gun all converge at the end and reveal a complex and tragic story of the lives of humanity around the world and how we truly aren't all that different. In Morocco, a troubled married couple are on vacation trying to work out their differences. Meanwhile, a Moroccan herder buys a rifle for his sons so they can keep the jackals away from his herd. A girl in Japan dealing with rejection, the death of her mother, the emotional distance of her father, her own self-consciousness, and a disability among many other issues, deals with modern life in the enormous metropolis of Tokyo, Japan. Then, on the opposite side of the world the married couple's Mexican nanny takes the couple's 2 children with her to her son's wedding in Mexico, only to come into trouble on the return trip. Combined, it provides a powerful story and an equally powerful looking glass into the lives of seemingly random people around the world and it shows just how connected we...

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Plot Keywords:

rifle | children | morocco | mexican | mexico | 

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Taglines:

Pain is universal... But so is hope.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Official Sites:

Paramount Vantage [United States] West Video [Russia]

Country:

France USA Mexico

Language:

English Arabic Spanish Japanese Berber languages French Russian Japanese Sign Language

Release Date:

10 November 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Babil

Filming Locations:

Azabu-Juban, Tokyo, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£592,387 (UK) (19 January 2007)

Gross:

$34,300,771 (USA) (23 March 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Anonymous Content

Technical Specs

Runtime:

143 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Rinko Kikuchi went through a year-long audition process before finally gaining the role of Chieko.

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Goofs

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.

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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.

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Connections

Featured in The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007)

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Soundtracks

"The Joker (ATFC's Aces High Remix)"
Fatboy Slim
Written by Steve Miller, Ahmet Ertegun & Eddie Curtis
Produced by Fatboy Slim
(p) Skint Records 2004
Editorial Musical Musart, S.A. de C.V.

User Reviews

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.