Babel (2006)

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

Director:

Alejandro G. Iñárritu (as Alejandro González Iñárritu)

Writers:

Guillermo Arriaga, Guillermo Arriaga (idea)

Stars:

Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal

Won 1 Oscar. Another 42 wins & 134 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Brad Pitt	...	Richard
Cate Blanchett	...	Susan
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
Henry Maratray	...	Tourist
Linda Broughton	...	Tourist

Storyline

4 interlocking stories connected by a single gun converge at the end to 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 really ...

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Plot Keywords:

american | mexican border | mini skirt | public nudity | female rear nudity | 

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Taglines:

If You Want to be Understood...Listen

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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:

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:

Вавилон

Filming Locations:

Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$389,351, 29 October 2006, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$34,302,837

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$135,330,182

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

Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett later would play a couple again in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Both films were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.

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Goofs

Saguaro cactus appears in several scenes of the Mexican desert. However, these grow in the Sonora Desert region and not south of San Diego.

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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

Referenced in In the Middle of the Night (2016)

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Soundtracks

Charge of the Herd
Philip A. Scheib
©Courtesy of Paramount Picture Corporation

User Reviews

That damned tower of ours

I admire Gonzalez Inarritu's balls and his talent of course. He opens himself up for a barrage of criticism and ridicule but at the end his genius wins. I saw the film months ago and I still think about it. I haven't seen it again because the recollection is so powerful and I don't want to mess it up by seeing it again intentionally. The Mexican woman with the white kids in the desert has become part of my nightmares. What an enormous thing for a movie to accomplish. I'm giving it a 10 and not because I "like" the film so much but because I saw myself coming to the conclusion that the film is a masterpiece all on my own. It inspires respect. Christ! I can't believe I'm saying that but I am and I'm meaning every word. In a way it reminds me of Bunuel's "Viridiana" a film that I hated so much it has become one of the most important films of my life. Go figure. To be disturbed. I mean deeply disturbed is a strange experience and I suspect that it has to do with being confronted by the truth.