McHawkson

I finally saw it last night (after sitting on my Netflix for long time). I will have to agreed with slop101.

What really interested me about the movie is about American woman being shot at while touring in Morocco and people assumed that it was terrorist. And later on, they discovered it was young boy playing with rifle. I thought it was good part. I found the Japanese girl and Mexican stories completely pointless - it seems to drag the whole movie down.

gryffinmaster

Huh - I thought the Japanese storyline (and the struggle with the girl) was a great connecting addition with the core story. The Mexican storyline, however, felt cold and out in left field. Though Barazza was wonderfully potent in that key role as the housekeeper, that entire aside just left me empty.

Overall, I liked Babel a lot, but not in any proximity to my adoration for 21 Grams.

fujishig

I was wondering how/why she went to Mexico in the first place if she didn't actually have papers. I know her son was getting married, but the whole movie up to that point I thought she was here legally... or was it just that she didn't have permission to work?

JimRochester

I just saw this movie and I have to say I really don't care why anyone did anything in it. It was so long, boring and drawn out, I couldn't wait for it to end. Every shot seemed dragged out twice as long as it needed to be. OK I get the point, she's on the helicopter, you don't need 10 shots of it. If you want to watch this movie you need one finger on the fast forward button. Sorry to those who loved it but I think I would have liked it more and still understood what was happening had it been 1:45 minutes instead of 2:15.

GatorDeb

This is what I got from the ending:

Someone (the cop) finally connects with her in an emotional way, and this sets off healing. In their final scene, the daughter is finally able to let the father in and their grieving, which hadn't really taken place, finally starts. They are finally able to talk to each other in an emotional level. No one killed the mother, she killed herself (with a gun, nonetheless). Notice all three countries had a gun involved?

What I don't get is, why wasn't the caretaker allowed back to her house to retrieve her things before being deported? And as far as I know they can't just drop her back, even those accused of being here illegally have rights.

ipramono

Haha I loved this movie so much that makes me force myself to register to this forum, so I can write this reply.

Well, I could agree with you guys who hate it because of lots of things in this movie not making any sense. But, please.. this is a movie. Some nonsenseness sometimes is (very) needed to dramatized the movie.

I love this movie because lots of mystical things, and the producer is really discipline in his themes about Babel (read Bible if you don't know anything about it):
1. Difficulties in communication. All three storyline have a sense of difficulties in communication. The americans have hard times communicating with the locals. The japanese girl has a hard time communicating sign languages with other people. The mexicans nanny has a hard time to explaining to the border guards about her real condition.
2. Scattered around the world. All three storyline were happened in different locations around the world.
3. All of them has something to do with gun.

This what makes this movie strong and mystical.

JimRochester

I liked the concepts and the meanings. I didn't like the execution. It seemed like every segment I was bored waiting for it to end. OK I get it, get on with it. Had the scenes been tightened up I might have liked it more.

Layziebones

Im probably going to get a bunch of backlash for this, but i thoroughly despised the movie. I thought it was completely boring. It was original but it just didnt connect like I thought it would.

Holysmoker

WA-WA-WE-WA

wm lopez

It was a good movie to watch once and that's it.
Wouldn't want the dvd free.

zatoichivision

Ebert just put this on his "great movies" list. its an interesting read.

lilfreakonatree

Ofcourse you guys can't connect with it, you're american! That was the whole point of this movie, to give you a little insight on what goes on with people who are different (foreigners and handicapped people), like someone already said the little Moroccan boy could only find sexual relief from his own sister! (yes disgusting, but maybe now you'll appreciate your internet?) It also shows how quick people on the most powerful country are to judge and be close minded, for example with the mexican story line, brad pitt was being inconsiderate in not letting the nanny out to go to her sons wedding. Someone previously asked why would she go back if she's illegal? It shows how important this is to her and how much she is willing to risk, she hasn't seen her son or the rest of her family for that matter in ages and yet brad is selfish and only thinks of his own problems. And that just goes on and on in the movie, but I'm definitely not gonna go and describe everything

JimRochester

:notrolls:

To jump on a board and make your first post insulting the country where most people are based is usually just trolling for hatred.

True I was not fond of that movie. I think it has very little to do with me being an American. I liked the premise and the story. I did not like the execution. It belaboured every scene and made it much longer than it needed to be. After a while I was saying out loud; OK I get the idea get on to the next part. A scene that needed to be 10 seconds to get the point across was 30 seconds long. I think the director or editors fell in love with the idea so much they were afraid to make the necessary edits to keep the pace moving. Especially in a story that is disjointed until the end brings all the pieces together.

Tarantino

You're about a year late, lilfreakonatree.

= J

iamiam

Iñárritu = Shaymalan