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JM
 Golden Globes winner Babel unfolds across three
continents and several languages, leaving you shocked
and shaken and -- as the director Alejandro González
Iñárritu wanted -- in a Babel of confusion and lost
communication.
The movie Babel revolves around an American couple
played by Brad Pitt (Richard) and Cate Blanchett
(Susan). The American couple is on a vacation to
Morocco, which is barely out of civil strife. While they
take a bus on a country tour, Susan is hit by a stray
bullet on the neck. The bus grinds to a stop, and from
there, Richard's trial by fire starts. Lost in the
middle of nowhere and caught in an alien culture, they
barely make it to a country doctor who, apart from
stitching the wound with a heat-sterilised needle, can't
do much. Susan has to be taken to a hospital urgently if
she is to be saved. And there are no hospitals or
doctors in the middle of this endless barren land.
As Susan drifts in and out of consciousness, the only
solace is a doped cigar, gracefully offered by the
female village quack amid the Babel of confusion. The
co-travellers, themselves desperate to get out of the
desert, have started revolting. After an altercation
with the hapless husband, the travellers take off with
the bus, leaving Richard and his gravely-wounded wife in
the middle of nowhere, in the hands of an alien people,
where Richard cannot communicate without the help of a
village interpreter. In fact, the whole of Babel is
woven around the theme of broken communication - between
father and daughter, between daughter and the world,
between parents an children, between a helpless man and
the poeple around him.
News spreads all over Morocco and the rest of the world
that an American couple has been shot in the country,
possibly by terrorists. Police fan across the
countryside where the tourst bus was shot, and find
several cartridges fired an air rifle. Meanwhile, the
Americans themselves are unable to find help. Analysing
the bullets lead the police to the doorstep of a
Moroccan sheep farmer Abdullah, whose son shot the
tourist.
This is the second plane of the story, where the agony
of the Moroccan family unfolds. Abdullah, who gets the
gun for protecting his flock against jackals, had handed
it over to his underage sons when he went out. The
enthusiastic sons in Babel, one of who fantasises sex
with his own sister, goes out to check out the gun's
range. In one of the scenes, the younger boy peeps into
his sister changing clothes gracefully permitting her
brother to peep on her nudity, while the elder one drags
him away. The younger one vents his frustration in fit
of masturbation. There is nothing left in Babel for
imagination. The Babel boys, while they check out the
range of the rifle, aim at the distant to see how far
the bullets go. The elder boy shoots at a car at the
distance and misses it. The younger Moroccan grabs the
gun and, being a better marksman, shoots at a bus
crawling over the distant valley. The victim is the
American woman.
Soon, the police are at their doorstep. Though the Babel
Moroccoan family manages to shake the cops off
initially, they are soon trailed. The terrified kids
finally snap and reveal the truth to their parents - of
the younger one shooting the tourist and spying on his
naked sister. Abdullah breaks down, but has to find a
way. While they escape, the cops spot them in the
desert, and what starts is a shooting match. The elder
one succumbs to police firing, while the younger one
shoots down a cop. But as life starts leaving the elder
son, the younger one breaks the rifle and surrenders to
the cops. But by then, it is too late.
Meanwhile, another story unfolds in the US and across
the border in Mexico. The American couple had left their
tiny tots under the custody of their nanny, who has to
attend her son's wedding across the border. She takes
the kids with her, having no idea of the troubles that
lie ahead. The wedding party over, once the nanny and
kids try to sneak back into the US, a border check
snares Santiago, the drunk Mexican nephew of Amelia who
was driving the car. In a frantic move, he jumps patrol
and escapes with his car into the dark night, leaving
the nanny and kids in pitch dark night. Now, it is the
turn of the nanny and the kids to go through hell in
Babel as they are lost in the desert around the border
with not a human in sight. After a fitful night's sleep
in the desert sand, the desert sun leaves Amelia with no
strength to carry the children. She leaves the children
under a tree crying and sets out looking for the nearest
sight of human life.
As Babel winds on with scenes inter-cutting by the
minute, Amelia is picked up in no time by the border
patrol who are eager to slap charges of illegal
immigration on her, and her cries of the kids lying
dehydrated across the road have no takers. By the time
Amelia tearfully persuades the cops to go looking for
the cops, the children have vanished. They are nowhere
to be seen in the desert.
Meanwhile, in distant Japan, another story of pain,
confusion and miscommunication - Babel - is unravelling.
Chieko, a deaf-mute girl is struggling with her
disability and unfulfilled sexual urges. Chieko cannot
find love in her father, friends or in sex. Chieko
yearns for sex, but can't find any. She looks for it in
all the wrong places - a dentist's room, a police
officer on duty, a bunch of boys at a doping gang- and
meets with rejection and humiliation everywhere. Her
father being always abroad on business trips, Chieko
feels isolated and depressed in the middle of friends
and loud parties which she can't hear. Babel, as
underlined by her inability to communicate with her
environment and vice versa reaches a crescendo as she
persuades a cop on duty to check on her father to have
sex with her.
Why the cop? Well, her father, on a hunting trip to
Morocco, had gifted a rifle to a guide. The rifle in
turn made its way to the sheep farmer, whose son shot
the American. The cops traces the rifle to its owner,
and Chieko's father is answerable for the rifle
possession.
Babel draws to a close as Susan is airlifted to a
hospital and treated, while the kids are discovered by
the police and reached home safely. Chieko undergoes an
emotional trauma of longing and isolation and finally
finds solace in the arms of her father. One of
Abdullah's sons is dead; and the other with the cops.
DWS Oscar nominations for Babel
Best Picture - Drama
Best Director - Alejandro González Iñárritu
Best Supporting Actress 1. Adriana Barraza)
Best Supporting Actress 2. Rinko Kikuchi) Cast
Brad Pitt .... Richard
Cate Blanchett .... Susan
Gael García Bernal.... Santiago
Rinko Kikuchi .... Chieko
Kôji Yakusho .... Yasujiro
Harriet Walter .... Lilly
Trevor Martin .... Douglas
Matyelok Gibbs .... Elyse
Georges Bousquet .... Robert
Claudine Acs .... Jane
André Oumansky .... Walter
Michael Maloney .... James
Dermot Crowley .... Barth Awards won by Babel
Cannes Film Festival:
Won: Best Director (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
Won: François Chalais Award (a Prize of the Ecumenical
Jury)
Nominated: Palme d'Or (Best Film) Golden Globe Awards
for Babel
Won: Best Picture - Drama
Nominated: Best Director (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
Nominated: Best Supporting Actor (Brad Pitt)
Nominated: Best Supporting Actress (Adriana Barraza)
Nominated: Best Supporting Actress (Rinko Kikuchi)
Nominated: Best Screenplay (Guillermo Arriaga)
Nominated: Best Score (Gustavo Santaolalla) Screen
Actors Guild Awards for Babel
Nominated: Best Performance by a Cast in a Motion
Picture
Nominated: Best Supporting Actress (Adriana Barraza)
Nominated: Best Supporting Actress (Rinko Kikuchi)
Top Ten Lists including:
American Film Institute Awards 2006 |
