Babel (2006) with Guillermo Arriaga
Friday, 4:00 pm, Culbreth
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writer: Guillermo Arriaga
Cinematographer: Rodrigo Prieto
Cast: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett
Running Time: 143 min
“In the beginning, all the Lord’s people, from all parts of the world, spoke in one language. Nothing they proposed was impossible for them.”
Four stories, in different corners of the world, are all interconnected. In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out—detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple’s (Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt) frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children, and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. In every case, what might have been a misunderstanding is escalated to tragic proportions by the inability of people of different cultures to fully understand each other.
Director Alejandro González Iñárritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga confound expectations throughout the fractured narrative by dovetailing and interlocking each storyline, encouraging us to listen and make connections, even when the characters fail to.
Babel was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, and Screenwriter at the 2007 Academy Awards.
