Babel

It's been a while since I watched a good movie. I did see 300 recently, a movie inspired by Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name and while I did think the action in the movie was shot in truly exhilarating fashion, the acting and the dialogues in contrast were unoriginal and one-dimensional bordering on being comical even and ultimately detracting from the experience. In short - pretty crappy. I do want to clarify that I haven't read Miller's novel. It does seem to me though that people who read the book were far more immersed in the movie and ultimately found it to be more enjoyable. Perhaps I should have done the same.

But this is a problem with movie adaptations of famous or great books. Moviegoers who've actually read the original book usually go on like, "Man! You haven't read the book? You should have - it would've made a lot more sense to you!" I know they say that - because I do that a lot myself!

And while deriding the book-challenged among us is all well and good, the truth is a good movie ultimately must stand on its own without having to be a companion piece to something else all the time. For example, I found the "Lord of the Rings" motion picture trilogy more enjoyable than the J.R.R. Tolkien book trilogy (Yes Raoul, Yes. I do know there's more to LOTR than "just those three" books) even though I read the books before the movies came out. Consider Frank Miller's other famous work - the Sin City series brought to life on the screen by Robert Rodriguez as another case in point. Sin City is one of the most amazing movies ever made. In both above cases, while reading the original books do perhaps enhance the experience of watching the movie, the movies themselves can easily stand alone by themselves. Ah! If only Rodriguez had directed 300.

Overall, not such a bad movie but doesn't quite live up to the hype. For a fan's review of 300, do check out Sibin's here.

This post though is basically about Babel, a movie I saw on DVD in the comfort of home a couple of days ago. Babel is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and among the more prominent stars of the movie are Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The movie also stars several lesser known actors and as is often the case - these lesser known actors are exceptional.

The story (not necessarily told in a linear format) begins in Morocco with two adolescents - both brothers - minding their goats armed with a hunting rifle given to them by their father solely for the purpose of shooting away jackals. To while away their time, the brothers start to carelessly shoot at far away boulders on surrounding hillocks. Soon, the target shooting moves to moving targets, in this case shooting at vehicles passing by on the winding road below in full view from their hilltop perch - an activity only kids could possibly think of. One bullet fired from some distance by the more talented marksman among the brothers finds its way into the flesh of an American tourist in a bus full of foreign (and all white) tourists visiting Morocco. This single event then triggers a whole series of events and circumstances, actions and consequences that changes the lives of several people across four countries.

Babel could be loosely compared to Crash in the manner in which it weaves different stories within its main storyline. But where it differs from Crash is in that these stories aren't weaved tightly to one another. Babel lets the story threads run their own courses. It's pace may seem laborious and the movie may ultimately disappoint those bottom-line hunting , road-rage-suffering, ADD afflicted among us looking for an explicit payoff or resolution of some sorts fed intravenously at the end of the movie into our lazy blood streams as we are accustomed to; for the few others the superb acting on display from several actors (especially the Moroccan cast of the movie), the intricate storyline and the wonderfully captivating background score will keep you riveted to your seat.

With that I must now correct my first statement. It had been a while since I saw a good movie. At least until I saw Babel that is.

(pic courtesy www.apple.com )