I don't get it?

Question

I just watched Babel - can anyone explain it?

Answer 1

the idea of multiple stories eventually coming together is nothing new, and i think Crash did it best...in babel, the connections are so vapid its almost like the so-called butterfly effect on weather -- if a butterfly flaps its wings in china it rains in kansas...too long a film..a lot of quirky camera work and not enough story...and why didn't they explore the possibility that the rifle the man gave away in morrocco was the one he might have used to shoot his wife? mostly it was stupid people (who goes to morrocco for a vacation?) doing stupid things and getting screwed for it

Answer 2

It's a great movie. Just pay attention to how all the stories related, and how small the planet is. A gun bought in Japan is used in a "terrorist" act (paranoia someone?), then because the husband and wife cannot go back home on time, the nanny takes the kids to Mexico, and then she is deported. The butterfly effect.

Answer 3

its almost like the movie crash--few stories all coming together in the end. Also, I still can't sleep, still thinking whats in that dang note she gave to the detective.

Answer 4

n a remote location in the southern Moroccan desert, Hassan sells a Winchester Model 70 bolt-action rifle and a box of 300 rounds to Abdullah, who gives it to his two teenage boys, Yussef and Ahmed, (played by local non-professional actors Boubker Ait El Caid and Said Tarchini) who look after their family's herd of goats, to kill jackals preying on the goats. To test it out, they aim from a hill at rocks and later at a bus carrying Western tourists as it passes on a highway below. Yussef's bullet hits the bus, injuring Susan (Cate Blanchett), an American woman who is traveling with her husband Richard (Brad Pitt) on vacation.

The police roughly question Hassan and beat him and his wife until they are able to tell the police that Abdullah now has the rifle. Later, the two boys confess to their father what they have done. The three flee from the police taking the rifle with them. The police shoot at them, and Yussef shoots back after his brother is shot. Yussef eventually surrenders and confesses, asking for medical treatment for his brother.

Richard and Susan were vacationing in Morocco to mend their own marital woes. It appears the sudden death of their infant son, suggested to be SIDS, has caused a strain on their marriage as they cannot communicate their frustration, guilt, and blame to each other. It is also implied that Richard left the family for a while after the infant's death. Richard and Susan are on the bus shot at by Yussef and Ahmed. When Susan is hit the bus goes to the nearest village with a doctor. The bus waits some time, but the other passengers demand that it leave, because the heat is hard to bear, and because they fear more attacks. Since Susan cannot travel by bus in her condition, the couple stays behind, together with the bus's tour guide Anwar, to wait for transport to a hospital. Political issues between the US and Morocco prevent quick help, but at last a helicopter arrives. The simplicity of the ordeal, Richard caring for and protecting Susan with the fear of losing her, brings them together.

In parallel, there is Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), a rebellious deaf Japanese teenage girl who refuses to speak. Chieko is traumatized by the recent suicide of her mother and a sense that she is not seen by others which is especially exemplified by interactions with her father, Yasujiro (Kôji Yakusho), and boys her age. In response, she has started exhibiting sexually provocative behavior, such as wearing a short skirt and no underwear. She attempts unsuccessfully to initiate a sexual encounter with her dentist. Chieko is eventually accosted by two police detectives questioning her about her father, one of whom she finds attractive, Kenji Mamiya (Satoshi Nikaido). She initially resists any questioning, but later invites Mamiya to talk with her in their apartment. Thinking the detectives were investigating her father's involvement in her mother's suicide, she tells Mamiya that her father was asleep when her mother jumped off the balcony and that she witnessed this. It turns out the detectives were, in fact, investigating a hunting trip Yasujiro took in Morocco. Yasujiro is an avid hunter and during a hunting trip in Morocco he gave his rifle, as a gift, to his tour guide, Hassan, who at the beginning of the film sold the rifle to Abdullah and his boys. We soon learn the real reason Chieko invites Mamiya to her home, as she approaches him nude and tries to sexually seduce him. He resists but comforts the sexually confused Chieko. On his way out, Chieko writes Mamiya a note and hints that she doesn't want him to read it until he leaves. On his way out, the detective crosses paths with Yasujiro; they discuss the rifle and Mamiya mentions his wife's suicide. Yasujiro is confused by the mention of a "balcony" and responds "My wife shot herself in the head. I told the police that many times" leaving questions open of how Chieko's mother actually died and why Yasujiro was under investigation over this in the first place. It is never revealed what is in the note Chieko gave to the detective.

We also see Richard and Susan's Mexican nanny, Amelia (Adriana Barraza), taking care of their two young children while the couple is stranded in Morocco. Due to the parents' long vacation, she is forced to take care of the children longer than anticipated. Unable to secure help to care for them, she takes them to her son's wedding in Mexico. Rather than stay the night in Mexico with the children, she decides to make the journey back with her nephew Santiago (Gael García Bernal) who throws caution to the wind and drives while intoxicated. At the United States border crossing, the vehicle arouses the suspicions of the border guards. Despite having passports, Amelia has no letter of consent from the children's parents allowing her to take them out of the United States, and they suspect that Santiago is intoxicated.

An initial search occurs and then Santiago is told to pull over to an area designated for more intensive inspection. Santiago panics, decides to flee and drives off before the further inspection can occur. He later drops Amelia and the children off in the desert, so he can safely get rid of the police who are in pursuit of the vehicle. He never makes it back, and Amelia and children are left stranded in the desert without food or water. After a day of walking while carrying the children, out of fatigue and necessity - realizing that they all will die if she does not get help, Amelia leaves the children behind to find someone, telling them not to move. She eventually finds a U.S. Border Patrol officer. However, the officer is more interested in arresting her than he is in helping her find the children. Amelia breaks down into tears out of love for the two children that she raised as her own. Only then does the officer allow her to lead him to where the children were left, but they have wandered away. She is taken back to what appears to be a Border Patrol station, where she is told the children have been found, and that she will be deported from the US as she has been working in the US illegally. Her protests that she had been in the US for 16 years and had looked after the children for the duration of their lives do not secure lenient treatment. We see her at the end meeting her son on the Mexican side of the border at the Tijuana crossing, having been removed from the United States.

Answer 5

i dont get it either!!!!!