Did anyone see the movie Babel?

Question

Yeah, I watched it with some buddies the other day for the first time. While it was really entertaining and very creative, I'm clueless as to the point or morale of the story. Does anyone have any insight?

Answer 1

Hi - I went to LSU, live in Miami Beach now... hope all's well up there for you. Anyway, I watched Babel with my boyfriend (who is Peruvian, thus I feel that I understand the concept of the movie quite well since my first-hand experience with this sort of thing) a few weeks ago and the main thing that we got out of the movie was the fact that regardless of our technological interconnectivity, cultural boundaries, not just language barriers, still keep us from communicating effectively. The movie shows how we need to appreciate our cultural differences and learn more about each other because perhaps that would save the world a lot of trouble.

Examples:

The deaf girl in Tokyo - can text and communicate words with anybody around the planet but cannot express herself fully or reach any personal satisfaction while living her stressful adolescent life in the big city. She cannot enjoy a nightclub - remember how we experienced sections of the nightclub scene without sound? When the sound went out for the audience, we saw just how stupid everyone looked (in a club that most, at least hearing, people from around the globe would pay a huge cover and wait a few hours in line just to get into). She cannot even properly express her sexual desires without scaring or confusing everyone else. (Adolescent and deviant sexuality is also another theme - think about the boy in Morocco masturbat*ng and looking @ his sister through the hole in the wall.) I think that this shows that we need to be more opened to sexual expression.

In Morocco, the children didn't know much about guns and shot at the bus not meaning to cause anybody harm, but that was blown out of proportion to suggest an atrocious act of terrorism around the globe, adding tensions to already divided USA/Arab worlds. (Utter miscommunication - and even worse, the law enforcement dealt with the "terrorists" (killing an innocent child), before they managed to get the woman who had been shot to safety.

When on the phone with the Mexican nanny back in California with their children, brad skips the issue and says "everything's fine" to her and the kids, skirting the real issue so they don't worry. Brad also fails to realise the importance of going to a family member's wedding to someone of the Latino culture (family is very important to hispanics, especially family gatherings). Rather than just letting the children stay with someone else, he refused and after exhausting her few options, brought them to Mexico.

There, the children did not understand the strange, and to them "scary" things they saw at the party - like when the uncle took the chicken's head off so the kids could chase it- the mexican kids are accustomed to that because in their culture it is a game. The american children were scared sh*tless.

Finally, when crossing back over the border - the immigration officers scared the Mexican guy who didn't want to get caught drink driving, they assumed they were kidnappers, and scared him and the nanny into a high-speed chase ending in what was almost everyone's deaths. If there had been clear cultural communication without assumptions, the whole thing could have been avoided.

At the end - you see Brad trying to give the Moroccan guy money in exchange for his help. The Moroccan refuses... that is even an example of miscommunication since Americans often times show appreciation through capitalist means rather than words and other non-monetary expressions of gratitude.

Anyway, that's up for you to work out, but that's how I saw the movie. There are loads of little snippets of miscommunication in that movie. I like it because I agree that it's important for us to break down cultural barriers and fully reach a global cultural understanding. Hope this helps! (btw, guess what I majored in at LSU - int'l studies... how fitting, huh!?)

Answer 2

Like the story of Babel from the Bible, "Babel" is about the difficulty of human communication, but although the stories unfold in four countries and in five languages — English, Arabic, Spanish, Japanese and sign language — language is far from the principal barrier. Instead, the film explores the ways in which cultural assumptions and biases tend to obscure reality even when reality is plain, and the way our perceived differences keep us from finding a human connection to one other.

Answer 3

Babel Chat Arab