Babel

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=12520

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Screenwriter: Guillermo Arriaga
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Elle Fanning

Plot Summary: Armed with a Winchester rifle, two Morrocan boys set out to look after their family's herd of goats. In the silent echoes of the desert, they decide to test the rifle... but the bullet goes farther than they thought it would.

In an instant, the lives of four separate groups of strangers on three different continents collide. Caught up in the rising tide of an accident that escalates beyond anyone's control are a vacationing American couple (Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett), a rebellious deaf Japanese teenager and her father, and a Mexican nanny who, without permission, takes two American children across the border. None of these strangers will ever meet; in spite of the sudden, unlikely connection between them, they will all remain isolated due to their own inability to communicate meaningfully with anyone around them.

From Alejandro González Iñárritu comes a film that is at once intimate and epic, shot in four countries, cast with actors and non-actors, and concludes his trilogy that started with "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams."

TRAILER Hi-Res

(14.8Mb)

 

[Mentok]

Plot Summary: Armed with a Winchester rifle, two Morrocan boys set out to look after their family's herd of goats. In the silent echoes of the desert, they decide to test the rifle... but the bullet goes farther than they thought it would.

In an instant, the lives of four separate groups of strangers on three different continents collide. Caught up in the rising tide of an accident that escalates beyond anyone's control are a vacationing American couple (Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett), a rebellious deaf Japanese teenager and her father, and a Mexican nanny who, without permission, takes two American children across the border. None of these strangers will ever meet; in spite of the sudden, unlikely connection between them, they will all remain isolated due to their own inability to communicate meaningfully with anyone around them.

Weirdest plot ever.

 

[Mentok]

Ok, that looks freaking awesome

 

[Sava]

WOW..that looks great

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Odd ****ing plot description. Trailer is good and Pitt is looking old as ****.

 

[Bat Brain]

Looks amazing. Amores Perros is one of my favourite movies so I'm really looking forward to this.

 

[green]

I was wondering when this trailer was gonna hit...


Looks great IMO.

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.latinoreview.com/news.php?id=911

Early Look: Babel!
Date: August 28, 2006

By: Kellvin Chavez
Source: Roberto Tomas

We’re continuing our Reader Early Look series with some reader submissions for three highly anticipated movies, ok, two out of the three are highly anticipated! Our TRUST WORTHY reader Roberto Tomas sent us in early looks at Brad Pitt’s Babel and the Russel Crowe pic, A Good Year, as well as reader Lola Gee., who sent us her early look at the Zach Braff pic, The Last Kiss. Remember to stay tuned for our regular reviewer who will review the film on release date.

Below is what Roberto had to say about Babel.
When a big movie star like Brad Pitt goes indie slumming, you got to hand it to him. At least this time, you got to hand it to him. Why? He has the good sense to take the trip with somebody who knows the journey. That's director Alejandro González Iñárritu, the guy who refined his craft doing TV commercials out of his Mexico City base of operations in the 1990s, but who became some much more after getting into the movie trade. Written by his buddy Guillermo Arriaga, Babel is the director's latest stylized multiple-story jag, a variation on his introduction Amores Perros six years ago and his recent foray into artistry, 21 Grams.
This latest one is pretty artsy too. And Pitt does his best to keep his glib movie-star mug out of the way as he teams up with Cate Blanchett, an actress who always seems more interested in becoming a better thespian than a richer personality. Which is not to say Pitt completely sacrifices his familiar-face status. But he's keeping it real not reel fancy in Babel. He looks worn out and baggy-eyed, and at a loss, and not even close to the same confident off-screen dude scorting Angelina Jolie around Africa.
There is a reason for Pitt's sour and dour approach in Babel. Blanchett and Pitt play a grieving husband and wife on a get-away trip in Morocco where things go horribly wrong when two naive goat-herding Moroccan boys fire off a rifle at a sight-seeing bus.The American couple aren't the only ones who suffer because of the thoughtless act. Besides the Moroccan family, separate groups of strangers in the U.S., Mexico and Japan must cope as the convergence of coincidence associated with the rifle exposes their separate woes. All of the yarns deal with the painful realities of loss and trying to deal with things when they change abruptly.
Heightening the device is Iñárritu's sense of timing as he cuts back and forth from one sub-plot to the next, sometimes in a time-shifting way. The good thing? Just one you lose interest in one moment, he switches to another one of the semi-linked stories, which include:

• A virginal but rebellious deaf Japanese schoolgirl who is recently motherless and estranged from her father.
  A Mexican nanny who takes two gringo children across the border into Mexico for the wedding of her grandson. (It includes a cameo by Gael Garcia Bernal of Amores Perros fame).
  The Moroccan clan with the gun who are torn apart by events construed as a terrorist threat.
  And the American couple (Pitt and Blanchett) desperately trying to salvage their relationship.
  

Lots to keep track of, all right. And the film is over two-hours-and-20-minutes and it over-stays its welcome now and again in some sequences. But Babel is gritty and uncompromising. And Iñárritu asks some tough questions about life and death, and how quickly one can become the other when issues get misunderstood. Makes sense.

Babel was the man-made tower destroyed by God, who subsequently condemned man to speak in languages. And certainly what we have here is a vivid definition of the failure to communicate in many different languages.
Overall I give this film a B+

 

[Hunter Rider]

Poster

 

[Carmine Falcone]

I've been on holiday to Morocco this year.

..........

 

[Dark Donnie]

Did anyone see it this past weekend??

 

[The Amazing Lee]

Looks interesting..

 

[green]

Did anyone see it this past weekend??

I was gonna go today cause it opened in NY and LA and usually when that happens we get it too, but it only opened in 7 theatres and one of those wasnt here.

 

[Dark Donnie]

That sucks...I was reading some reviews....alot of people have been writing that Pitt is almost certain to get a nomination.

 

[Arcturus]

Meh, it look's okay.

 

[green]

That sucks...I was reading some reviews....alot of people have been writing that Pitt is almost certain to get a nomination.

He's darn good in it, honestly though it's not that big of a part. He's got one scene in a hallway where he's on the phone to his son that's incredibly emotional.
The movies great, its a tough one to take, its incrdibly nerve-racking at times. I had read reviews so knew what I was in for, the friend that went with me didnt really know much and she was pretty wrecked by the end. We both loved it though.

 

[The Storm]

This film isn't realised her until next year, not long now but I've been waiting to see it for a while. Thoroughly enjoyed 21 Grams, it made you work for the story and Naomi Watts is superb in it. Thumbs up for Brad Pitt, glad to see him taking some risks and his name should rake in viewers. Can't go wrong with Gael Bernal Garcia either.

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=20512

CHINA CUTS RINKO'S SCENES IN BABEL
The film censors of China have, in their infinite wisdom, decided to extensively trim footage from Rinko Kikuchi's Oscar nominated performance in Babel, deeming them "too sexually explicit." Well, duh – isn't that the point? Even more puzzling is why they then bothered choosing the film in the first place – if only 20 foreign films are allowed to be shown in the country each year, wouldn't you choose one that didn't need the shears?

 

[Darth Elektra]

DVD:

http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/babel4.html

 

[Dr. Manhatten]

Personally, I found it to be incredibly overrated and thankfully didn't win much in the way of Oscars

 

[scifiwolf]

Agreed

 

[Kakihara]

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=20512

CHINA CUTS RINKO'S SCENES IN BABEL
The film censors of China have, in their infinite wisdom, decided to extensively trim footage from Rinko Kikuchi's Oscar nominated performance in Babel, deeming them "too sexually explicit." Well, duh – isn't that the point? Even more puzzling is why they then bothered choosing the film in the first place – if only 20 foreign films are allowed to be shown in the country each year, wouldn't you choose one that didn't need the shears?

Those scenes with Rinko are the most emotionally charged out of the whole movie, IMO. China, I thought you were cool...