Babel (film)
Babel | |
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Directed by | Alejandro González Iñárritu |
Written by | Guillermo Arriaga |
Based on | An idea by
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Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Rodrigo Prieto |
Edited by | |
Music by | Gustavo Santaolalla |
Production companies |
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Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 143 minutes |
Countries |
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Languages |
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Budget | $25 million |
Box office | $135.3 million[4] |
Babel is a 2006
Babel was selected to compete for the
Plot
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (February 2024) |
Babel has four main strains of actions and characters which are location-based. The film is not edited in a linear chronological order.
Morocco
In a desert in Morocco, Abdullah, a
Glimpses of television news programs reveal that the US government considers the shooting a terrorist act and is pressuring the Moroccan government to apprehend the culprits. Abdullah, who has heard about the shooting, asks the boys where the rifle is and beats the truth out of them. Finally, the three try to flee but are spotted. The police corner the father and boys on the rocky slope of a hill and open fire. After Ahmed is hit in the leg, Yussef returns fire, striking one police officer in the shoulder. The police continue shooting, hitting Ahmed in the back, severely injuring him. Yussef then surrenders, admitting responsibility for shooting the American and asking for medical assistance; the police are shocked to realise they were shooting at children.
Richard/Susan
Richard and Susan are an American couple who came on vacation to Morocco. When Susan is shot on the tour bus, Richard orders the bus driver to the nearest village, Tazarine. The other tourists wait for some time, but they eventually demand to leave, fearing the heat and that they may be the target of further attacks. Richard tells the tour group to wait for the ambulance, which never arrives, and eventually the bus leaves without them. The couple stays behind with the bus's tour guide, still waiting for transport to a hospital. A helicopter arrives and carries Richard and Susan to a hospital in Casablanca, where she is expected to recover.
United States/Mexico
Richard and Susan's Mexican nanny, Amelia, tends to their children, Debbie and Mike, in their San Diego, California home. When Amelia learns of Susan's injury, she is forced to take care of the children longer than planned and worries that she will miss her son's wedding. Unable to secure any other help to care for them, she calls Richard for advice, who tells her that she has to stay with the children. Without his permission, Amelia decides to take the children with her to the wedding in a rural community near Tijuana, Mexico. Rather than staying the night in Mexico with the children, Amelia decides to drive back to the States with her nephew, Santiago. He has been drinking heavily and the border guards become suspicious of him and the American children in the car. Amelia has passports for all four travelers, but no letter of consent from the children's parents allowing her to take them out of the United States. Under pressure by the US Border Patrol, Santiago speeds away in a drunken panic and abandons Amelia and the children in the desert, whereupon awakening in the morning and without any water they soon begin to suffer from heat exhaustion.
Amelia leaves the children behind to find help, ordering them not to move. She eventually finds a Border Patrol officer, who places her under arrest. She and the officer travel back to where she left the children, but they are not there. Amelia is taken back to a Border Patrol station, where she is eventually informed that the children have been found and that Richard, while outraged, has agreed not to press charges. However, she is told she will be deported from the US where she has been working illegally. At the border, a tearful Amelia is greeted by her newlywed son.
Japan
Chieko Wataya (綿谷 千恵子 Wataya Chieko) is a rebellious teenage girl who is deaf and non-verbal. She is also self-conscious and unhappy because of her disability. While out with friends, she finds a teenage boy attractive, and following an unsuccessful attempt at socializing, exposes herself to him under a table. At a dental appointment, she tries to kiss the dentist, who sends her away. Chieko encounters two police detectives who question her about her father. She invites one of the detectives, Kenji Mamiya (真宮 賢治 Mamiya Kenji), back to the high-rise apartment that she shares with her father. Incorrectly assuming that the detectives are investigating her father's involvement in her mother's suicide, she explains to Mamiya that her father was asleep when her mother jumped off the balcony and that she witnessed this herself. The detectives are actually investigating a hunting trip Yasujiro[clarification needed] took in Morocco. Soon after learning this, Chieko approaches Mamiya nude and attempts to seduce him. He resists her approaches but comforts her as she bursts into tears.
Leaving the apartment, Mamiya crosses paths with Yasujiro and questions him about the rifle. Yasujiro explains that there was no black market involvement; he gave his rifle as a gift to Hassan, his hunting guide on a trip in Morocco. About to depart, Mamiya offers condolences for the wife's suicide. Yasujiro, however, is confused by the mention of a balcony and angrily replies that his wife shot herself, and that Chieko was the first to discover her. As Mamiya sits in a restaurant, watching news of Susan's recovery, Yasujiro comforts his daughter with a hug as she stands at their balcony in mourning.
Themes
Babel can be analyzed as a network narrative in which its characters, scattered across the globe, represent different nodes of a network that is connected by various strands. The movie not only incorporates quite a large number of characters but they also are, as is typical for network narratives, equally important. It is noticeable that Babel has multiple protagonists who, as a consequence, make the plot more complex in relation to time and causality.
One of the central connections between all of the main characters is the rifle. Over the course of the movie, the viewer finds out that Yasujiro Wataya visits Morocco for a hunting trip and gives the rifle as a gift to his guide, Hassan Ibrahim, who then sells it to Abdullah from where it gets passed on to his sons. Susan Jones, in turn, is shot with that very same rifle which also has a tragic impact on Amelia Hernández' life. It is observable that "all characters are affected by the connections created between them – connections that influence both their individual trajectories as characters and the overall structure of the plot".[8]
It shows how a single object can serve as a connection between many different characters (or nodes in a network) who do not necessarily need to know each other. Even though the rifle is not passed on any further, it continues to influence the characters' lives in significant ways. This demonstrates how the smallest actions on one side of the world can ultimately lead to a complete change of another person's life elsewhere, without there being any form of direct contact between the two (also see Butterfly effect). It also creates a small-world effect, in which "characters will intersect again and again"[9] either directly or indirectly and mostly by accident. As Maria Poulaki observes, characters in network narratives "meet and separate not because of the characters' purposeful actions but as an outcome of pure chance".[8]
Cast
- Morocco
- Brad Pitt as Richard Jones
- Cate Blanchett as Susan Jones
- Mohamed Akhzam as Anwar
- Peter Wight as Tom
- Harriet Walter as Lilly
- Michael Maloney as James
- Driss Roukhe as Alarid
- Boubker Ait El Caid as Yussef
- Said Tarchani as Ahmed
- Mustapha Rachidi as Abdullah
- Abdelkader Bara as Hassan
- Wahiba Sahmi as Zohra
- Robert Fyfe as Tourist Number 14
- United States/Mexico
- Adriana Barraza as Amelia Hernández
- Gael García Bernal as Santiago
- Elle Fanning as Debbie Jones
- Nathan Gamble as Mike Jones
- Clifton Collins, Jr.as Police Officer at Mexican border.
- Michael Peña as Officer John
- Japan
- Rinko Kikuchi as Chieko Wataya
- Kōji Yakushoas Yasujiro Wataya
- Satoshi Nikaido as Detective Kenji Mamiya
- Yuko Murata as Mitsu
- Shigemitsu Ogi as Dentist Chieko attempts to seduce.
- Ayaka Komatsu as Bikini Model in TV Commercial (uncredited).
Production
Writing
In one of the earlier drafts of the script written by Guillermo Arriaga, the Japanese deaf girl was originally a Spanish girl who had recently become blind.
Earlier the main leading couple problems were infidelities, but a child death was introduced to allow Pitt to better understand his character.
According to Alejandro González Iñárritu, the locations of the film played a key role in his life. He made a life changing trip to Morocco at 17. In his previous travels to Japan, he was convinced to return with a camera someday, and finally his own move from Mexico to the USA was also present in the film.
Asked about the idea for the film, which is credited to Arriaga and Gonzalez Inarritu, the former said, "It is credited to him because I had this story first placed only in two countries. He asked to have it in four and that's why he has the 'idea by' credit." Asked also if the idea of setting Babel's two other stories in Morocco and Japan was from Gonzalez Iñárritu, Arriaga answered "No, he said put it wherever you want".[10]
Casting
When the 24-year-old Rinko Kikuchi auditioned for the role of Chieko, Iñarritu was surprised by her talent but was reluctant due to her not being deaf. The casting process continued with hundred of actresses in the following nine months, with Kikuchi ultimately winning the role a week before filming began.[11][12][13]
At the volleyball match in Tokyo, most of the audience spectators were played by deaf persons.[14][15]
Brad Pitt backed out of a role in The Departed, which he produced, in order to film Babel.[16]
The film extras portraying migrants in the Mexico shooting were real immigrants hired by the production company.[15]
Funding
Babel's $25 million budget came from an array of different sources and investors anchored with Paramount Vantage.[17]
Shooting
Filming locations included
]Principal photography began using 16mm film[18] on 2 May and wrapped on 1 December 2005. Several different types of film stock, including three-perf Super 35mm, 35mm, 18.5 anamorphic, were later utilized to give each location a distinct look.[1] After filming, director Alejandro González Iñárritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga had a falling-out regarding the authorship of their previous film, 21 Grams.[19] Arriaga argued that cinema is a collaborative medium, and that both he and González Iñárritu are thus the authors of the films they have worked on together. González Iñárritu claimed sole credit as the auteur of those same films, minimizing Arriaga's contribution to the pictures. Following this dispute, Iñárritu banned Arriaga from attending the 2006 Cannes Film Festival screening of Babel, an act for which the director was criticized.[20]
Music
The film's original
Release
Babel was selected to compete for the
Home media
On 20 February and 21 May 2007, Babel was released on
On its first week of release on DVD in North America (19–25 February 2007), Babel debuted #1 in DVD/Home Video Rentals.[31] Total gross rentals for the week, were estimated at $8.73 million.[32] In the first week of DVD sales, Babel sold 721,000 units, gathering revenue of $12.3 million. By April 2007, 1,650,000 units had been sold, translating to $28.6 million in revenue.[33] In July 2008, its US DVD sales had totaled $31.4 million.[34]
Reception
Box office
Released in seven theaters on 27 October 2006, and then released nationwide in 1,251 theaters on 10 November 2006, Babel grossed $34.3 million in North America, and $101 million in the rest of the world, for a worldwide box office total of $135.3 million, against a budget of $25 million.[4][17] Babel is the highest-grossing film of González Iñárritu's Death Trilogy (including Amores perros and 21 Grams[35]), both in North America and worldwide.[36][37]
Critical response
Babel received generally positive reviews. Review aggregation website
Film critic Roger Ebert included Babel in his The Great Movies list, stating that the film "finds Inarritu in full command of his technique: The writing and editing moves between the stories with full logical and emotional clarity, and the film builds to a stunning impact because it does not hammer us with heroes and villains but asks us to empathize with all of its characters."[41]
Accolades
Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
---|---|---|---|
Academy Awards[42] | Best Picture | Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik, Steve Golin | Nominated |
Best Director | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Adriana Barraza | Nominated | |
Rinko Kikuchi | Nominated | ||
Best Original Screenplay | Guillermo Arriaga | Nominated | |
Best Film Editing | Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione | Nominated | |
Best Original Score | Gustavo Santaolalla | Won | |
Austin Film Critics[43] | Best Supporting Actress | Rinko Kikuchi | Won |
BAFTA Film Awards[44]
|
Best Film | Babel | Nominated |
Best Director | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Nominated | |
Best Original Screenplay | Guillermo Arriaga | Nominated | |
Best Cinematography | Rodrigo Prieto | Nominated | |
Best Editing | Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione | Nominated | |
Best Sound | Nominated | ||
Best Film Music
|
Gustavo Santaolalla | Won | |
Broadcast Film Critics | Best Picture | Babel | Nominated |
Best Ensemble | Babel | Nominated | |
Best Screenplay
|
Guillermo Arriaga | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Adriana Barraza | Nominated | |
Rinko Kikuchi | Nominated | ||
Best Score | Gustavo Santaolalla | Nominated | |
Best Soundtrack | Nominated | ||
Cannes Film Festival[45][46] | Best Director
|
Alejandro González Iñárritu | Won |
François Chalais Award (a Prize of the Ecumenical Jury)
|
Won | ||
Technical Grand Prize | Stephen Mirrione (for editing) |
Won | |
Palme d'Or (Best Film)
|
Babel | Nominated | |
César Awards | Best Foreign Film | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Nominated |
Chicago Film Critics[47] | Best Film | Babel | Nominated |
Best Director | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Nominated | |
Best Original Screenplay | Guillermo Arriaga | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actor | Brad Pitt | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Adriana Barraza | Nominated | |
Rinko Kikuchi | Won | ||
Best Promising Performer | Nominated | ||
Best Cinematography | Rodrigo Prieto | Nominated | |
Best Original Score | Gustavo Santaolalla | Nominated | |
David di Donatello Awards[48] | Best Foreign Film | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Won |
Directors Guild of America
|
Outstanding Directorial Achievement | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Nominated |
Golden Eagle Award[49] | Best Foreign Language Film
|
Babel | Nominated |
Golden Globe Awards[50]
|
Best Motion Picture – Drama | Babel | Won |
Best Director | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Nominated | |
Best Screenplay | Guillermo Arriaga | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actor | Brad Pitt | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Adriana Barraza | Nominated | |
Rinko Kikuchi | Nominated | ||
Best Original Score | Gustavo Santaolalla | Nominated | |
Image Awards | Outstanding Directing in a Film/TV Movie | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Nominated |
Motion Picture Sound Editors Awards | Best Sound Editing for Music - Feature Film | Nominated | |
Best Sound Editing for Sound Effects and Foley - Foreign Film | Nominated | ||
National Board of Review | Best Breakthrough Actress | Rinko Kikuchi | Won |
Online Film Critics | Best Picture | Babel | Nominated |
Best Director | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Adriana Barraza | Nominated | |
Rinko Kikuchi | Nominated | ||
Best Breakthrough Performance | Nominated | ||
Best Cinematography | Rodrigo Prieto | Nominated | |
Best Editing | Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione | Nominated | |
Best Original Score | Gustavo Santaolalla | Nominated | |
Best Original Screenplay | Guillermo Arriaga | Nominated | |
Producers Guild of America
|
Motion Picture Producer of the Year | Alejandro González Iñárritu Steve Golin Jon Kilik |
Nominated |
San Diego Film Critics | Best Ensemble | Babel | Won |
Best Score | Gustavo Santaolalla | Won | |
San Francisco Film Critics[51] | Best Supporting Actress
|
Adriana Barraza | Won |
Satellite Awards[52]
|
Best Film - Drama | Babel | Nominated |
Best Director | Alejandro González Iñárritu | Nominated | |
Best Original Screenplay | Guillermo Arriaga Alejandro González Iñárritu |
Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actor | Brad Pitt | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Rinko Kikuchi | Nominated | |
Best Editing | Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione | Nominated | |
Best Sound | Nominated | ||
Best Original Score | Gustavo Santaolalla | Won | |
Screen Actors Guild
|
Best Cast | Babel | Nominated |
Best Supporting Actress | Adriana Barraza | Nominated | |
Rinko Kikuchi | Nominated | ||
Writers Guild of America
|
Best Original Screenplay | Guillermo Arriaga | Nominated |
Young Artist Award | Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor Age Ten or Younger | Nathan Gamble | Nominated |
Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actress Age Ten or Younger | Elle Fanning | Nominated |
See also
- Hyperlink cinema – the film style of using multiple inter-connected story lines
- List of films featuring the deaf and hard of hearing
- Winchester '73— a Western narrative also following a rifle
References
- ^ a b "Babel (2006)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
- ^ Kay, Jeremy (17 May 2005). "Summit climbs the heights with Cannes slate". Screen International. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
- ^ Hunter, Allan (28 May 2006). "Babel". Screen International. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
- ^ a b c "Babel". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "Babel (2006)". BFI. Archived from the original on 11 August 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
- ^ Liner notes for the US release of the original soundtrack album (Concord Records catalog number CCD2-30191-2)
- ^ Travers, Peter (20 October 2006). "Babel (Review)". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 11 December 2006. Retrieved 11 December 2006.
- ^ .
- ^ Bordwell, David (2006). The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies. University of California Press. p. 98.
- ^ "'Babel' beginnings as life-changing day story". The Hollywood Reporter. Penske Media. 9 February 2007. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
- ^ a b c "Babel". Paramount Vantage. Made in Atlantis. August 2014. Archived from the original on 9 September 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
- ^ Kuhn, Sarah. "No Words: Rinko Kikuchi". Backstage. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
- ^ Shoji, Kaori (19 April 2007). "'Babel' role simply 'had to be me'". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
- ^ "Babel: Borders Within". PopMatters. 30 September 2007. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
- ^ a b "Common Ground: Under Construction Notes". Babel (DVD). Paramount. 2007.
- ^ "AFI Movie Club: BABEL". American Film Institute. 9 August 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
- ^ a b "'It's a messy, chaotic film - that's how I like it'". The Daily Telegraph. 27 December 2006. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "History of 16mm Film". ScanCafe. 4 August 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
- ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
- International Herald-Tribune. Archived from the originalon 16 November 2006. Retrieved 16 November 2006.
- ^ "Babel Soundtrack (2006)". Soundtrack.Net. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "Babel - Awards". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2015. Archived from the original on 18 February 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "Multi-lingual film defies stereotypes". BBC Online. 23 May 2006. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- ^ "What's happening at the Toronto Film Fest?". USA Today. 17 September 2006. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "Japan warning: "Babel" may make you sick". Reuters. 3 May 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
- ^ Rich, Jamie S. (11 February 2007). "Babel : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". DVD Talk. DVDTalk.com. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
- Amazon.co.uk. 21 May 2007. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
- ^ Spurlin, Thomas (23 September 2007). "Babel: Two-Disc Collector's Edition : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". DVD Talk. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
- ^ Bracke, Peter (2 February 2007). "Babel HD DVD Review". High-Def Digest. Internet Brands, Inc. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
- ^ Maltz, Greg (11 September 2007). "Babel Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
- ^ "DVD / Home Video Rentals, Feb. 19-25, 2007". Box Office Mojo. February 2007. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "Babel DVD/Home Video Rentals". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "Babel - DVD Sales". The Numbers. 4 July 2008. Archived from the original on 4 July 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "Babel". The Numbers. 24 July 2008. Archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- Orange (UK). Archived from the originalon 18 June 2007. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "Amores Perros". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "21 grams". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- Fandango. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
- CBS Interactive. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
- ^ "Home". CinemaScore. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (22 September 2007). "Babel Movie Review & Film Summary (2006)". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
- ^ "The 79th Academy Awards". oscars.org. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
- Austin Chronicle. 5 January 2007. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
- ^ "Baftas 2007: The winners". BBC News. 11 February 2007. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
- Indiewire. 14 January 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- ^ "'Babel' buzz is building". Los Angeles times. 18 February 2007. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- ^ "2006 - Winners of the 19th Annual Chicago Film Critics Awards". Chicago Film Critics. Archived from the original on 18 October 2013. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
- ^ "La película 'Babel' gana el premio David de Donatello a la mejor película extranjera". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 14 June 2007. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
- ^ Золотой Орел 2007 [Golden Eagle 2007] (in Russian). Ruskino.ru. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
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- ^ Stein, Ruthe (12 December 2006). "SF Film Critics Awards announced". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
- ^ "2006 | Categories". International Press Academy. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
External links
- Official website
- Babel at IMDb
- Babel at AllMovie
- Babel at Box Office Mojo
- Babel at Metacritic
- Babel at Rotten Tomatoes