Babel (film)

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For other uses, see Babel (disambiguation).
Babel
File:Babel poster32.jpg
Film poster
Directed byAlejandro González Iñárritu
Written byGuillermo Arriaga
Produced bySteve Golin
Jon Kilik
StarringBrad Pitt
Cate Blanchett
Gael García Bernal
Kōji Yakusho
Adriana Barraza
Rinko Kikuchi
Nathan Gamble
Edited byDouglas Crise
Stephen Mirrione
Music byGustavo Santaolalla
Distributed byParamount Vantage
Release dates
23 May, 2006 (premiere at Cannes)
27 October 2006 (US, limited)
10 November,2006 (US, wide)
10 November, 2006 (Mexico)
15 November, 2006 (France)
7 December, 2006 (MIFF)
26 December, 2006 (Australia)
19 January, 2007 (UK)
28 April, 2007 (Japan)[1]
Running time
142 min.
CountriesJapan
Mexico
USA
LanguagesEnglish
Spanish
Arabic
French
Japanese
Japanese Sign Language
Berber
BudgetUS$25 million (estimated)

Babel is a Golden Globe-winning and Academy Award-nominated 2006 film, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga, starring an ensemble cast. The multi-narrative drama completes González Iñárritu's "death trilogy," which also consists of Amores Perros and 21 Grams.[2]

Babel invents multiple stories taking place in Morocco, Japan, Mexico and the United States. It was an international co-production among production companies based in France, Mexico and the USA. The film was first screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, and was later shown to audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Zagreb Film Festival. It opened in selected cities in the United States on October 27, 2006, and went into full release on November 10, 2006. On January 15 2007, it won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and two nominations for Best Supporting Actress and won one for Best Original Score.

Plot

The movie focuses on four interrelated sets of situations and characters, and many events are revealed out of sequence. The following plot summary has been simplified, and thus does not reflect the exact sequence of the events on screen.

In a remote desert location in southern Morocco, Abdullah, a goatherder, buys a high-powered rifle and a box of ammunition from his countryman Hassan Ibrahim to shoot the jackals that have been preying on his goats. Abdullah gives the rifle to his two teenage sons, Yussef and Ahmed (played by local non-professional actors Boubker Ait El Caid and Said Tarchini), and sends them out to tend the herd. Competing gently between themselves and doubtful of the rifle's purported three-kilometer range, they decide to test it out, aiming first for rocks and then for a bus carrying Western tourists on the highway below. Yussef's bullet hits the bus, critically wounding Susan Jones (Cate Blanchett), an American woman from San Diego[3][4] who is traveling with her husband Richard Jones (Brad Pitt) on vacation. The two boys realize what has happened and flee the scene, hiding the rifle in the hills that night.

Glimpses of television news programs reveal that the US government holds the shooting to be a terrorist act and is pressuring the Moroccan government to apprehend the culprits. Having traced the rifle back to Hassan, the Moroccan police descend quickly on his house and roughly question him and his wife until they reveal that the rifle was given to him by a Japanese man, and then sold to Abdullah. The two boys see the police on the road and confess to their father what they have done. (They believe at the time that the American woman has died of her wounds.) The three flee from their house, retrieving the rifle as they go. The police corner them on the rocky slope of a hill and open fire. After his brother is hit in the leg, Yussef returns fire, striking one police officer in the shoulder. The police continue shooting, eventually fatally wounding Yussef's brother in the back. As his father rages with grief, Yussef eventually surrenders and confesses to all the crimes, begging clemency for his family and medical assistance for his brother. The police take him into custody. The family's fate is unresolved.

The movie's first plot is interspersed with scenes of Richard and Susan. They came on vacation in Morocco to get away from things and mend their own marital woes. The death of their infant third child to SIDS (this is the implied cause) has strained their marriage significantly as they struggle to communicate their frustration, guilt, and blame. When Susan is shot on the tour bus, Richard orders the bus driver to the nearest village with a doctor (the village is named Tazarine in the film). She receives some rudimentary treatment here, enough to stabilize her. The other tourists wait for some time, but they eventually demand to leave, fearing the heat and more importantly, the paranoia that more attacks would come from the hostile locals. Since Susan cannot travel by bus in her condition, Richard begs the tour group to wait for the ambulance, which never arrives, and eventually the bus leaves without them while Richard is on the phone. The couple remains behind with the bus's tour guide, Anwar, still waiting for transportation to a hospital (they've managed to contact the US embassy using the village's only phone). Political issues between the US and Morocco prevent quick help, but a helicopter comes at last. It is revealed that, after 5 days in the hospital, Susan recovers and is sent home.

File:Babelshot.jpg
Richard and Susan Jones

Simultaneously, the movie tells the story of Chieko Wataya (Rinko Kikuchi), a rebellious, deaf Japanese teenage girl who does not speak, traumatized by the recent suicide of her mother. She is bitter towards her father, Yasujiro Wataya (Kōji Yakusho), and boys her age, and is sexually frustrated (alternatively, her sexual behavior can be interpreted as an attempt to gain the intimacy and acceptance she is lacking in life). She starts exhibiting sexually provocative behavior and attempts unsuccessfully to initiate a sexual encounter with her dentist. Chieko also finds one of the teenage boys attractive and takes her underpants off and reveals her pubic hair and genitals. Chieko eventually encounters two police detectives who question her about her father. She finds one of the detectives, Kenji Mamiya (Satoshi Nikaido), attractive. She invites Mamiya back to the apartment she shares with her father. Wrongly supposing 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. It turns out the detectives are, in fact, investigating a hunting trip Yasujiro took in Morocco. Yasujiro is an avid hunter and during a trip in Morocco he gave his rifle, as a gift, to his hunting guide, Hassan, who at the beginning of the film sold the rifle to Abdullah.


Soon after learning this, Chieko reveals her real motive in inviting Mamiya to her home. She approaches him nude and attempts to seduce him. He resists her approaches but comforts her as she bursts into tears. Before he leaves, Chieko writes him a note, indicating that she does not want him to read it until he is gone. Leaving, the detective crosses paths with Yasujiro and explains the situation with the rifle. Yasujiro replies that he did indeed give it as a gift, there was no black market involvement. About to depart, Mamiya offers condolences for the wife's suicide. Yasujiro, though, is confused by the mention of a "balcony" and angrily replies that "My wife shot herself in the head. Chieko was the first to find the body. I've explained this to the police many times." The issue of the conflicting stories is never resolved. It can be interpreted however, that Chieko may have attempted to jump off the balcony if the officer hadn't comforted her. This notion is somewhat supported by Chieko's action of leaning on the balcony (still nude) when her father enters the apartment. After leaving, the detective stops at a bar to read Chieko's note. Within the film, the note's contents are never revealed. Part of it is momentarily visible to the viewer. The following is an approximate translation of the Japanese script beginning with the first line of the lower half of the notebook page, where "[EDGE]" indicates the end of that particular line on the notebook page:

. . . I wanted [EDGE] . . . myself [EDGE] . . . that's why [EDGE] . . . connected [EDGE] . . . that is [EDGE] . . . although I cannot [EDGE] . . . I have to find out [EDGE] . . . message from my mother [EDGE] . . . I was not sure if I was loved by my mother [EDGE] . . . but that's not the case . . . [EDGE] thank you. [5][verification needed]


A fourth subplot takes place in the Americas where Richard and Susan's Mexican nanny, Amelia (Adriana Barraza) tends their twin children in their California home. Due to the shooting, she is forced to take care of the children longer than anticipated. Unable to secure any other help to care for them, she decides to take them to her son's wedding in a rural community near Tijuana, Mexico rather than miss it. Her nephew Santiago (Gael García Bernal) offers to take her and the kids to the wedding. They cross the border uneventfully and the children are soon confronted by the Mexican culture and street scene. The revelry of the wedding extends well into the evening, but rather than staying the night in Mexico with the children, Amelia decides to drive back to the States with Santiago. He has been drinking heavily and the border guards become suspicious of his behavior. 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. Intoxicated, Santiago trespasses the border. He soon abandons Amelia and the children in the desert, attempting to lead off the police (we never learn of his final fate). Stranded without food and water, Amelia and the children are forced to spend the night in the desert. Realizing that they all will die if she cannot get help, Amelia leaves the children behind to find someone, ordering them not to move. She eventually finds a U.S. Border Patrol officer. After placing Amelia under arrest, she and the officer travel back to where she had left the children, but are unable to locate them. Amelia is taken back to a Border Patrol station, where she is eventually informed that the children have been found and that their father, Richard, while very angry, has agreed not to press charges. However, she will be deported from the US where she has been working illegally. Her protests that she had been in the US for 16 years and has looked after the children for the duration of their lives do not secure lenient treatment. Near the end of the movie, the audience sees her meeting her son on the Mexican side of the Tijuana crossing, still in the red dress she wore for the wedding.

Production

Babel's ultimate $25,000,000 budget came from an array of different sources and investors anchored with Paramount Vantage, which changed its name from Paramount Classics, with Babel as its premiere production and inaugural motion picture.

Director Alejandro González Iñárritu claims financing was in place long before Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett signed on to star in the film.[citation needed] A few insiders claim it was because Paramount was looking for a production that would be likely to contend at the Oscars or Golden Globes.[citation needed]

Actress Adriana Barraza, who plays the role of Amelia, is a two-time survivor of minor heart attacks. She nonetheless carried co-actress Elle Fanning around in the hot desert of Southern California during the summer for two days during filming of those particular desert scenes. The whole of the desert scenes were said to have taken five days to shoot.[6]

Authorship controversy

Following completion of principal photography on Babel, director Alejandro González Iñárritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga had a falling out. The dispute centered on the authorship of their previous film, 21 Grams. 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. As a result of this controversy, González Iñárritu banned Arriaga from attending the 2006 Cannes Film Festival screening of Babel, an act for which the director was very severely criticised.[7]

Principal cast and characters

Morocco

Mexico/United States

Japan

Filming locations

Box office performance

Released in seven theaters on October 27, 2006, and then released wide in 1,251 theaters on November 10, 2006, Babel has earned as of March 6, 2007, $34,302,937 in North America, and $101,027,166 in the rest of the world as of March 4, 2007, for a worldwide box office total of $135,330,003.[9]

Compared to his other films, Babel has surpassed González Iñárritu's 21 Grams for North American box office, as well as that film's $60 million world-wide gross boxoffice.[10]

Box Office Mojo commented on America's initially poor reception for Babel, when the film first expanded beyond targeted communities ("wide release"). "Babel didn't translate in wide release, grabbing $5.6 million at 1,251 locations." Box Office Mojo observed that America's interest in political morality plays like Babel, Syriana and Crash has declined, despite the biggest box office stars. "The ensemble drama featuring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett sold fewer tickets than other recent pictures of its ilk, like Crash, Syriana, The Constant Gardener and Magnolia."

As of March 6, 2007, with nearly $114 million box office gross world-wide, Babel[10] has already outgrossed Crash,[11] Syriana,[12] The Constant Gardener[13] and Magnolia.[14] It has already earned more than four and a half times its estimated production budget of $25 million. With a Japan opening April 28, 2007, it has become one of Brad Pitt's most profitable films.[citation needed]

DVD

On February 20, and May 21, 2007, Babel was released on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment in the United States and the United Kingdom. The only special feature was the theatrical trailer and various other movie previews. Babel has also been released on the high-definition formats, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

On its first week of release on DVD in North America (February 19–25, 2007), Babel debuted #1 in DVD/Home Video Rentals.[15] Total gross rentals for the week, were estimated at $8.73 million.[16]

In July, 2007, Paramount announced they were releasing the film as a two-disc special edition DVD in September, 2007. The second disc contains a 90 minute 'making of'.

Awards and nominations

Award Category Winner/Nominee Won
Academy Awards Best Director Alejandro González Iñárritu No
Best Editing Douglas Crise
Stephen Mirrione
Best Picture
Best Original Score Gustavo Santaolalla Yes
Best Screenplay - Original Guillermo Arriaga No
Best Supporting Actress Adriana Barraza
Best Supporting Actress Rinko Kikuchi
Austin Film Critics Best Supporting Actress Rinko Kikuchi Yes
BAFTA Film Awards Best Cinematography Rodrigo Prieto No
Best Director Alejandro González Iñárritu
Best Editing Douglas Crise
Stephen Mirrione
Best Film
Best Film Music Gustavo Santaolalla Yes
Best Screenplay - Original Guillermo Arriaga No
Best Sound
Broadcast Film Critics Best Cast No
Best Composer Gustavo Santaolalla
Best Film
Best Soundtrack
Best Supporting Actress Adriana Barraza
Best Supporting Actress Rinko Kikuchi
Best Writer Guillermo Arriaga
Cannes Film Festival Best Director Alejandro González Iñárritu Yes
François Chalais Award (a Prize of the Ecumenical Jury)
Technical Grand Prize Stephen Mirrione
(for the editing)
Palme d'Or (Best Film) No
César Awards Best Foreign Film Alejandro González Iñárritu No
Chicago Film Critics Best Cinematography Rodrigo Prieto No
Best Director Alejandro González Iñárritu
Best Film
Best Original Score Gustavo Santaolalla
Best Promising Performer Rinko Kikuchi
Best Screenplay - Original Guillermo Arriaga
Best Supporting Actor Brad Pitt
Best Supporting Actress Adriana Barraza
Best Supporting Actress Rinko Kikuchi Yes
Directors Guild of America (DGA) Outstanding Directorial Achievement Alejandro González Iñárritu No
Golden Globe Awards Best Director Alejandro González Iñárritu No
Best Film - Drama Yes
Best Original Score Gustavo Santaolalla No
Best Screenplay Guillermo Arriaga
Best Supporting Actor Brad Pitt
Best Supporting Actress Adriana Barraza
Best Supporting Actress Rinko Kikuchi
Image Awards Outstanding Directing in a Film/TV Movie Alejandro González Iñárritu No
Motion Picture Sound Editors Best Sound Editing for Music - Feature Film No
Best Sound Editing for Sound Effects and Foley - Foreign Film
National Board of Review Best Breakthrough Actress Rinko Kikuchi Yes
Online Film Critics Best Breakthrough Performance Rinko Kikuchi No
Best Cinematography Rodrigo Prieto
Best Director Alejandro González Iñárritu
Best Editing Douglas Crise
Stephen Mirrione
Best Film
Best Original Score Gustavo Santaolalla
Best Screenplay - Original Guillermo Arriaga
Best Supporting Actress Adriana Barraza
Best Supporting Actress Rinko Kikuchi
Producers Guild of America (PGA) Motion Picture Producer of the Year Alejandro González Iñárritu
Steve Golin
Jon Kilik 		No
San Diego Film Critics Best Cast No
Best Score Gustavo Santaolalla
San Francisco Film Critics Best Supporting Actress Adriana Barraza Yes
Sant Jordi Awards Best Foreign Film Alejandro González Iñárritu Yes
Satellite Awards Best Director Alejandro González Iñárritu No
Best Editing Stephen Mirrione
Douglas Crise
Best Film - Drama
Best Original Score Gustavo Santaolalla Yes
Best Screenplay - Original Guillermo Arriaga
Alejandro González Iñárritu 		No
Best Sound (Editing and Mixing)
Best Supporting Actor Brad Pitt
Best Supporting Actress Rinko Kikuchi
Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Best Cast No
Best Supporting Actress Adriana Barraza
Best Supporting Actress Rinko Kikuchi
Writers Guild of America (WGA) Best Screenplay - Original Guillermo Arriaga No

Health hazard

It was reported that during the Japanese premiere of the movie, numerous people became sick after watching the scene involving Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi dancing in a club with flashing strobe lights.[17] Since the incident, theaters nationwide posted notices saying that Babel contains scenes with strong effects and that some viewers felt sick after seeing them.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ Official Japan site for Japan release date, iMDb for others
  2. ^ Liner notes for the US release of the original soundtrack album (Concord Records catalog number CCD2-30191-2)
  3. ^ Rolling Stone review
  4. ^ The location of the home is identified as "Los Angeles" in the Japanese website (http://babel.gyao.jp/). Go to gallery and you will see "Los Angeles"
  5. ^ Babel: The last note you never read, Islander's Sand Patch
  6. ^ 10 things you didn't know about 19 January releases, Orange.co.uk
  7. ^ Dueling auteurs: Whose movie is it?
  8. ^ a b Babel full production notes
  9. ^ Babel, Box Office Mojo.
  10. ^ a b 21 grams, Box Office Mojo.
  11. ^ Crash, Box Office Mojo.
  12. ^ Syriana Box Office Mojo.
  13. ^ The Constant Gardener, Box Office Mojo.
  14. ^ Magnolia, Box Office Mojo.
  15. ^ 2007-02-25, Box Office Mojo.
  16. ^ Babel homevideo, Box Office Mojo.
  17. ^ 'Babel Sickness and Pokemon Seizures'
  18. ^ Japan Moviegoers Warned of 'Babel' Sickness

External links

Preceded by Golden Globe: Best Motion Picture, Drama
2007 		Succeeded by
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