Director Alejandro González Iñárritu takes the viewer on a roller coaster ride across borders and cultures to reveal to us what a small world we live in. The movie chronicles four families all across the globe. Each story is connected some how by a tragic accident that occurs in Morocco and slowly through the course of the movie it is revealed how everyone is linked.
Everyone shines, from the big names like Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett to the unknown names like Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi, who were both nominated for an Academy Award for their performances. This is an actor’s movie where every role is crucial to the final conclusion. A conclusion that isn’t always happy or even resolved by film end, but none the less very real.
Babel is one of those movies that you should just see then let anyone blow key plotlines. It’s a film that takes you in surprising turns you weren’t prepared or expecting. Much like Crash, it can reveal the best and worst in people. It explores the good choices, the bad choices and the downright stupid decisions everyone makes in their daily life. It can show how out of the most horrible and embarrassing can bring the most intimate and real emotions to the surface. It’s just one of the films that have everything come together all in once that makes you look inward.
This is the second time Babel is being released on DVD. Originally released in February, the DVD came out only as a single disc with no special features. Now finally it is getting a little better treatment. I’m still surprised by the lack of extras but the one extra this double disc contains is still worth owning and watching.
“Babel is not a film about the physical borders because they are easy to tear down”, Director Alejandro González Iñárritu reveals on the documentary. “It’s more a film about the borders within ourselves”. This is an early statement Alejandro González Iñárritu brings up in the documentary and the only bonus feature offered in this special edition. Entitled, “Common Ground: Under Construction Notes,” the documentary takes us on a very inside journey in the making of Babel.
It’s fascinating the ups and downs of making a major motion picture and it’s shocking they ever come together at all. In fact the movie didn’t even have a complete cast seventeen days before they were to start shooting and many of the foreign actors in the film are not actors at all. These are some of the nuggets that are revealed in the documentary. It’s full of the secrets, the hardships and proves that the making of Babel is just as fascinating of a story as the actual film. It’s a long documentary clocking in at almost an hour and a half but is worth it for anyone who enjoyed Babel or filmmaking it’s self.
Alejandro González Iñárritu is very truthful and honest about himself as a director, his actors and the overall process. Without his full involvement this documentary would be nothing. This is a look through his eyes and the journey to the final product.
So if you haven’t seen Crash but ignored Babel then what are you thinking? Babel is a film that will be talked about for years to come, see it with friends and then watch the documentary. Both are big commitments because of their running time but better time spent then watching the new season of America’s Next Top Model.
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