Kristen and I vacated for the evening so that her father and step mother had an opportunity to celebrate her birthday in a little privacy. We caught a decent dinner at the Fish Market and then headed off to see Babel, the Crash of 2006. This film is an awareness raising social commentary.
The premise of the film is a world in strife (our present day world, poigniantly punctuated by the subtle presence of smiling pictures of President Bush in the background). People struggle to communicate accross numerous barriers and, not surprisingly, struggle to do so. While this may seem like an obvious statement, the inability to communicate is secondary to the plot. Rather, the movie reveals a commentary on the present nature of the world. Some animals are more equal than others.
The film identifies at least four barriers that stress our ability to communicate. Cultural, generational, (intra)familial, and personal (i.e. intra-cultural) barriers all contribute to frustrated attempts to say what is important and meaningful. When we acknowledge that, without mutual experience, there is no reference for communication, the unit of conversation is reduced to one individual, salient, intelligent, but silenced by the walls constructed by others. And, ultimately, the individual is who both redeems humanity and dooms it. It is the individual that hides behind an infrastructure of inhumanity or who chooses to recognize the humanity in others.
With this in mind, if you haven't lived abroad in a third-world country, I reccommend that you go and see this. It is more realistic than you might think. I read a review that said that Babel made Crash look like an undergraduate term paper on race relations. I disagree. Consider, instead, that its scope is international in nature. Furthermore, if you find yourself confused more than enraged or enlightened, consider each story in the context of Imperialism and its overarching cultural impact. Prehaps that will shed some light on the goings on.
Posted by Mendon at December 30, 2006 1:41 AM