Babel. Anybody else see this movie?

Cafe Society
41

My feelings about Babel are tainted by having watched it with my mother and grandmother. While I was really glad I didn’t watch it in a theater, it’s intensely uncomfortable to read subtitles containing profanity to my grandmother. I liked the movie well enough, though I felt it went on too long.

One thing I kept wondering about is the timing of the American couple’s trip with their nanny’s sons wedding. Was the shooting supposed to have kept them in Morocco longer than they planned, or did they plan to be out of town on a day that meant a lot to someone they’d known for years? Did these people have no friends they could have called to come get the kids?

42

I found myself more sympathetic to young Mike and Debbie, and to Chieko, than almost anyone else in the movie. I didn’t think it was too bad overall, though as I just said, it’s hard to have sympathy for some of the characters even when it looks like that’s what they want you to do.
I’ve heard some of the music before. The bit used in the scene where the Moroccan man and his boys were being fired on was also used for one scene in Brokeback Mountain, while the “fluttering” guitar used during the Casablanca helicopter sequence is the same music used on the Deadwood DVDs during the menu selection part.
Sheesh…Am I a film geek or what?

43

They’re all 3 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which means that they vote on the Academy Awards. That’s the absolute only reason they belong to the Academy. It’s not a Guild like the Screen Actors Guild. If you’re a member of the Academy and you don’t take your voting rights seriously, you should resign from the Academy. Part of taking your voting rights seriously is watching the films that are nominated before final voting.

Bob Hoskins said in Premiere magazine that he never watches movies. He has to work in them and he doesn’t want to have anything to do with them outside his own work. That says to me that he doesn’t keep up on the nominated movies. I can’t say for sure that he votes, but if he votes without seeing the movies, he shouldn’t be a member of the Academy.

Borgnine and Curtis both said they refused to watch Brokeback Mountain because of its subject matter. Both are members of the Academy and presumably voted for Best Picture. Not only should they not be members of the Academy, they should have been kicked out of the Academy for going public with their bigotry.

I should have added Samuel Jackson, who once said he had his maid fill out his Academy ballot.

In my view, unless you’re Abigail Breslin, Keisha Castle-Hughes or anyone else too young to see the R-rated nominated films, you (general you, of course) are obligated to see all the nominated films in the categories you can vote in, or else you don’t belong in the Academy and should relinquish your membership. If you can’t or don’t want to see all the films, and your membership dues are worth the “free” screeners you get, then at least shut up about your not seeing the films. (I’m not talking about Barbarian, because he did say he’d watch the film)

I hate actors who proudly proclaim that they don’t watch movies. Outside of a criminal act, nothing can make me instantly hate an actor more than if they say they hardly ever watch movies. What the fuck are you doing in that profession if you don’t care about movies?? (theater actors are of a different breed, if they say they don’t like movies and prefer the theater it doesn’t matter to me because I don’t give a shit about them either)

Oh, btw, I do give a pass to seeing all the films prior to the nominations, there are just too many. It always seems like the ones who bother to vote for what films will be nominated are the biggest film buffs, and almost always get it right. There are always people and movies that should have been nominated but weren’t, but on the whole, the nominators of the nominees have a pretty good track record.

Ok, on-topic: I liked Babel, a lot. I do wish that Children of Men had taken its place in the nominees though.

44

Bump again since I just saw the video.

Hallelujah brother.

OPEN SPOILERS

I totally didn’t get this film, because I don’t think there was anything to be got. The point seemed to be that the world’s becoming smaller as globalization/immigration/transportation rises and that horny deaf Japanese chicks get nekkid for cute cops. Yawn. I knew the former and didn’t care about the latter.

I didn’t understand the need for:

—Pitt/Blanchett’s son’s cribdeath- just kinda “btw… they had a baby who died so they went to Morocco”

—The Japanese plotline AT ALL (added nothing, was such a filament thin connection it’s as if they bought another movie that was being filmed and just dubbed “gave a guide his hunting rifle” into the dialogue to tack it onto this one)

—The Moroccan boys- just because they’re Moroccan doesn’t mean they’re criminally stupid. Even kids in third world areas know that shooting a high power rifle at a tour bus is probably going to have consequences and repurcussions. Hell, they bought the gun to kill jackals and other predators so they know it’s lethal, and that area of the country is so desolate that it’s not like nobody’s going to figure out who shot the tourist eventually.

—The Mexico trip: this plotline could have worked perhaps if it had been divorced from the rest of the movie and filmed as a Hispanic “Auntie Mame” meets “Adventures in Babysitting” comedy, because this was some flatout Lucy & Ethel shit (specifically from the episode “Lucy Gets Her Ass Whipped While Cops and even Feminists Look On and Laugh”). I understand that she wanted to go to her son’s wedding, but even an illegal domestic in San Diego who’s lived here 16 years should have some idea that there are such things as bonded/licensed babysitting services. Pitt surely would have left her a credit card or at least billing info for emergencies as well as the name of emergency contacts- put the kids on a plane to their granny and grandpa in New Rochelle or to their uncle in Texarkana or something. She TOTALLY deserved to be fired, deported, and I’d add “never allowed around children in a professional capacity again”.

—Japan- an appearance by Sonny Chiba as Hatori Hanzo might could have saved this one- tie it into the Tarantinoverse instead of the Babelverse- but that’s about all.

It had potential and great production values but I can’t believe it was nominated for an Oscar because the story had more holes than the Titanic’s hull IF the Titanic had decided to back up. And even critics talked about its depth- to borrow a line from Dick on 3rd Rock From the Sun in critiquing a pretentious colleage’s work, “I can see where pretentious middle-schoolers might praise its intellectual merits.”

Plus you never even get to see Brad shirtless (and the gray hair makeup didn’t work).

45

OPEN SPOILERS

I totally didn’t get this film, because I don’t think there was anything to be got. The point seemed to be that the world’s becoming smaller as globalization/immigration/transportation rises and that horny deaf Japanese chicks get nekkid for cute cops. Yawn. I knew the former and didn’t care about the latter.

I didn’t understand the need for:

—Pitt/Blanchett’s son’s cribdeath- just kinda “btw… they had a baby who died so they went to Morocco”

—The Japanese plotline AT ALL (added nothing, was such a filament thin connection it’s as if they bought another movie that was being filmed and just dubbed “gave a guide his hunting rifle” into the dialogue to tack it onto this one)

Is it possible that the mother killed herself with the hunting rifle and the father gave it away when he found out? I don’t think it is …
But if that was the case it would have tied things together alot more.