Third in Alejandro González Iñárritu's films that I've watched after
Amores Perros and
21 Grams his films are always contain a wide mix of characters as well as a number of intersecting storylines.
Babel is his most high profile effort with not only his frequent collaborator Gael Garcia Bernal but Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett as well. The film would ultimately win Best Picture at the Golden Globes and be nominated for the same award and many others at the Oscars for 2006 films.
The film weaves four storylines in three locations that are interconnected for various reasons. Iñárritu touches on so many themes in modern society its hard to keep track. Illegal immigration, terrorism, undocumented workers, treatment of the disabled, guns, 3rd world tourism by first world travelers, marriage, etc. are all covered here. While they are all covered here, none are covered as well as they have in his prior films.
Pitt and Blanchett are a married American couple in Morocco on vacation attempting to reconcile their differences after the death of their third child. Blanchett's character is shot by a pair of young Moroccan boys who are fighting for the favor of their father and use the rifle given to their father by the rich Japanese businessman who has a deaf mute daughter. Meanwhile the American couple's two children are looked after by their Mexican housemaid who has to take them into Mexico to attend her son's wedding when Blanchett and Pitt are delayed in returning home after her shooting.
The film is shot beautifully with each location taking on its own personality and color--tan for Morocco, orange for Mexico and grey for Japan and as you bounce between the storylines this helps maintain a sense of consistency despite the frequent transfers. Each location and storyline carries a separate language as well with much of the film spoken in languages other than English. Outside of the obvious issues being targeted within each storyline, the language and communication issues are an overarching theme. Even within our most intimate relationships we struggle to convey our true needs and feelings and the fact that we may share our primary language does little help us down that path.
The film succeeds on most levels but not all. Its a long film at about 2 and 1/2 hours and could have used a bit of trimming and perhaps an elimination of the Japanese storyline which ends up seeming like a separate film due to its first world placement. Which gets at the heart of what Iñárritu is good at--digging deeper into America and societies interaction with the issues coming out developing countries and societies is where he thrives and where is best work is done.
The Libya Rally wrapped up this past week. A 2nd tier event filled with high level privateers but privateers regardless the Libya Rally had a great field of unusual vehicles...though no Nissans in the field. The event was won on the bikes by Kim De Rycker of Germany on his KTM and Jean-Antoine Sabatier in the "cars" in his #501 buggie. Sabatier lives in Morocco and so had a home field advantage of sorts. The Citroen 2CV did finish the event, ending in 44th place out of 52 finishers.
The film weaves four storylines in three locations that are interconnected for various reasons. Iñárritu touches on so many themes in modern society its hard to keep track. Illegal immigration, terrorism, undocumented workers, treatment of the disabled, guns, 3rd world tourism by first world travelers, marriage, etc. are all covered here. While they are all covered here, none are covered as well as they have in his prior films.
With exactly 75 days to go before the start of the '14 Dakar rally major teams are getting in their last competitive events and testing before packing up their vehicles for the trip to South America. The 2013 Rally du Maroc (Rally Morocco) saw at least three of these top teams show up for a run through the dunes, sand and rock that should reflect similar conditions to the more "desert" oriented stages of the Dakar.
KTM was present with their top riders--Marc Coma, Chaleco Lopez and American Kurt Caselli. Caselli would suffer an early 20 minute penalty for missing a waypoint but would battle back to finish in 7th overall. Without the penalty, Caselli would have finished 6th overall, some 44 minutes back. The top 6 spots alternated Honda-KTM with Honda coming out on top and looking strong for Dakar. Additional note here is that while there was only one American in the field, there was also an Australian, two Venezuelans, one Mexican (Carlos Gracida-Garza who finished 20th on a Honda), two Chileans, one South African, one Bolivian and one Brit. Good to see a wide spread of entrants from across the globe.
Also showing up was a very cool Porsche from the Italian driver/codriving pair of Agostino Rizzardi and Loris Calubini. They appear to have only made it through Stage 3 of 6. Agostino has piloted a number of Porsches in various stage rally events around Europe and was using an 4WD Porsche 911 for Rally Morocco. Great to see one of these back out in the African sand again.
Lastly we have the SMG buggie (a French builder headed by Philippe Gache) that is backed by Cummins of France which finished 2nd overall. Piloted by Patrick Sireyjol with Francois Beguin as codriver, the Cummins France team finished nine minutes off the top step though this is a tad misleading as the event winner incurred 38 minutes of penalties. Dropping all penalties the Cummins team would have finished some 44 minutes adrift and still in second place overall. The Cummins vehicle prevented a clean sweep of the podium by the Rally-Raid dominant X-Raid Minis who finished first, third and fourth lead by top flight Dakar entrant Orlando Terranova.
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