Review of Babel (2006) by Barbara F — 01 Nov 2011

A beautifully filmed film about how we are inevitably connected to and change the lives of people we have never met and will never know about. It is about people who are by turns wise, ignorant, stupid, kind, uncaring and selfish. Brutality is represented by the authorities and police. The US consulate in Morocco wastes precious time by cancelling the Moroccan ambulance. The US border police epitomise inhumanity and dehumanisation in the scene where they handcuff and speak like sadistic robots to the desperate, exhausted Amelia who just wants to find the children lost in the desert. The Moroccan police viciously beat and abuse the peasants and shoot at the father and his children, only stopping, finally shocked, when the younger child smashes the rifle he has been firing back with and begs them to kill him and save his brother. The Japanese policeman who is kind to Chieko shows that such brutality is not inevitable.

The themes of relationships between children and parents or other adults, the gaps between children's and adults' understanding are explored across the four countries and cultures where the action takes place.