Babel [DVD]

This is an epic on many levels and I wonder how it has managed, until now, to slip through my net. What's wonderfully portrayed here is humanity - from rich to poor and from very diverse origins. The events of the story's beginning radiate across nations and borders in a variety of inter-connected ways, leading to a satisfactory conclusion. Along the way we will witness love, horror, fear, pride, need, honour, justice and injustice - all powerfully conveyed by the films principal characters as they deal with the situations in which they find themselves . I really loved this film and would strongly recommend it.

I have now officially run out of superlatives. These four strands weave together in their own way like real life. The stories they tell are so utterly believable that watching the film feels like lived experience. No wonder it was nominated for academy awards.I love the way the story was told in multiple languages because that feels like the world we are in. They show the way events in one country can influence another and everything goes around in circles. We live in a small world and this film influences this beautifully.In detail, the screenwriters, director and all the actors deserve praise. This is one of my favourite films.

I've always loved this film, and in high-def it works just as well, with the extra edge that extra clarity can bring. The film itself, with its multiple and non-chronological timelines that are all interlinked, is exemplary storytelling, and the overarching premise of humanity's confusion in the face of so many languages and cultures is likewise well portrayed. The story begins with a gift from a wealthy man to a poor man on another continent that in turn cuts into the lives of people from a third place that then has ramifications (deportation) for a person from a fourth culture.The apparently "random" sequencing is anything but, and the storytelling succeeds because in your efforts to sequence the events "correctly" and figure out cause and effect, you are building the narrative for yourself and in doing so, you get the insights that the director was after all along. Eminently re-watchable on so many levels, this film succeeds across the board, getting into the cultures it touches (not just national, but child/teen culture and rich & poor alike) in a meaningful way and making the characters all gloriously vulnerable and real. Even the couple holidaying to rebuild their relationship in the aftermath of a child's death - screened by their Western ideas of appearances, conceits, and vanities, become vulnerable and human (again) with oddly tender moments and a sense of the rebuilding that adversity can bring.What got to me most was that all the protagonists are in some way good, even if they do things that are wrong (or illegal) - I could see why they arranged their lives in the way they did and the necessities they were driven by and the compulsions they were responding to. I've always felt a tie to films such as this (and The Mission) where terrible things happen but the conscience (even of the darker characters) is a common thread. I keep mentioning "human" because this is to me an intensely human film, and it is a story I'm glad I was told. Always liked it, always will.I also liked the political aspect of the ending, where "the media" and "the politicians" get involved to twist (and in some cases delay) the events that have unfolded to suit their own ends - wonderfully underplayed and thus not moralising or preaching - which sets the seal on why we sometimes find the world so hard to understand.The Blu-Ray version is generally good, although in some interiors later in the film there is a graininess that caught me by surprise after the clarity thus far. The overall greatness of the storytelling overrides technical concerns so far as I'm concerned - and it may even be that the treatment of these interiors was intentional, since by this time the film is re-entring the so-called "real world" that seems by all accounts to look at the world through a distorted and compromised lens. Inarritu's lens is thankfully clear.

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed this film. The story line is woven through the ownership of a rifle and involves a deal of concentration as the characters of the film become known to you. What we were puzzled by was the opening sequence of why Brad Pitt and Kate Blanchett were in Morocco minus their children who had been left in San Diego with their Mexican nanny and why was Kate Blanchett so nervous and unhappy. Those points were never explained to the viewer.

Without being overly aggressive or preaching too much, this movie offers viewers to choose their own opinion about what is going on the screen and how are characters developed in dramatic circumstances. Very nice evening breaker showing international side of conflicts. Highly regarded.

I love this film, you keep thinking about its moral message days after. Keeps you on the dge of your seat. Brilliant comparison between the lives and environments people live in. Highly recommended.

One of my favourite films. It contains four intertwined stories. A strong cast ensures excellent acting. I bought this for my teenage grandchildren and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

Very enjoyable film, all intertwining stories, all very 'Shimon Peres' , plenty of plot connections you won't see coming, great fun.