Babel (2006)

Director:

Alejandro González Iñárritu

Writers (WGA):

Guillermo Arriaga (written by)
Guillermo Arriaga (idea) ...

Release Date:

10 November 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

If You Want to be Understood...Listen

Plot:

Tragedy strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching off an interlocking story involving four different families.

Plot Keywords:

Children | Rifle | Mexican | Morocco | Mexico

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 27 wins & 75 nominations

Cast

Brad Pitt	...	Richard Jones
Cate Blanchett	...	Susan Jones
Mohamed Akhzam	...	Anwar
Peter Wight	...	Tom
Harriet Walter	...	Lilly
Trevor Martin	...	Douglas
Matyelok Gibbs	...	Elyse
Georges Bousquet	...	Robert
Claudine Acs	...	Jane
André Oumansky	...	Walter
Michael Maloney	...	James
Dermot Crowley	...	Barth
Wendy Nottingham	...	Tourist #1
Henry Maratray	...	Tourist #2
Linda Broughton	...	Tourist #3

Also Known As:

Babel (France)
Babel (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
Babel (Poland) [pl]
Babel (Greece) [el]
Babel (Germany) [de]
Babel (Canada: French title) [fr]
Babel (Brazil) [pt]
Babel (Croatia) [hr]
Babel (Denmark) [da]
Babil (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Paabel (Estonia) [et]

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, some graphic nudity, sexual content, language and some drug use.

Runtime:

143 min

Country:

France | USA | Mexico

Language:

English | Arabic | Spanish | Japanese | Japanese Sign Language | Berber | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Ireland:16 | Finland:K-15 | Canada:18A (British Columbia) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | USA:R (certificate #42677) | Sweden:11 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/Manitoba/Ontario) | Denmark:15 | Norway:15 | UK:15 | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16 | Singapore:M18 | Iran:18+ | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Brazil:16 | South Africa:16 (LN) | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:18 | South Korea:18 | Malaysia:18PL | France:U | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Japan:PG-12 | Netherlands:12 | Netherlands:12 (DVD rating) | Czech Republic:15 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Azabu-Juban, Tokyo, Japan

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Brad Pitt gave up one of the starring roles in The Departed (2006) (a film he co-produced) in order to participate in this film, as he's a longtime fan of Alejandro González Iñárritu's films.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Amelia is in the desert, we can see one of the camera's shadow on the ground.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Hassan: It's almost new. Three hundred cartridges. The guy who gave it to me said you can hit as far as three kilometers.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

El Pachangon

A coherent, impressive, well-made, insightful piece of work…

"Babel" centers on several groups of people in 4 countries that are all connected by one freak accident… Alejandro González Iñárritu takes us from North Africa to North America to Asia… His film exposes four unconnected story lines that are eventually divulged to be inextricably linked to one another…

The first involves an isolated family of goat herders who live in the High Plateaus of the Moroccan desert where two young boys are testing a rifle's range handed by their father to protect their goats from jackals...

The second concerns a Middle-class American couple on a bus tour of Morocco trying to save together their damaged marriage…

Meanwhile, in the US, there is grave danger for an undocumented immigrant—a Mexican nanny as she tries to return to United States after she wrongfully decides to take her two blonde-haired young charges to her son's wedding across the Mexican border, despite her employers' sudden change of plans, that needs that she remains with them and miss the joyful occasion…

And on the opposite side of the world, we follow, in Tokyo, an alienated, confused deaf and mute teenage student, recovering from her mother's suicide, who eases her feelings of depression and loneliness by trying to win the friendship or attention of every man or adolescent who crosses her path… She flirts with sexual exhibitionism to attract the attention of her distant and uncommunicative father…

"Babel" tries to make a point and the point is that when people can't or won't communicate, unpredictable paths can lead to tragic consequences… It also tries to leave a message of how a 'shooting' from a simple 'gift' can set off a chain reaction of tragic events in three continents and four countries over which the different characters have exceedingly uncomfortable human emotion…

Out of the entire cast, it is only Rinko Kikuchi as Chieko who steals the movie especially when she transmits to her friends her mad decision of sexual aggressiveness, saying to all: "Now they're going to meet the real hairy monster." This scene remembered me, in some way, Sharon Stone uncrossing legs in "Basic Instinct."