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Just watched Babel on DVD last night... I give it a 6 out of 10. Interesting ideas, but not a whole lot of cohesion going for it. Maybe that was the point, but I experience strange languages being thrown at me daily, with family in five countries... so that part didn't really affect me. I think the attempted complexity of the film could have been done much better, somehow.
I also disliked how all the 3rd-world people were made to appear rather stupid/non-thinking, that we were supposed to feel bad for them just because of their decisions? I wasn't particularly impressed by the big-name American stars, either... Brad and Cate's characters could have been played equally well by any random people, and Gael Garcia Bernal had a horrible part.
However, I did like how clearly the film illustrated the stupidity of the "terrorism" label, and how asinine it is to value one life over everyone else's, just because that life happens to carry an American passport. Seeing all the fuss over Cate's character, while life in the village went on as normal (and people died every day, for lack of a doctor and proper medical facilities)... I found that to be very powerful, maybe because I've seen it happen first-hand in rural Zambia as well. (The only doctor there was a veterinarian, as well.)
Oh, and why didn't Brad and Cate's characters take the damn bus to the hospital, a few hours away? She could have lain on the floor of the bus and been there quickly, rather than stuck in that town for what seemed like a week.
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And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran
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