Babel (2006)
In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out -- detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple's frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. (Paramount Vantage)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Written By: Guillermo Arriaga
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Clifton Collins Jr., Gael García Bernal, Michael Peña, Kôji Yakusho, Elle Fanning, Rinko Kikuchi, Adriana Barraza, Nathan Gamble
Genres: Drama, Suspense/Thriller
Franchise: Death trilogy
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Babel belongs to 55 collections
1. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (public: moderated by kozan26 - 227 stars)
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Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 8 |  |
eveelun | 75 59% |
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Solid work from Inarritu, who has an undeniable visual grace. The film is often powerful, though it occasionally feels contrived and one storyline in particular, though excellent in and of itself, doesn't seem to fit well with the other stories which closely overlap. Still there are a lot of really great things about it, especially the acting.
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| 5 | forehead1 | 40 26% |
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Four equally dull and barely intertwined stories from around the globe, none of which are interesting enough for you to care about the outcome of. Includes the worse elements of both Syriana (chopping up the narrative structure purely to mask the tediousness of each of its parts) and 2004's Crash (incredibly insulting "Look - different races and nationalities are not all that different!" message). Nice cinematography though.
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| 4 |  |
MartinTeller | 72 41% |
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Better than I expected, but short of greatness nonetheless. Inarritu seems stuck in a rut with his interconnected stories gimmick, he's in danger of pigeonholed as a one-trick pony. Babel's themes are worn quite plainly on its sleeve, not as bad as, say, Crash, but still rather obvious. Very fine acting all around, though I wanted more Bernal, who brings excellence to everything he does. The Japanese story was the most intriguing.
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| 4 |  |
doctor7 | 64 44% |
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While I concur poor communication creates problems and that seemingly unrelated events can be related, this film, like 21 Grams but not quite the same harsh degree (but pretty close), is just excessive in it's depressiveness to the point that one can't take the movie seriously. All the acting, however, is surperb so it's still worth seeing.
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| 4 | ThaneOfFife | 5 3% |
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Absolutely horrible movie that tried to hard to be like Crash and failed miserably. The plots were disjointed and didn't matter. It was also extremely unbelievable from start to finish.
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| 3 |  |
frederic_g54 | 8 77% |
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(after repeat viewings) The best compliment I can give this film is that it has hardly aged a day. While some visuals are distinctive of the time the movie was shot in, its themes of loss, pain and anguish that characterize our human interconnectedness still hold up incredibly well today. Couple of parts feel a tad overbearing and sensational at times, but not enough to spoil what's a deeply compelling viewing experience. Gustavo Santaolalla's music has the power to cure your soul.
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| 3 | boofasten | 35 6% |
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I fucking hate this movie.
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| 3 |  |
Ytadel | 1 5% |
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Don't you get it? It's DEEP and MEANINGFUL, because lots of people speak lots of different LANGUAGES.
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| 3 |  |
GravyMaximus | 55 39% |
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The Japanese plot was the only halfway interesting one. The pacing was terrible. While I applaud the film for trying to convey an admirable message, it lays it on way too thick and the political subtext gets old pretty fast.
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| 3 |  |
TV+Film-Hub | 4 22% |
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Another Sinker for the Oscars to jump on. A rock solid piece of shit. No characters development, no hook for the audience, no likable or interesting characters. Cliche and boring situations just heaped on like so much spaghetti at my grandma's house.
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| 3 | bbkd3b | 80 72% |
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Think you wanna feel a bit worse than you already do? Just watch this film and realize just how bad some people have it. This whole thing is one continuous feel-bad moment. Sheesh.
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| 3 |  |
mdruskin | 78 59% |
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Rather disapointing, especially with all the talent involved. Inarritu is a very good director and I loved both his previous movies (21 Grams and Amores Perros), and it comes out in the movie. But unfortunately the story is very weak. The movie is supposed to be about how lack of communication causes bad things, but what we see is that stupidity causes bad things. This also causes the movie to seem manipulative.
But visually the movie is amazing, and the acting is top notch.
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| 3 | whomperize | 82 84% |
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I was dumbstruck with awe after seeing this and knowing almost nothing about it.
A lot of people argue the ending (this movie has one of the most moving ending shots you can see) and that the movie did not have a point. Although I think it does touch on points (true compassion and the relevance of language barriers), a movie does not always have to mean something to be wonderful to watch. The acting, score, and directing are all executed with care and ambition, and I really did like Babel.
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| 3 |  |
Zozan | 75 77% |
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Not the best story out there may be but there were many moving scenes that touched me. Nice soundtrack as well.
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| 2 | LynchMidget | 30 14% |
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Gar-bahj! Babel was awful and the mainstream crowd ate it up believing it had depth that was really just a smoke and mirrors act that comes with every ensemble piece.
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| 2 |  |
Judge Holden | 3 32% |
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I'm really, really tired of Inarritu's gimmicky movies and his silly theme of how we're all so connected to one another. He never manages to make it believable and it always comes across as contrived and ridiculous. The writing is, as usual, fucking awful.
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| 2 |  |
Shmendrek | 3 61% |
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Iñárritu with another well-crafted, empathy-building melodrama. I found the story of the deaf Japanese girl to be the most compelling, even though it wasn't woven into the rest of the film very well. Almost all of my points go to that story alone. The others I could take or leave.
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| 2 |  |
Anomaly | 61 31% |
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Why is it that most ensemble cast films include racist characters, and why must at least one person go into histrionics during the running time? It's really starting to annoy me. Many of the characters being stupid doesn't help. The Japanese plot is the best (even though it oversimplifies things; i.e. the girl would have felt the bass at the rave). Oscar bait that leads to a disappointing viewing experience.
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| 2 |  |
Huychu | 55 20% |
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60 points of this goes to the Japanese thread. The rest is trash. Just think about it: The story with the nanny begins as Brad Pitt calls her from the hospital, where his wife is safe. We're asked to believe that after an international incident, no one in the family, no neighbors or friends, want to check in or look after the kids while Blanchett recovers? Screw that.
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| 2 |  |
Tripwyre | 85 85% |
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Crash comparisons are inevitable on structure alone, but this sprawling tale is less concerned with the prejudice of culture clashes as it is with the dangers of miscommunication and the borders that separate us as people. It's probably the most well-connected of these type of films -- it's far more linear than Syriana and rings far truer than Crash's contrived coincidences. Yes, it has a plot, and yes, it's tied together well, but this is a THEME movie, and must be viewed as such. Great acting.
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| 2 |  |
Ayavaron | 20 10% |
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In spite of a strong visual sense and some interesting scenes, the film ultimately reduces itself to an incredibly weak story of tenuous connections and flimsy attempts at linking stories together. Ultimately, one finds that the movie says almost nothing and the little it manages to say is muddled up with fluff.
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| 2 |  |
psiXaos | 90 95% |
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All the stories were felt genuine and realistic though the Japanese story is by far my favourite. This movie would be even better without the connections, no need for it here.
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| 2 | Kel | 85 85% |
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I was very impressed by the actors, but more importantly with how the story managed to connect everything in such a neat way.
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| 1 |  |
guy piranha | 80 89% |
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A beautifully honest piece about the power of randomness and relations. Acting and directing are mostly excellent, and Santaollala's score is yet again haunting to the last note.
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| 1 |  |
DavidJohnson | 71 46% |
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I don't usually like interconnected story movies, and they tend to be overrated. I didn't think this one was bad, but it wasn't really great either. The Japanese story was the most interesting one, but it seemed really disconnected from the rest of the film. In fact all the stories seemed kind of disconnected from one another. Maybe because they took place over the whole world. At least it was better then Crash.
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| 1 |  |
onuryasar | 78 34% |
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though this one is the most recognized by the academy, to me, it's not inarritu's best.
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| 1 | sheddle | 65 42% |
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were all conected u kno.... rly makes u think
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| 1 |  |
overrated | 60 62% |
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Feels Crash-like because it's so contrived in how it unfolds and how heavy-handed the message is. Babel's kind of saved by having far better actors and fantastic cinematography - the Japanese club scene especially.
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| 1 |  |
CMonster | 70 48% |
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It was pretty good. Nowhere near as good as Amores Perros. The grand scale that was attempted with the different stories was a double edged sword. While it very clearly showed an interconnectedness in the world, it lost some of the depth and feeling that I was hoping for. The variance made it difficult for me to really get into the depth of any character. I was also less than enthralled with Cate Blanchett, but thats just me.
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| 1 |  |
nevejas | 80 78% |
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The pace of this movie is the awesomest of all. The buildup of different stories is great and leaves you double-guessing which bad decision that characters make (and, boy, don't they like making bad decisions) will have the biggest impact. It wouldn't be Inarritu's movie if he wouldn't interconnect the stories, with or without any plausible reason to do so, you have to excuse him for that. If you can't - just admire the topic of miscommunication, desparate and blunt, just as it should be.
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| 1 |  |
Matin | 80 79% |
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wonderful sound tracks
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| 1 |  |
mattorama12 | 69 58% |
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It certainly has some emotional resonance, with strong acting and direction. But there's something about this mix of plot threads that felt like they didn't add up as well as some other of these kinds of movies (including Amores Perros).
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| 1 |  |
ZayanK | 50 20% |
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A collection of short films with nonexistent cohesion.
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| 1 |  |
smilksta | 87 79% |
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I needed certain maturity to understand the children and time to grow up a tiny creature called cynicism or in other words loss of belief to really get into the movie. I will watch this movie if I want to be moved. Moved to yesterday when all my troubles seemed so far away.
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| 1 |  |
Barthalen | 83 88% |
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I didn't mind the fact that it's not really profound or that Iñarritu uses the same interconnecting storytelling once more. The film overall felt pretty grounded and subdued, even painfully uncomforable at times. The score and slow takes had a hypnotising effect that made every stupid/bad decision made by the characters even more painful. While its main goal seems to be to make the viewer feel shitty for 2 hours, I was ok with that.
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| 1 |  |
nauru | 9 4% |
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So unbelievably boring.
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| 1 |  |
CoinQuatro | 95 98% |
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If you've seen Adriana Barraza in this but you keep lamenting about emotional manipulation and humanist naiveté or similar incoherent drivel like this then you either have no fucking heart or no mother. You're a robot or some plant-alien.
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| 1 |  |
uncoolrachel | 40 35% |
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amores perros is still the best of the trilogy
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| 1 |  |
paulofilmo | 74 90% |
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Iñárritu doesn't quite sustain the intended atmosphere, but it's consistently engaging. The micro-macro allusions of relationships were subtle enough not to overbear each section's central drama. Overall, it's a quality, thoughtful, and pertinent yet perennial multicultural film.
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| 1 | spoonerspot | 78 52% |
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Critics panned this flick. I found it intriguing but a little slow paced.
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| 1 | Manhatta | 77 53% |
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Like others I was a bit confused by the weak links between these stories, but on their own they work really well, especially the story in Tokyo. If Inarritu had just left them alone and not attempted to connect them as he has in his other films it could have been a lot less distracting. An absolutely beautiful looking film, a wonderful score, just not the best story.
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| 1 |  |
KasperL | 50 30% |
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The whole "if you want to be heard, listen" morale would make more sense in film dominated by ignorant people but, mostly, the characters simply make poor decisions. If this left me with one message, it must be that the sky's also the limit for pretensions.
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| 1 |  |
nandorizzi | 70 61% |
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Babel has good and strong scenes, however the rhythm is tiring.
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| 1 | Dustyd | 55 30% |
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I could have done without half of these characters.
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| 1 |  |
amerigo | 90 95% |
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A beautiful ballad of human existence, filled with an incredible optimism. Yet this Rousseau-like obsession with our humanity seems completely appropriate. There are no eye-rolling happy endings here. It's on the same level as Requiem for a Dream, but without the hopelessness. An amazing picture, through and through.
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| 1 |  |
Stain | 90 86% |
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Multiple slices of life. People criticize the plot, but it's more a mood piece than anything; another document of the pain of the world by Inarritu, and a very good one
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| 1 |  |
TedDedon | 85 73% |
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Babel is a great mix of stories that combine together. Though only two of the three main stories actually relate together strongly, they are all intense and engaging in their own ways. Babel is worth seeing and was one of the year's best.
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| 1 |  |
parcaliham | 95 95% |
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flyinn cinebonus - ikinci gösterim
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| 1 |  |
leshii | 64 42% |
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I liked it in parts, but the link between the stories was weak (almost like an afterthought) and I didn't feel any of the stories deserved to be explored as much as they were. I felt that the "lack of communication" angle was underdeveloped. I agree with another reviewer: the movie explored stupidity as a catalyst for bad things moreso than language barriers.
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| 1 | thecedex | 60 32% |
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Really didn't like this movie. However, of all the stupidity of the character, the Japanese side of the story really stood out as a diffrent and fulfilling movie altogether. Cheiko's story of isolation, alone, gives this movie a mild recommendation.
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| 1 | doyler29 | 70 36% |
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Iñárritu's film is well-acted and really well-made, but he seems to be gesturing at something with the film's title and the interconnectedness of these stories, but what it is, I don't really see. Yes, these stories are all connected, but that doesn't really reveal a deeper truth ... they are connected really because he says so. He wrote them that way, and really ... the connections are arbitrary.
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| Average Percentile 54.68% from 8515 Ratings |  |