"Babel" review by mft: $34,109,548

AA has become understandably occupied with other "stuff" (that's what we'll call it now), so to contribute to the Peasant Eye Movie Review, I took the initiative. Here goes:

The trailer to this movie might better read: "The American Government is wildly out of control! In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, two Americans (played by Brad Pitt and some chick) struggling to rekindle a relationship are brought together when two young Moroccan goat-herders take pot-shots at a Yankee tour bus. Of the American couple, the wife is wounded, and her husband believes her only chance of survival is in one of the most god-awful places on earth. Their relationship on the rocks, and the delayed response from the American Embassy to airlift the wife to a Second World Hospital (French), symbolize how disillusioned Americans are these days, in addition to how the Government is slow to respond.

On the domestic front, the couple has hired a Mexican nanny who has been charged with raising their American children since birth. The nanny is put in a tight spot, when she needs to attend her son's wedding, thus forcing her to take the two American children across the border into Mexico. Upon her return, her nephew, a Mexican (obviously) is stopped and unjustly interrogated by the American Border Patrol. The nephew makes a quick get-away, and soon forces his aunt and the two American children to wander alone in the desert."

Now the viewers can think to themselves, first-hand, "AH-HA! Two American children can see what it's like to wander along that border like Mexican children do every day!" We, the Pepetian viewers, feel pretty darned good about this bit of Righteousness. The Mexican nanny/aunt, and the American children are soon discovered by Border Patrol. Predictably, the American couple has hired her illegally, and the nanny is deported, with haste, by a cold American Immigration Agent.

There is a Japanese element to the film, too: the rifle that the young goat-herders used to accidentally shoot the American was a gift a high-powered Japanese salaryman gave to Ibraham, another elder Moroccan goat-herder. The rifle is a fine extension of the evil of Capitalism, and the Japanese salaryman's young mute and deaf daughter wanders the streets of Tokyo, feeling rejected in her Capitalist culture. To remedy this, she exposes her Japanese bush to several of her countrymen, and finally to a Japanese Police Officer. Again, there's another symbolic argument in there about how Guns are Bad, Capitalism has Failed, and the American Border Patrol is Wildly Out of Control.

The movie was just a bit too moral for my Libertarian tastes, nothing like reading a Chekhov short-story, or watching Bergman's celluloid. Enough said. Back to reality. I'm just glad to have spent time with the girl, and that I had beer.

Note: It takes me a little longer to see the HOT New Hollywood Releases, the delay a result of theatre seating, and American movie theatre blue laws. Typically I wait for the film to go to DVD for several reasons. First, seating is still geared towards the size of our Greatest Generation, and even '70s Hippies. Both were short. From what I can guess, AI might have similar problems depending on the theatre. The second reason for DVDs over theatre: I don't have to worry about sneaking beers into the theatre.