Babel (2006)

Babel (2006) by Angiela Mae H. Conte 

Cast: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal, Rinko Kikuchi, Adriana Barraza, Koji Yakusho, Said Tarchani, Boubker Ait El Caid, Elle Fanning, Nathan Gamble

Directed by: Alejandro Gonzales

Morocco - It all started with a struggling Moroccan family who bought a gun from an old man. The father of the two boys tasked his sons to look after the herd and kill any animal who threatens the herd but since Yussef, the younger brother, was a better shot in comparison to his older brother, the father praised him more which led to the older brother being jealous of Yussef. During the time that the two boys were looking after the herd, a little bit of sibling rivalry and bruised ego came into play. The boys ended up having some sort of competition which was how far the could fire the gun. They tried aiming at the bus but when the older brother tried, he only his dust  but when Yussef tried, he hit the bus. When they saw the bus stop, they panicked and ran. The following day, detectives were looking for the suspects and the evidence that they found led them to the previous owner of the gun. The old man/previous owner was brutally interrogated by the police, the wife of the old man could not take it anymore so she defends him and leads the police to the family where the old man sold his gun. When the police found the family, the boys and their father ran out of fear. The police started firing at them and against the father's will, Yussef decided to fire back. The retaliation made the police more determined to hit any of them that Yussef's older brother was hit. When that happened, Yussef finally surrendered and the police ceased firing. While Yussef approached the police, he was sobbing and begging the police to save his brother and kill him instead. Yussef already realized the consequence of his actions but it was already too late for his brother.

America - Richard and Susan Jones' marriage was falling apart because of the child that they lost. Not wanting to see their family separated, they decided that they would go on a trip, just the two of them to try and rekindle the flame of their marriage. While they were on the bus, on their way to another tourist destination, out of nowhere a bullet hit Susan's shoulder. Richard was cradling his wife's slowly weakening body in his chest while yelling for the driver to stop the bus and call for help. Eventually, the driver did but he informed Richard that there was no way they could get to the nearest hospital because the tour bus was suppose to be on schedule. Desperate to save his wife, Richard gets off the bus and tries to catch the attention of the only oncoming vehicle that they saw but instead of  helping them, the driver of the other vehicle left out of fear because Richard was covered in blood. They didn't much choice left and the bus driver was merciful enough that he decided to drive Richard and Susan to the nearest village to seek help. Once they were in the small village, Richard was able to put Susan into one of the homes where a local healer resided in. While they were trying to get Susan settled, Richard looked for a phone within that village to call the U.S. Embassy and ask for help. He was once again informed that the embassy had to settle a few things before they could come to help. In that incident, Richard and Susan realized that their love was worth fighting for and that the idea of losing each other was undeniably unbearable.

Mexico - Amelia was the nanny of Richard and Susan's children. She was informed by Richard that he and his wife were already back in the U.S. but because of the incident they wouldn't be able to come back immediately. Amelia's son was getting married so she tries to ask Richard if it was okay with them if she went back to Mexico and that she would just leave the kids with other people that she trusts. Richard refuses but Amelia was determined to see her son get married so she brings the white children to the Mexican border, which was a very dumb move if I say so myself. Once the wedding was over, she asks her nephew, Santiago who completely intoxicated, to drive the back to the U.S. but when they tried to cross the border the officer didn't make them cross right away because they got suspicious due to Amelia's lack of immigration papers and consent for letting the children cross the border. Santiago got skittish and decided to make a run for it and gunned his car, he left his aunt and the children with a flashlight in the middle of nowhere and instructed them to hide from the police while he tried to lose them. The following day, Amelia and the children were exhausted and on the brink of getting a sunstroke so out of desperation she decides to leave the children under a shade while she called for help. She eventually found a cop car patrolling the desert and Amelia begged the cop to look for the kids first. One police cruiser looked for the kids while the other brought Amelia to the station to be interrogated. Amelia was eventually informed that the kids were found but that she was deported from the U.S., she tried to beg for that to be changed because her life was in the U.S. but they couldn't change anything anymore because what she was doing was illegal.

Japan - Chieko Wataya was a deaf-mute and sexually frustrated teenager. She was angry at the world and angered by the fact that she was treated differently because she was deaf mute which led her into a very questionable lifestyle. One day two detectives came by the apartment that she shared with her father, she asked if the detectives visits involved the suicide case of her mother. The detectives declined and said they weren't in any trouble but that they needed to talk to her father so they left her a business card. She also noticed that one of the detectives were attractive so after a night of partying and a failed attempt of seducing the guy that she wanted, she decides to call one of the detectives telling him that she wanted to talk but didn't specify. The detective, desperate for information, agreed to the meeting and went to the apartment. When he got there Chieko started talking about the suicide of her mother which confused the officer since he was not there for that but Chieko kept on talking. Eventually they stopped talking and the detective was about to ask about what he really came for when out of nowhere Chieko, approached him completely baring all of her goods/naked. Chieko tried to seduce the detective but instead of letting lust take him over, he steps away from Chieko and tells her to stop. The rejection caused Chieko to feel inadequate and completely insecure which is how she ended up crying infront of the detective. After that episode, the detective left Chieko. He was almost out of the building when he came across the father of Chieko where he discussed about what he really came for. He asked about the gun that Chieko's father, who was a seasoned hunter, gave to a Moroccan. Chieko's father confirmed that he had given the gun as a gift and that it was never from the black market.



The multi narratives showed why all of the stories were somewhat connected with each other.  It also pretty much explained why the movie was called Babel. Babel is a story within the scripture about a tower that was built by the people of God with the goal to reach the heavens not knowing how foolish that goal is. What they did angered the Lord which led him to separate one country into several nations with different languages so they wouldn't understand each other again and so they will be unable to make such an attempt next time. The Babel of the movie was the rifle, which showed the connection between the four places. The multi-narratives was able to explain it clearly and I was able to to understand it more.

The time affected the story of the movie in such a way that it was much more understandable for the viewers to see how it was all connected to the series of events that was happening before them. As for the plot, because of the time, it was able to describe the movie more to the viewers.

Causal motivation or composition is justifying the presence of an element by its function in advancing the plot. It all began with a Japanese hunter who gave away his prized rifle to his guide in Morocco, which the guide sold to a poor family. The father who bought the gun tasked his sons to kill wild animals but instead the bullet hit an American woman who was the mother of the two American children which were being looked after by their Mexican nanny. By seeing and actually finishing the movie, you could see the significance in every character or role being played and how their roles caused the connection between the four distances. 

Schindler's List (1993)

Schindler's List (1993) by Angiela Mae H. Conte

Cast: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes 

Directed by: Stephen Spielberg

Synopsis:

Schindler's List is based on true story. The horrid events that occurred during the reign of Hitler, an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the Nazi Party. Oskar Schindler was a greedy German business man who decided to start his business, making cookware and utensils, in Poland. For his business to grow he used flattery and bribes to be able to win himself military contracts and friends in high places. He takes a Jewish accountant, Itzhak Stern, and hires Jewish workers to work for his factory. Also, because of his business he was able to save thousands of Jews despite the fact that throughout the movie he kept on denying the fact that he was giving the Jews refuge within his factory. 

Review: 

In this brilliant film, Stephen Spielberg was able to make everyone who watched this film somewhat experience what the Jews went through during the Holocaust. Many claim that "this film Spielberg has done the best directing of his career" and I must say, I agree. The film was very raw and didn't censor any of the scenes that would have offended some people. It really depicted the horrors or the horrid series of events that occurred during those times, the type of pain and fears the Jews must have felt during the Holocaust.  

Schindler's List was filmed in black and white which really gave an old feel to it. As though the film was a sort of documentation during the Holocaust. I also believe that it was filmed in black and white to heighten it's impact, to be able to give the viewers a more vivid feel of the contrast between black and white or good and evil. Also, to be able to give emphasis to the little girl in a red coat. At first I really did just think that the little girl in a red coat represented the innocence of the Jews and how much they did not deserve what happened to them. Eventually, I learned that the girl in a red coat most probably represented the Jews as a whole and the fact that despite that fact that their suffering and all of the tribulations that they went was just so ridiculously obvious, no country had the balls to actually try and help them during those hard times. 

Schindler's List is just a beautiful film that you would never tire of seeing, except for the whole dying of the multitudes thing. Spielberg was able to direct the film and that cameras that it was able to capture the Nazi's savagery. But what really got to me was the ending, when Schindler, surrounded by thousands upon thousands of Jews that he was able to save broke down and fell on his knees. It was the part where in Schindler realized that if it weren't for his greed, he could have saved more Jews. Despite that, the Jews that he managed to save, and those who are descendants of the Schindler Jews still see him as a hero. 

The Royal Tenenbaums (2002)

The Royal Tenenbaums (2002) by Angiela Mae H. Conte

Cast: Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Seymour Cassel

Directed by: Wes Anderson

Royal Tenenbaum, along with his wife, Etheline and their three children -- Chas, Richie and Margot were a family of geniuses but as time went by their family slowly fell apart and they were separated. Years later a lie made by Royal Tenenbaum and a series of unfortunate events brought their entire family under one roof.

The movie had a book-like feel to it. Especially since it began with someone "borrowing" a book from some library and then going through the pages and in each chapter you understood the characters more and more. In the beginning you were introduced to the characters one by one and what they were able to achieve even at such a young age and how their father treated them pretty much shaped their adulthood.

Representation was seen in the movie multiple times. Take for example, Margot Tenenbaum. She was the only adopted child in the Tenenbaum's household and she was absolutely brilliant but no matter what she able to achieve her adopted father, Royal Tenenbaum, never really showed her that she was appreciated and that all of her efforts were worth noticing. This portrays a typical child who was never really appreciated when they were young so when he or she grows up chances are that child is going to end up marrying early, going through relationships like they're socks or pretty much having a commitment phobia and having this constant fear of not being good enough which from my observation described  Margot.

Royal Tenenbaum represented the neglectful and selfish father. He was constantly thinking of himself that he was probably unaware of what how much his actions affected the lives of not only his three children but also his wife. Etheline Tenenbaum depicted the untrusting single mother. We saw in the movie that she had several suitors but she never really got into a relationship after Royal and before Henry Sherman which she was even reluctant to be with because of her history. She was also a loving woman who despite her past with Royal, when she was told that he was dying she still granted him his last wish to have his entire family under one roof before he "passed away".

The Tenenbaum family as a whole represented what a dysfunctional family was in almost every aspect. You could see in the movie how much the actions of Royal affected the lives of everyone around him. From Margot who, despite the fact that it was never really addressed in the movie but was so obviously there, was constantly seeking for love and took whatever she could from every man and woman she was with. You could also see how Chas Tenenbaum represented a man who as a boy was never really supported by his father so he learned resented his father and brought that resentment into adulthood that it came to a point where in he never even wanted to introduce his children to their grandfather. Richie Tenenbaum represented a man who set aside all of his happiness and put everyone else's first. He was so focused on others and never really found happiness for himself and it came to a point when he realized that he wasn't happy and almost killed himself because he was secretly in love with his adopted sister but had been keeping that to himself and couldn't bear constantly seeing Margot in another man's arms, knowing that he will never be the one in the position to be with Margot so he decided that maybe it would be so much better if he ended it all.

In the movie men and women were portrayed in such different ways. Such as how they reacted to every situation and how they were affected by the circumstances.