Babel (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) | 
 enlarge | Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Actors: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Mohamed Akhzam, Peter Wight, Harriet Walter
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $34.99
Buy Used: $12.95
You Save: $22.04 (63%)
New (31) Used (19) from $12.95
Rating:  374 reviews
Sales Rank: 36853
Format: Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: Arabic (Original Language), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Japanese (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 143
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D122204D
UPC: 097361222042
EAN: 0097361222042
ASIN: B000SQFC18
Theatrical Release Date: November 10, 2006
Release Date: September 25, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: All of our used items are 100% Guaranteed to play. Ships 1st class!!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Brilliantly conceived, superbly directed, and beautifully acted, Babel is inarguably one of the best films of 2006. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and his co-writer, Guillermo Arriaga (the two also collaborated on Amores Perros and 21 Grams) weave together the disparate strands of their story into a finely hewn fabric by focusing on what appear to be several equally incongruent characters: an American (Brad Pitt) touring Morocco with his wife (Cate Blanchett) become the focus of an international incident also involving a hardscrabble Moroccan farmer (Mustapha Rachidi) struggling to keep his two young sons in line and his family together. A San Diego nanny (Adriana Barraza), her employers absent, makes the disastrous decision to take their kids with her to a wedding in Mexico. And a deaf-mute Japanese teen (the extraordinary Rinko Kikuchi) deals with a relationship with her father (Koji Yakusho) and the world in general that's been upended by the death of her mother. It is perhaps not surprising, or particularly original, that a gun is the device that ties these people together. Yet Babel isn't merely about violence and its tragic consequences. It's about communication, and especially the lack of it--both intercultural, raising issues like terrorism and immigration, and intracultural, as basic as husbands talking to their wives and parents understanding their children. Inarritu's command of his medium, sound and visual alike, is extraordinary; the camera work is by turns kinetic and restrained, the music always well matched to the scenes, the editing deft but not confusing, and the film (which clocks in at a lengthy 143 minutes) is filled with indelible moments. Many of those moments are also pretty stark and grim, and no will claim that all of this leads to a "happy" ending, but there is a sense of reconciliation, perhaps even resolution. "If You Want to be Understood... Listen," goes the tagline. And if you want a movie that will leave you thinking, Babel is it. --Sam Graham Beyond Babel 
Other Interweaving Storylines on DVD | 
Other DVDs by Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu | 
Why We Love Cate Blanchett | Stills from Babel (click for larger image)
Description
In Babel, a tragic incident involving an American couple in Morocco sparks a chain of events for four families in different countries throughout the world. In the struggle to overcome isolation, fear, and displacement, each character discovers that it is family that ultimately provides solace. 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. Separated by clashing cultures and sprawling distances, each of these four disparate groups of people are nevertheless hurtling towards a shared destiny of isolation and grief. In the course of just a few days, they will each face the dizzying sensation of becoming profoundly lost - lost in the desert, lost to the world, lost to themselves - as they are pushed to the farthest edges of confusion and fear as well as to the very depths of connection and love. In this mesmerizing, emotional film that was shot in three continents and four languages - and traverses both the deeply personal and the explosively political - acclaimed director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (21 Grams, Amores Perros) explores with shattering realism the nature of the barriers that seem to separate humankind. In doing so, he evokes the ancient concept of Babel and questions its modern day implications: the mistaken identities, misunderstandings and missed chances for communication that, though often unseen, drive our contemporary lives. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi lead an international ensemble of actors and non-professional actors from Morocco, Tijuana and Tokyo, who enrich Babel's take on cultural diversity and enhance its powerful examination of the links and frontiers between and within us.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 369 more reviews...
 What was good about this? July 19, 2008
Wow, what a stinker. I was told this was like "Crash." I liked Crash - a lot. This movie drags like molasses as we are shown several different stories that so obviously interconnect that you would have to be a simpleton not to connect most of them long before the reveal.
But mostly, in between long boring scenes which are supposed to teach us about other cultures I suppose, you get to watch stupid people make stupid decision after stupid decision.
My wife and I were talking aloud during the last 30 minutes without even pausing the movie as we discussed the stupid things that were happening and how annoying the whole thing had been.
THEN, they wrap it up with a Hollywood ending that leaves almost no one paying real consequences for their actions and even contradict what you have supposedly known the entire movie.
This was just plain pathetic. I'm disappointed in humanity that this is considered an acclaimed movie.
 Interesting and it kept my attention July 14, 2008
No big review here, just that it was interesting and involved 4 separate yet linked events going on around the globe. Brad Pitt more angry than concerned of his wife being shot while Cate Blanchett didn't really get to do much acting, besides laying there. The kids in the village were the key to the movie.
 What the hell was that? July 1, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
That's 2 hours and 23 minutes that I'll never get back.
Highly overrated and overblown, there are some great scenes and some great acting in this movie, but at the end of the day, you'll be shaking your head.
I especially loathed the story of the deaf-mute Asian girl and her sexual difficulties.
Critics and Amazon scribes fell all over themselves praising this "epic".
Maybe if it was an hour shorter.
I kept wanting to fast-forward.
Cate Blanchett is wasted in this role and to call this Brad Pitt's best performance, is just laughable.
Bad things happen to stupid people June 8, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
This movie is both stupid and pointless. It is one long and dreary series of bad decisions by stupid people. It is sad and depressing for no good reason at all. There is no redeeming value to the pain and misery inflicted on the characters. It isn't worth making or watching a movie merely because the characters in the story suffer. For pointless suffering I can watch the news.
Unless you are a masochist or need to become depressed, don't buy this movie. I am shredding my DVD to make sure it isn't inflicted on anyone else.
 IT'S ONLY ME, BUT: June 1, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
THEIS FIM COVERS 5 STORIES AT ONCE, ALL GOING ON AT THE SAME TIME. NOT ENOUGH BRAD PITT IN IT. JUMPS AROUND TOO MUCH JM
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