Babel: A Failure to Communicate

No film stood a chance against this year's sentimental Oscar favorite, Martin Scorsece's "The Departed," but if any other film was deserving, it was Babel. Tabbed by the Golden Globe for best picture, Babel is a monumental film from the standpoint of creativity as well as social commentary. It picks up where "Crash" left off, demonstrating how a single incident can trigger a chain of events that have life-altering implications for people in all walks of life. Like the 2005 surprise Oscar winner, Babel is a tough film that saves its biggest lessons for its viewers, who are forced to cinsider the sweeping impact of personal choices and how cultural and social barriers can play into those choices. The major difference is that Babel plays out on a world stage, with interrelated events taking place in four countries on three continents.

The film begins inauspiciously with the sale and purchase of a rifle somewhere in what the viewer will likely believe is the Middle East. But contrary to the knee-jerk impressions, the weapon is bought by a goat herder who gives it to his sons to ward off predatory jackals. While testing the range of the weapon, the two brothers fire a shot that is, as the saying goes, heard around the world, when one of the bullets hits a bus carrying a group of tourists and injures a passenger.

Enter storyline two: the wounded passenger is Susan Jones (played by Kate Blanchett), who is on vacation with her husband Richard (Brad Pitt). The couple has been struggling with the sudden death of their infant child and, true to the film's major theme, they have difficulty expressing their remorse, guilt, and the latent blame they feel for one another. Until they suffer the accident, they communicate just as much with their silence as with the words they speak.