Babel

One of the many interesting aspects of the movie Babel is the way its title reflects many of the themes of its plot and narrative structure.  The title is a reference to the Biblical story of Babel, wherein the people of that city decide to build a tower to reach to heaven, and God fragments their language and scatters them all over the earth as punishment.  

The same kinds of confusion and communication difficulties are a major theme of the movie.  This is reflected most obviously in the plot, which hinges on a number of communication issues.  The seller of the rifle misrepresents its range and accuracy, the tourists on the bus jump to conclusions, the border patrol officers do not listen to the woman they found in the desert, and the hearing boy refuses to try and talk to the deaf girl.  These communication issues range from deliberate lies to misunderstandings to genuine problems with communicative modes.  

Additionally, the narrative structure of the movie mimics the experience of confusion and miscommunication for the viewer.  The thread of the plot does not follow one part of the story to its completion and does not put the events in chronological order.  In this way the viewer’s experience is more confusing and difficult to follow than a movie organized more straightforwardly would be.  The choice to remove the sound from portions of the scenes in Japan with Chieko, and the juxtaposition of these portions with ones with full sound, creates a more acute sense of the societal communication problems she faces.

The plot and narrative structure thus find reflection in the title of the movie.  Important to note, additionally, is the number and variety of languages spoken in the movie.  Moroccan Arabic, American English, British English, Japanese, Japanese Sign Language, and Mexican Spanish are all represented.  The representation of these languages highlights, in a different way than does the plot, some difficult aspects of transnational flows of products, ideas, and people.  And, of course, it relates directly back to the story of Babel.