Sean Smith on “Babel”
“Before I read any more reviews and start questioning my judgment, I’m going to predict that Babel will be nominated for best picture this year. What’s more, I think it just might win,” says Newsweek‘s Sean Smith in a 10.27 posting. “Why? Because the Oscar is almost always awarded from the heart rather than from the head. Pulitzers Prizes and Nobel Prizes and National Book Awards are doled out, in general, for intellectual achievement — they reward how a piece of work makes us think about the world. But the deepest value of movies is how intensely they make us feel.
“Babel could only have been made in a post-9/11 world, and it is a powerful comment on our cross-cultural anxieties and our assumptions and fears about each other. It also features mesmerizing performances, including the most natural, raw and memorable scene of Brad Pitt’s entire career. Yes, maybe the film is melodramatic. Maybe too many bad things happen to too many good people. But there is also a sense at the end of the film that most of these characters will survive their tragedies and will manage to find some measure of happiness — that there is hope for them and, by extension, us.
“Babel may be painful, but it is not bleak. Ultimately, though, the reason I think Babel could win best picture has nothing to do with what I think about it at all. It’s because watching Babel in a packed theater last month, I felt the same rush I had watching American Beauty, Shakespeare in Love and Million Dollar Baby. I can’t rationalize it. I can’t quantify it. I can barely explain it. All I can tell you is that, as sappy as it sounds, those films — and this film — made me feel as if my heart had expanded.
“Judging from all the people crying around me, and in the elevator afterward, and in the parking garage after that, I suspect that I am not alone. All of that may mean nothing. It’s just a feeling. But this year, at least, I’m not going to ignore it.”
Totally agree with Sean… not sure where some of these critics are coming from, but they must be the same ones who trashed Crash. This is a far more straightforward movie from Inarritu than 21 Grams and Amorres Peros.
Crash is a horrible movie, but apparently it tricked enough people into thinking that it was good and good for them, which is the combo that the Academy loves, and it’s certainly not a quality that The Departed or Dreamgirls are going to be able to provide.
If it wins it will be a fluke.
I think Sean Smith has gone a bit overboard to call a BP winner in October but hey, it’s happened before. This movie isn’t Crash. It doesn’t have Paul Haggis (a very popular director). Babel stands a better chance of winning director.
I haven’t seen Babel yet, but 21 Grams was the kind of movie that alienated people for intellectual (or at least thinking) reasons. Personally, I felt that it was one of the best movies of 2003, but some people just couldn’t see how the pieces fit together (whereas fans of the movie, including myself, felt they did — perfectly, in fact). For me, that was both an emotionally and intellectually satisfying movie. So I guess my question is this: is Babel significantly different and actually more like Crash than 21 Grams? If it is, consider me worried.
Crash was one of the more shameful movies of my lifetime. Babel was wonderful, particularly the Japanese slice of the omnibus.
Oh, I definitely don’t think Babel will win…is that what Smith is saying? Nah, way too early in the game for that. Aguirre: I agree about the Japanese segment. JD: I do think Babel is more like Crash (and Syrianna) than 21 Grams. It’s much easier to follow because it’s just four stories and it has a pretty straightforward storytelling method in that each of them is told linearly, just scrolling through each of them as it goes on. I think that helps keep it interesting despite the 2 hour plus running time, too.
Interesting how people complain about running times today.
I wonder how the great AMADEUS would fare today. I just watched this classic film, my first time in 20 years and loved it.
Running time: 2 hrs. 40 min. (the Dir. cut runs 3 hrs, and that too is excellent) And they breezed by.
Have attention spans withered away that much over the past two decades?
Interestingly, going by today’s standards, Amadeus woul be given a run for its money – but you can see here a good pattern for Oscar Best Picture – sappy, political, critically acclaimed all in one mix:
The Killing Fields
A Passage to India
Places in the Heart
A Soldier’s Story
The film that won was the respectable crowdpleaser. I’ll leave it up to others to decide which of these films, including Amadeus, has stood the test of time. I’m gonna go with The Killing Fields.
Spoiler Warning:
Sorry to disagree, but, having just seen Babel at a packed Friday show, I think it should consider itself lucky if it manages a nomination. Judging from the crowd’s mixed reaction it’s chances of winning are pretty much nil, and it’s for the same reason that was stated, it appeals to the head over the heart.
Past Best Picture winners share a directness that Babel lacks. Even Crash could be easily summarized despite it’s interlocking stories: It’s about racism, plain and simple. Nobody left the theater scratching their heads.
On the other hand, it’s hard to me to imagine a Best Picture winner containing the Japanese section of this film. It’s literal connection to the rest of the film is very slight, and it’s thematic connection is not going to be enough to stop a lot of people wondering why we spent so much time on a Japanese teenager’s sex life. While it has a affecting moments the rewards from the sequence rely on the audience intellectually intergrating it into the rest of the film.
This is neither criticism nor praise. Just stating why I think the film clearly lacks the mass appeal to win best picture. Even when there is a big emotional pay-off it’s a downer like Andriana Abrazza’s breakdown in the immigration office or the fate of the Morrocan family. The more positive outcomes are either glanced over quickly (Cate Blanchett) or not even shown (the kid’s rescue).
Ultimately, I think Babel will end up more Syrian than Crash, a writing or an acting nod, especially for Abrazza, a lot of critical love, and a enthusiastic, but outnumbered, fan base.
The way you can usually tell what movie is going to win (and it’s harder and harder to remind myself of this basic rule every year) if it’s the one that you could sit your grandparents in front of and they would walk away saying it was good. Looking back, Brokeback never had a chance — I don’t know why everyone thought it would. Babel sounds to me like that wishful thinking pic all the arty types WANT to be an Oscar movie. Come to think of it, though, Departed doesn’t really fit that formula either – Silence of the Lambs, ROTK and Unforgiven maybe didn’t either. Every theory has its holes. The dirty secret though is that the Academy generally give out their awards for best pic to a movie that was directed by either a Brit or an American – Best Director is a little more diverse. Look it up. It’s not 100%, of course. I dont know why that is exactly but it seems to be how it goes down.
“Crash” is a great film, and undoubtedly the best of last year.
That’s funny, Doug. So what do you really think?
“…I felt the same rush I had watching American Beauty, Shakespeare in Love and Million Dollar Baby.”
I felt the same way watching The Insider, Saving Private Ryan, The Pianist, Shawshank Redmption…
Crash was a manipulative piece of trash.