Babel is the latest film from Alejandro González Iñárritu. It is the story of how four different groups of people on three different continents impact each other's lives while never actually crossing paths. It is the final film of Iñárritu's trilogy of fatalistic films, the first two being Amores Perros and 21 Grams.
Babel takes the intersection of people to the global scale. While 21 Grams dealt with these crossings on a much more personal level, the same sort of thing can be applied to the world at large. The end result is a film that is epic in scope, but with a much more intimate feel. The soundtrack is no different. It captures the sounds of world music and blends them together into a concoction that has an odd sort of flow to it, as if it belongs together while not actually being together. The two-disk set is a snapshot of the music the world 'round coming together in a bizarre sort of harmony.
This set presents the score interspersed with soundtrack, a collision of two schools of movie music thought. Generally a score and a soundtrack are two different things with two different ends in mind. Iñárritu, acting as executive producer, seeks to stretch those thought processes and twist them into one vision. By bringing the score and soundtrack together, the release mirrors the events of the film. If you separate one from the other the aura is changed and the point is lost.
The score was written by Gustavo Santaollala, who won an Oscar for his work on Brokeback Mountain last year. That is a score that I loathe — the film was quite good, but I found the music to be repetitive and dull. With that taste still in my mouth, I hesitantly approached this release. Fortunately, I found his work here to be much stronger. I am not familiar with any of his other work (which includes both of the previously mentioned Iñárritu films), but he has a very simple style, mellow and sparsely arranged, the opposite of the usual orchestral score. To the point of authenticity, Santaollala taught himself to play the oud, an Arab lute — that is dedication to the craft!
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Article comments
1 - pete
I am a music composer. Personally i thought the music was ineffective and irritating most of the time. While enjoying the film, i was thinking, ''what is that noise for?''. I honestly came out of the cinema with a migraine. Perhaps i should start composing for hollywood movies!!!
Was honestly rubbish?? The idea of him winning an award at the oscars completely dumbfounded me.
Very disappointing
2 - pete
Also the final piece which brought the film to a close with a horrendous violin part was enough to make me run out of the cinema. It was too repetitive. I haven't heard any of his other work so I can't comment on that, perhaps its better. For me this left much to be desired.
3 - Chris Beaumont
I liked the score, but it is nowhere near my favorite. It is considerably better than the Brokeback Mountain score that he won for last year. I much preferred Clint Mansell's The Fountain, Javier Navarrete's Pan's Labyrinth, Phillip Glass' Notes on a Scandal.
4 - Tony Medley
just watched the movie... it kinda passed me by until the piano music at the end. It captured my emotion and the whole thing made sense. definately buying the soundtrack and will watch the other two movies you mentioned too. Yeah it happend for me!!
5 - Catherine
I thought the music really effective, it definitely accentuated the movie.
6 - Fouad
Very deep music, need open mind ppl to appreciate it...
7 - Najjar
Hello,
i think you are right Mr Fouad, Specially its a mixture of many cultuers! it was the best choice instead of using languages, movie decision maker showed his respect to all languages he used, offcourse its nations too.
Najjar