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Finished watching this 2002 film by Godfrey Reggio. This is the third film in a trilogy, the first two I have not seen. The title is a Hopi Indian word roughly translated to "life as war." The film is a collage of images, some computer generated, some live action, and some live action with camera distortions. To describe the variety of scenes would be useless. The point of the film, I think, is to communicate that war has become a way of life for man. Well, that is hardly a surprise, and is not very profound.But the film is visually exciting. The thought of watching an hour and twenty minutes of visual images seems redundant. But the film is scored by Philip Glass, and the scoring is as integral to the film as the visual images. Yo Yo Ma provides cello work throughout, with some solos for added effect.
This film would be a great demonstration piece for any dealer or manufacturer of video/audio gear. The visual images are brilliant, and would demonstrate color accuracy. There are dark scenes which would demonstrate black level, there are black and white scenes, and there is a very well recorded film score with solo cello. But alas, there are no explosions. Recommended for the visual and sonic treat.
Follow Ups:
This review from AMG pretty much sums up my impression of the fiilm...Godfrey Reggio deserves considerable credit for directing a trilogy of ambitious, feature-length experimental films. Unfortunately, he seems to be running out of fresh ideas. Despite a portentous but nonetheless hypnotic score by Philip Glass (with cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma), this movie seems more meandering than compelling. The film's visual imagery relies heavily on speeding up, slowing down, coloring, and otherwise manipulating previously shot footage from TV commercials, newsreels, corporate videos, and other sources. Unfortunately, some of the visual effects are overdone, a lot of the resulting visuals are humdrum, and the juxtaposition of images is overly heavy handed and obvious (e.g., contrasting real-life violence with video violence) when it isn't simply disjointed. This movie needs a greater abundance of captivating, original imagery that better expresses the film's themes without lapsing as often into vagueness or obviousness. -- Todd Kristel
I much preferred his first two and I prefer Baraka to those (while recognizing that Baraka wouldn't even exist without them).
"Where are we going? And what am I doing in this hand basket?"
I would agree that the film is more style than substance. As I indicated, I did not think that the themes were particularly original. Having not seen the first two films, the style seemed original, to me. Certainly, had I, or other viewers, seen the two earlier films first, I, or they, may certainly conclude that this film's style was not particularly original, either. But I was impressed that I could be entertained strictly by viewing images without dialog for almost an hour and a half.Reggio notes on the special features section of the D.V.D. that he never intended to make another film in this series, but that Glass convinced him that things were better in threes, and so he agreed to make another film. Glass stated that in approximately 1/2 of the film, the music was created first, and the images placed on the screen after, which is the opposite of most films, where the image is created first, then the music layered on top to support the visual image.
I posted about the film not because I thought it was a must see film. Rather, I thought it unique, and because it contained a well recorded and performed score that provided more than explosions, for which we audiophiles can appreciate.
I like the soundtrack a lot. I didn't dislike the movie I thought it had value but it kind of caved in on itseld as it went along.You should see the first 2 films (especially Koynasqatsi (sp?) and you should really see Baraka.
"Where are we going? And what am I doing in this hand basket?"
..I'll have to check.
and I was disappointed with Naq; too much emphasis on digital imagery which was (thankfully) absent in the earlier films
I thought this was like an extended and not-to-interesting music videoGrins
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