Babel: If communication were only our only woe

Brad Pitt’s acting and the Tower of Babel legend lit up the screen in Wells Hall, MSU. Knowing nothing of how these two things would intertwine themselves, I sat attentively, waiting to be entertained. Some movies are entertainers. This one was a thinker.

On the outside, I saw four interlaced stories playing out. Implicitly, I heard social, political and cultural messages ringing through my ears. An Asian family, an American family, a Moroccan family, a Mexican family: they are all torn and tormented directly socially by family, indirectly internationally and domestically by globalization, capitalism, and ethnocentrism. An American screams terrorist, and an innocent Moroccan is beaten for answers. An elder Mexican woman tries crossing the border to get back to work, and she’s assumed an illegal immigrant, and therefore a threat. An Asian young girl can’t understand the words directed toward her, and suffers feeling of abandonment and depression. A Moroccan family falls victim to the connotations and actions aroused by the arbitrary term “terrorist”.

Films like this challenge one to think about what is really happening outside of the bubbled life surrounding oneself daily. Individuality is so stressed by Western culture that it is often interpreted to selfishness and exclusiveness. In reality, no individual act is preformed exclusive of the community. The effects of any community act are not restricted to that community, but rippled throughout those surrounding until reaching national level. National acts are never isolated incidents. Perhaps this should be kept in mind the next time a shirt is bought, a bill is voted on, and a war is declared.