Babel (R)
Mature themes mark stories about communication.
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- Studio: Paramount Vantage, Paramount Vantage
- Directed By: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
- Cast: Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Gael García Bernal
- Running Time: 141 minutes
- Release Date: 10/27/2006
- Video/DVD Release Date: 02/20/2007
- Genre: Drama
- MPAA Rating: R
- MPAA Explanation: for violence, some graphic nudity, sexual content, language and some drug use.
Parents need to know
Families can talk about the film's central theme -- communication. How can you communicate with someone if you don't understand their language? How can communication help solve problems? How do parents and caregivers sometimes end up making poor decisions about the kids in their care? Could situations like that be avoided if rebellious children and their angry or anxious parents were able to talk? How do the movie's imagery and soundtrack evoke the experiences of being afraid, high, or even deaf?
Message
Social Behavior:
Bad decisions throughout: A high-school girl rebels (parties, does drugs, reveals her body); a young boy shoots rifle on a lark; U.S. tourists travel in a country where they're at once privileged and fearful (racist); a nanny travels with her young charges to Mexico, then has trouble crossing the border back into California; her nephew tries to race away from border guards. Some of these characters recover, others don't.
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Cigarette smoking, drinking (some underage, and one character drives drunk), and drugs (high school students).
Violence
Violence involving children: A Moroccan boy accidentally shoots an American tourist (badly injured, she bleeds and weakens throughout the film and endures stitching without anesthesia); a boy is shot by authorities (bloody body); a boy and authorities exchange gunfire (boy enthusiastic, then horrified); discussion of a mother's suicide and her daughter's consideration of same; authorities threaten a Moroccan man with a gun to the head, then beat him (bloodied face); at a Mexican wedding, revellers shoot guns, scaring Caucasian/U.S.-born children.
Sex
A high-school student opens her legs to reveal underwearless crotch (revealing a dark area, very briefly); the same girl shows her naked body to a policeman in effort to "communicate" her sadness and loneliness (she has two shots of full-frontal nudity); girl licks her dentist (he sends her home); a boy watches his sister undress through a peephole, upsetting their father when he finds out; a boy masturbates; young people kiss/dance.
Language
Repeated (15+) uses of "f--k" (at least one in Japanese with subtitle); some other profanity ("s--t," "a--hole," "ass").
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Cynthia Fuchs
Is it any good?
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Parents and kids say
All Reviews
There are 9 reviews.
Adult Reviews
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Kids Reviews
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