Continental Threads

Continental Threads 

            Imagine a thread of gun powder paved in a thin line across continents and oceans; creating a Hansel and Gretel trail of bread crumbs. Follow the powder, see where it leads. No doubt it ends up where it began and with no surprise only a small flame can ignite the whole world. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film, Babel creates that gunpowder illusion, traveling through almost every continent on Earth. In the article, “Babel” by Leslie Felperin, she relates that this film is “ nothing less than the world's the stage for Babel, where the firing of a rifle sets off ripples of effect around the globe, its repercussions particularly felt in unhappy or divided families”(Felperin,41). One element alone is the match that ignites chaos to the perfect balance of four distant families, a hunting rifle.

            Babel is a film that takes the viewer on a journey through three major continents, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia and into the lives four families, which interlock with one weapon which destroys them, a rifle. In the article, “Connecting Dots” by Daniel Eilemberg, he states:

                        Here, four different families living in different comers of the world are linked to                           each other by a circumstantial event, the accidental shooting of an American                                  tourist in the mountains of Morocco. Yet, while the protagonists may not share                                 the same country or language, there is a deep association between them: They are,                      in their own way, isolated--culturally, linguistically and physically. (Eilemberg,                               37)

Eilemberg’s reflection is clearly seen throughout the film. This explosive link starts in a small village in Morocco. Abdullah, a goat herder, buys a M70 rifle from his neighbor to get rid of the jackals that have been butchering his goats. Abdullah gives the rifle to his two sons, Yussef and Ahmed, and sends them out to tend the herd. Like many brothers, they compete between themselves testing the rifle out, not knowing the magnitude of the simple weapon. They decide to give the rifle a fun test run, aiming first at rocks, a moving car on a highway below, and then at a bus carrying Western tourists. The bullet goes through the window of the bus. The two boys realize that the bullet did more than just injure the bus, so they run away, concealing the gun. As clips of news programs reveal their intel that the shooting is a terrorist attack, Morracan offials are pressured to find the gunmen. Tracing the gun back to Hassan, the Moroccan police charge quickly into his house and ruthlessly question him and his wife until they uncover the linking factor; that the rifle was gift given to Hassan by a Japanese man, and then sold to Abdullah. The two boys see the police on the road and from fear, they confess to their father what happened. Abdullah and his sons are on the run, retrieving the rifle as they flee. Soon the Morrocan police find and corner the family on a rocky hillside and open fire. In the crossfire, Ahmed is hit in the leg, and Yussef, in a protective measure, take the rifle and shoots back. The police continue shooting, eventually hitting Ahmed in the back, which seems to be fatal. As Abdullah rages with grief holding is son’s limp body, Yussef surrenders and confesses to all the crimes, begging mercy for his family and medical assistance for his brother.

            Across continents, the movie simultaneously portrays the story of Chieko Wataya, a defiant, deaf Japanese girl, who is clearly traumatized by the suicide of her mother. She internally blames her father, Yasujiro Wataya. Chieko in her own way is troubled which leads her to act in an unruly manner. She eventually runs into two police detectives who question her about her father. She finds one of the detectives, Kenji Mamiya attractive to she invites him to her apartment. She assumes that the detectives are still investigating her father's involvement in her mother's suicide and tells him what happens. However the detectives were investigating a hunting trip Yasujiro took in Morocco. Yasujiro in the past was a fervent hunter and had been in Morroco. During his trip in Morocco, Yasujiro gave his rifle, as a gift, to his hunting guide and friend Hassan. As the detective leaves the apartment, he runs into Yasujiro and explains the situation with the rifle. Yasujiro replies that he did indeed give the gun as a gift to a friend and it wasn’t some black market deal. The link is now set between two continents, countries, cultures, and families.

Back and forth between lands and oceans, the movie creates puzzle pieces for viewers to slowly piece together. The movie's main plot is sprinkled with scenes of Richard and Susan, parents of two beautiful children, residing in San Diego. The couple is seen vacationing in Morocco to mend their marital complications. On a tour bus back to the main city, Susan is shot on the tour bus, and Richard orders the bus driver to the nearest village to seek medical assistance. With the help of the tour bus guide, Anwar, a local veterinarian sews up the wound to fearing that Susan will die of excess blood loss. Assuming it is a terrorist attack; the other tourists become impatient, and fearful for their own lives, and decide to abandon the couple to fend for themselves. The couple remains behind with Anwar waiting for any type of transport to a hospital by the U.S. Embassy. Political issues between the US and Morocco prevents quick attention as Moroccan officials hunt for the so called terrorists. It is clearly seen here that no matter the magnitude of the incident, it has grown into a bloodbath of political and media agenda. A small accident seems to transform into a foreign policy incident and the casualties are sucked in between. The loss of communication is clearly seen as the film crisscrosses four different and unique languages.

The gunpowder thread trails across seas and towards chaos free San Diego, or so it seems. Richard and Susan leave their two children in the care of their Hispanic nanny, Amelia, while they are vacationing in Morocco. Richard is seen in the beginning, calling home from the hospital. Because the parents are delayed in their return home, Amelia is forced to take care of the children longer than she had planned and becomes worried that she will miss her beloved son's wedding in Mexico. Unable to find a replacement, Amelia calls Richard for advice, who impatiently tells her to cancel her trip. Without his permission, Amelia decides to take the children with her to the wedding in a rural community near Tijuana, Mexico. Her unruly nephew, Santiago, offers to take her and the children across the border. Crossing the border easily, the children find themselves in a culture shock. The merriment of the wedding prolongs late into the evening, but rather than staying the night in Mexico, Amelia decides to drive back to San Diego with Santiago, who has been drinking heavily. At the border, the patrolman becomes suspicious of his behavior and the American children in the car. Amelia provides passports and all other paperwork, but when asked for a letter of consent from the children's parents, she becomes nervous and scared. Intoxicated, Santiago decides to run the border, fleeing from the patrol. He abandons Amelia and the children in the desert, attempting to lead off the police. Stranded without any provisions, Amelia and the children are forced to spend the night in the wild desert. Realizing that they will all perish, Amelia leave the children behind to find help specifically ordering them not to move. She eventually finds a U.S. Border Patrol officer, who arrests her. However, she pleads the officer to look for the children.  The officer and Amelia travel back to where she had left them, but they are not there. Amelia is taken back to a Border Patrol station, where she is eventually informed that the children have been found and that she is to be deported back to Mexico.

As families crumble into despair, their mobid fate link strong. Felperin in one sentence gives the underlining synopisis of this puzzling film: “Four interconnected contemporary stories, set in different countries around the world, are braided together” (Felperin, 42). Worlds may be braided together but the main string that ties them all in one braid is the jackle rifle that changed the lives of four families, four countries, three continents, and one world in a matter of days. 

~ (DRAFT)