Babel is one surprising film. The most striking aspect of this film is that it is not one film, but actually four, all in
different languages with no
subtitles. From one story to another, you will hear English, Spanish, Japanese (and see Japanese sign
language), Arabic, Berber and French. Alejandro González Iñárritu found a very efficient way to picture cultural differences without ever falling into forced understanding. The objectivity makes it very pleasant, for it prevents us from feeling that the director is preaching about why racism is wrong, or that we must tolerate each other. None of this so, and it is for the better. The most incredible is that the film doesn''t even need subtitles and one is amazed to realize that, mostly, everything appears quite clear and the situations can be fully understood. As for the stories, they all are quite tragic and somehow related, but everything seems so natural... as if the characters were going to live on anyway and we only got to see a quick moment in their lives, probably THE moment that will make them change forever. The event which makes that they will never see life the same way again.