Babel: The Simple, Intrinsic Alienation of Humanity

This review was published originally in cinekklesia on March 24, 2007.

Perhaps the two most anticipated Best Picture nominees from the most recent Academy Awards were Martin Scorsese's The Departed (2006) and Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel (2006). Movie fans know that the former took home the coveted prize, and upon seeing both films, I was glad at the outcome.¹ Babel isn't a bad film; it is a highly ambitious project that is worthy of admiration. However, it is also a little contrived, more than a little overrated, and thematically naive.

What makes Iñárritu's project ambitious is the geographic and linguistic diversity of the movie, which takes place in Japan, Mexico, Morocco, and the United States. The plot is mildly complicated, and there is no need to go into specifics here. Suffice it to say, the disparate characters are intricately connected—whether by intense personal relationship or inadvertent circumstance—and their connections clearly highlight the movie's message: despite the fact that we are all connected in this giant, global web, we nevertheless remain fractured by language, socio-economic status, and political boundaries.

For Babel, positive messages and feelings about globalization require a counter-message of caution and even pessimism. Think of Babel as providing relief from those simplistic Cisco commercials, in which people all over the world are connected to "The Human Network," in which the mere application of technology (provided by Cisco, of course) can create that one-world community for which we all supposedly long.²

Yet, Babel provides us with its own simplistic take on globalization. Upon watching it, we are supposed to have a profound moment of empirical and moral revelation: (1) we are all connected with each other, and (2) we should use this newfound awareness to "get along" and "do the right thing" (or at least treat our fellow human beings better than do the characters in the film). This not-so-subtle moralizing ultimately degrades the quality of the movie and reveals the filmmakers' naive perspective regarding human nature.

On one level, by providing a cautionary message regarding the effects of globalization, Babel appears to provide a sober assessment of the human condition. However, by presuming that audience members would become more moral as a result of its message—and by presuming that the human condition could be any different than what it portrays—the movie misses the mark. The fundamental condition of humanity is alienation—from God and from other people—and no amount of consciousness-raising will change that until the Eschaton. Babel presumes that people are bad because they are ignorant of how connected they are with "the other," that if they recognized those connections, then they would be more moral. Unfortunately, what Babel's filmmakers should realize is that people are simply bad — period.

This does not meant that globalization, per se, is bad. In fact, we benefit from increased trade, immigration, and communication across boundaries. Overall, on a material level, our lives are enriched by the connections that we make with each other, by the fact that distant lands are rendered closer by technology (thank you, Cisco!). However, material betterment does not translate automatically into moral or spiritual improvement, and globalization has not (and will not) eradicate greed, violence, racism, and a whole litany of other ills.³ Such a fundamental reality—one that will not be altered by any cinematic consciousness-raising—seems to elude the filmmakers.

(In this sense, the gritty, cynical view offered by The Departed—a view that eschews moralizing in favor of a more hard-nosed portrayal of bad people doing bad things—evinces a thematic maturity that Babel lacks.)

Unfortunately, the same condition of division and alienation permeates the Church as much as any other institution. One of the most significant commands of Jesus is that of love among the brethren (John 13:34-5), a love that presumes a unity among believers, as there exists a unity between the Father and the Son (see John 17).⁴ Yet, one of the hallmarks of the Church of yesterday and today is that of division — whether over doctrine, organizational structure, or (worse yet) politics. In one sense, division is the Church's worst sin because it evinces an inability to understand God's will within a coherent community. While unity should not be a goal in and of itself—after all, one cannot, in good conscience, be unified with another whose moral and theological views one sees as fundamentally incorrect—it is nevertheless true that disunity remains a Biblically unacceptable state of affairs. Perhaps if the makers of Babel had spent some time looking at the history of the Church—an institution that is supposed to be coherent, universal, and unified—then they would have realized the (current) impossibility of their thematic mission.

Again, I want to stress that Babel is not a bad film. It is impressive in its geographic and linguistic scope and is definitely worth a viewing. Its message is just not terribly realistic.

Notes

1. Though my wife has convinced me that Martin Scorsese should not have won the Best Director prize since The Departed is largely a copy-and-paste rendition of Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak's Infernal Affairs (2002).


2. Cisco is not the only one using the globalized human in public-relations efforts.


3. Back in college, an economics professor told us of a classic defense of free trade: economic connectedness would foster peace between nations. However, he continued, if trade had such an effect on the human condition, then there would be no such thing as civil war.


4. See F.F. Bruce, The Gospel of John: Introduction, Exposition and Notes (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983):328-38; Gail R. O'Day, "The Gospel of John: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections," The New Interpreter's Bible, Volume IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995):785-98; Rodney A. Whitacre, John, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999):402-23.