Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Good idea lost in the noise

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Everybody, especially hipsters, loves those 3-minute YouTube videos with world scenes. So the next logical step is to extend it to 90 minutes. "Who cares about characters, plot, script or anything. It's just easier to throw a whole lot of stock footage together." -Director, and everyone else on the team.This "documentary" attempts to be different but it turns out being different just for the sake of being different and for no good reason. The summary of the "plot" is, this thing you know is bad and this thing you know is good is good. Not insightful and so boring I wanted to tear my eyes out. I had to watch 20 minutes, then take a break, and then another 20 minutes and so on and so forth.

BARAKA is a 1993 film, shot by Ron Fricke in some 24 countries, that is a sort of documentary on three universal themes: 1) the grandeur of the natural world, from the peaks of Everest to low deserts, 2) the oneness of the human race illustrated by juxtaposing almost identical shots from vastly separated cultures, and 3) the desire for a connection with something transcendent. Shot in 70mm film, watching the Bluray on a projector or a large-screen television offers one of the most visually stunning cinematic experiences around. There is no dialogue or voice-over, no characters, but the enormous amount of footage is presented here in a way that gives BARAKA a gripping dramatic arc, and it's a sequence that, on repeated viewings, increasingly seems the most matter-of-course way in which all this could have been edited.With unquenchable anthropological curiosity, Fricke identifies commonalities that link us all. A shot of a Japanese mafioso's tattoos, for example, are followed immediately by a shot of the same on an indigenous resident of Papua New Guinea. But's not only exotic tribalism. A shot of Japanese schoolgirls looking at the camera is mirrored later by an almost identical shot of low-caste girls in Calcutta. Don't expect a mushy call for tolerance; Fricke's editing indeed makes a convincing case for appreciating differences, but there is nuance.Fricke's occasional use of footage from churches, mosques, temples, etc. is less an advocacy for belief in religion than an extension of the commonalities he identifies. Human beings have an urge for contemplation as solace among the complicated and sometimes senseless world around them, and they draw on inner sources of mercy to go against the cruelty that people show to their fellow man. The consequences of a world cut adrift from calm and compassion are shown during a heartbreaking sequence that ranges from Auschwitz and the Cambodian killing fields to homeless across the globe and teenage prostitutes in a Bangkok nightclub.The footage is accompanied by an array of musical pieces which help to set the mood for each series of shots: minimalist loops form the soundtrack for scenes of industrial production, we hear harsh bagpipes as the camera tours the burning oil fields of Kuwait, and Dead Can Dance's "The Host of Seraphim" plays during an indictment of poverty worldwide. Some of musicians involved are rather New-Agey and would never have a place in my music listening, but when integrated into the film they are remarkably effective. The 5.1 surround sound excellently balances cinematic effect and faithfulness to the scenes portrayed.I've watched BARAKA many times now, each time discovering many new things and always being moved, whether to pity (Calcutta garbage-pickers) or wonder (the unreal glittering hall of Shiraz's Shahcheragh mausoleum). I would certainly rank it among my favourite films. Will you like it? That's hard to say. BARAKA is my go-to Bluray when friends and family want to try out my fancy home theatre setup with HD projector and surround sound, and while some of them have been just as stunned as I am, others don't really care. Apparently many people, even those with a well-rounded education, don't have much curiosity for things outside their own everyday experience, and so Fricke's survey of world cultures doesn't resonate with them.(Note that while Fricke created a 2011 follow-up called SAMSARA, I would recommend staying away from it, as it is less focused and only repeats BARAKA to diminishing effect.)

The same comments apply here as in Koyannisqatsi. Yes, it captures a myriad beautiful things, ecstatic dances natural and manmade. Yes it shows conflicting urges in humankind for transcendence and destruction. It wants to elevate us to a vantage point from which to view a larger world that we would call spiritual.In the silent era they were making "city symphonies" to eulogize the booming modern city, this would be a "world symphony". But it eulogizes a simplistic view. It all issues forth from a hopelessly Eurocentric view that finds exoticism in faraway places, sacredness in monument, purity and ceremony to be the same thing.But see, spirituality is not sending a postcard back home from a temple you visited, it's learning to see this world anew, every small thing that you come across. It's an entire way of seeing. At the root of a transcendent vision is the Zen koan of koans, the question who is it that sees?And this is simply not made from someone who can see farther than the monument he wants to erect. We fly from the pyramids to the Angkor Vat to Persepolis in a matter of minutes, gorging instead of harking. We fly from tribal dances to the urban dances of traffic to the devotional dance of pilgrims around Mecca. We cut from Japanese businessmen in their modern hotel capsules to stylized shots of a Buddhist monk in the street with his alms bowl. Nature is never allowed to be itself, it has to be nature as we want it to be, a Rennaisance notion that is at odds with modernity. See, for this filmmaker it takes nothing short of the Taj Mahal at sunset to comprehend the world's beauty and nothing short of Kuwait oil fields ablaze to comprehend the destruction. There's a truly astonishing sequence of rebirth near the end, with a solar eclipse and an African dancer bouncing up as if a soul is leaving to return. But all of it together has the adverse effect. We see the mundanity of the sacred and not the opposite, which is the spiritual essence. This is a touristy view by someone who thinks that going to Bodh Gaya to meditate under the bodhi tree will grant special insight, that it will take nothing short of a sacred place. Either way you may appreciate this verse:A monk asked, "When there's not a single cloud for ten thousand miles, then what?"Zen Master Baoshou said, "The clear sky also gets the staff!" The monk said, "I don't understand why the clear sky has an error."Baoshou hit him with his staff.

...in boredom! The purpose of a movie is either to entertain or to educate (documentaries primarily). This series of pictures (I hesitate to call it a film) does neither. With the possible exception of those who've lived all their lives under a rock and/or are somehow oblivious about the fact that there are many different cultures and scenic views out there in the big world.While the photography in this work is breathtaking, with exceptionally sharp and detailed pictures of a wide range of cultures and exotic geographical locations, it doesn't really mend the fact that there is absolutely no point or message to be taken out of it. It's just a moving slideshow of beautiful (and some disturbing - most of us already know that there is a lot of evil in the world too) pictures, accompanied by slow and extremely boring music. There's no narration, no context and no point in it, except to show what we already know (hopefully anyway); it's a big world out there. Everything moves along slowly, and is dulled down further by the slow, repetitive and boring music. As far as boredom in moving pictures goes, this is unparalleled.If you want to study the world in a more meaningful way, watch some documentaries on National Geographic, or buy a large coffee table book of pictures from the world, and view it with your preferred choice in music playing in the background. The "message" will be the same, but you'll get a more satisfying experience by being able to flip the pages at your preferred speed and listening to music you actually like.