the_lady_lily (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the_lady_lily) wrote2010-07-04 03:28 pm
the_lady_lily) wrote2010-07-04 03:28 pm
Entry tags:
Filmography
Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance
G wanted to see this because the soundtrack is done by Philip Glass, and who was I to say no? So we watched it.
It's one of those films, like The Last of England by Derek Jarman, which is a montage of visual imagery rather than plot-based. The theme pulling all of this together is that of nature vs. man, man's impact on the environment, the difference between untouched natural grandeur which opens the film and the destructive, hectic, frankly depressing speeded-up cityscapes that close it.
The message, as you may have guessed, is not particularly subtle or deep, and indeed in this day and age at times feels a bit hackneyed as the "life as conveyer belt" image has been so overworked certainly since the film was released in 1983. There are a couple of striking visual comparisons - roiling cloudscapes turn into ocean waves; a sausage making machine turns into speeded up humans going up escalators into what was then the PamAm building; the spotting lights on a John Travolta-esque disco dancefloor become the pixels of a computer game. But some of it feels as if it's reinforcing the same message over and over and over without actually developing the idea much, which is a shame as I'm sure it would be possible to create the visual links to do so.
That said, the final scene, of a bit of an engine booster from a space shuttle launch tumbling down from the sky for a couple of minutes, is haunting. There are haunting moments, which play beautifully with the soundtrack, and I don't mean to imply otherwise. It's just a shame that the attempts at didacticism had to consistently be quite so heavy handed. Three stars.
G wanted to see this because the soundtrack is done by Philip Glass, and who was I to say no? So we watched it.
It's one of those films, like The Last of England by Derek Jarman, which is a montage of visual imagery rather than plot-based. The theme pulling all of this together is that of nature vs. man, man's impact on the environment, the difference between untouched natural grandeur which opens the film and the destructive, hectic, frankly depressing speeded-up cityscapes that close it.
The message, as you may have guessed, is not particularly subtle or deep, and indeed in this day and age at times feels a bit hackneyed as the "life as conveyer belt" image has been so overworked certainly since the film was released in 1983. There are a couple of striking visual comparisons - roiling cloudscapes turn into ocean waves; a sausage making machine turns into speeded up humans going up escalators into what was then the PamAm building; the spotting lights on a John Travolta-esque disco dancefloor become the pixels of a computer game. But some of it feels as if it's reinforcing the same message over and over and over without actually developing the idea much, which is a shame as I'm sure it would be possible to create the visual links to do so.
That said, the final scene, of a bit of an engine booster from a space shuttle launch tumbling down from the sky for a couple of minutes, is haunting. There are haunting moments, which play beautifully with the soundtrack, and I don't mean to imply otherwise. It's just a shame that the attempts at didacticism had to consistently be quite so heavy handed. Three stars.
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But I think you're right that it's fair to call it heavy-handed--I was blown away when I first saw it at 16, now I just listen to the soundtrack without bothering about the film.
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I think the soundtrack has definitely aged much better than the visuals.