Babel And The Constant Gardener Essay

Both Babel and The Constant Gardener demonstrate that people live in their own world, with that world’s circumstances, within a larger interconnected world. Both films show how characters are compromised by their circumstances and how these circumstances affect their experience of their world. The directors, Fernando Meirelles of The Constant Gardener, and Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu of Babel, highlight the points above by making specific directorial choices and using particular film techniques which will be examined below.

Japan is shown in Babel to be a very built-up world. This world contains skyscrapers, roads with traffic and most surfaces are shiny. The Japan landscape begins with a high angled extreme long shot of girls playing volleyball. …show more content…
In Babel, Morocco is shown to be a less privileged country. Iñárritu chose to include many extreme long shots of the landscape to show how barren and rough it is and contrast it to the sleek, built-up world of Japan. Ahmed and Yussef’s gun which originally belonged to Yasujiro Wataya, which serves as the link between Morocco and Japan. This plays into Iñárritu’s idea of an interconnected world. Yussef uses this gun to shoot at a tourist bus. During this scene, the director uses an over the shoulder shot and rack focus, the focus is on the bus in the distance not on the gun. Yussef shoots an American tourist, which the media broadcasts as an act of terrorism. This media broadcast is seen on the news in Japan which links the worlds. The boys are tracked down by the police, which are violent in contrast to the police in Japan. During the final scene in Morocco the boys and their father, who are clearly not a threat, are shot at by the police and Ahmed is killed. Yussef surrenders and is seen on his knees with his hands up in front of the police. The shot is low angled to show that the police have the power. As the police man takes off his glasses he realises what he has done. This is an icon that his power had obstructed his view of the world. Yussef’s family has no resolution as they are not …show more content…
The less privileged area of Kenya and the more privileged area of London. In London, much like the Japan scenes in Babel, the landscape is very built up. The Kenyan people are shown to be less privileged as they are living in shacks, there are no roads and no proper access to health care. The Kenyan people are being taken advantage of by large pharmaceutical companies testing drugs on them and the deaths of the people taking these drugs are covered up. Once Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz), the wife of a British diplomat living in Kenya, and uncovers this scandal she is killed by the pharmaceutical companies. Her husband, Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) goes looking for answers about her death, and ends up being killed. Just like Babel, the events that happen in London and Kenya affect one another, showing a link between the different worlds. Just like Babel, privileged characters are also shown more dignity. Justin Quayle is given an elaborate funeral and the Kenyan people killed by the drugs are buried in unmarked graves.

The circumstances of the different worlds described above and how these circumstances affected each of the characters’ lives differently show Meirelles’s and Iñárritu’s intention of demonstrating that people live in their own world, with that world’s circumstances, within a larger interconnected