Babel

"If you want to be understood... listen."

2006 2h 23m EN

👍

7.2

SOLID

🍅

68%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.5

IMDB

★7.2TMDB · 4,212🍅68%Rotten Tomatoes●69Metacritic★7.5IMDB · 325,084

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.

“If you want to be understood... listen.”

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Cast

Brad Pitt
Richard Jones
Rinko Kikuchi
Chieko
Adriana Barraza
Amelia
Cate Blanchett
Susan Jones
Satoshi Nikaido
Kenji Mamiya
Said Tarchani
Ahmed
Boubker Ait El Caid
Yussef
Gael García Bernal
Santiago

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Writers: Guillermo Arriaga
Languages: Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian
Countries: France, Mexico, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 5.4× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 20 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 6 languages: Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: France, Mexico, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, shot by Rodrigo Prieto. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Gustavo Santaolalla. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Douglas Crise shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Brad Pitt and Rinko Kikuchi and Adriana Barraza carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Alejandro G. Iñárritu directs. Rodrigo Prieto behind the camera. Gustavo Santaolalla scores. Douglas Crise cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in France, Mexico, United States of America. Dialogue in Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 5.4× over at the box office.
2Released 20 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 6 languages: Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian.
4International production across 3 countries: France, Mexico, United States of America.
5Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, shot by Rodrigo Prieto. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Gustavo Santaolalla. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Douglas Crise shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Brad Pitt and Rinko Kikuchi and Adriana Barraza carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "If you want to be understood... listen.".
10IMDB entry: tt0449467 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 17 themes, including "daughter", "first time", "loss of loved one", "gun".

The technical file

Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto
Original score: Gustavo Santaolalla
Editing: Douglas Crise
Production design: Brigitte Broch
Costume design: Michael Wilkinson
Makeup / hair: Mariko Tanaka
Sound: Roland N. Thai
Stunt coordinator: Joel Proust
Runtime: 143 min · 2h 23m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $25,000,000
Box office: $135,330,835
Return: 541% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Babel (2006)
Rotten Tomatoes: 68% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 69/100
IMDB rating: 7.5/10 · 325,084 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Won 1 Oscar. 45 wins & 137 nominations total

Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Cannes
National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
Academy Award for Best Original Score

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Alejandro G. Iñárritu

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Andre Wilfred Sanders2023-03-14
★ 8/10
two children changes the fate of 4 families from 3 different continents. The events of the film begin with a man named Hassan arriving at the house of Abu Abdullah's friend in the desert of Morocco in order to sell him a rifle he received as a gift from a Japanese person. Abu Abdullah was in dire need of a gun in order to hunt the foxes that were eating his sheep Abu Abdullah has two children, one of whom is called Youssef, and he is very good at shooting a gun. What happened was not taken into account, which is that Youssef and his older brother wanted to conduct an experiment to see if the rifle could be used for long distances, and one of the rifle bullets hit an American tourist by mistake, and America considered it an act of terrorism. This is the summary. I felt that I was spinning in three continents when the director was changing between one shot and the other, so the film would go from one continent to another. Giving the Japanese tourist the gun to Hassan Al-Maghribi changed the fates of the attitudes of people and countries, so America went to consider the shooting incident of the American tourist as a terrorist act, despite The smoothness of events. I felt that the game of fate is like Biango, which is the probability that you will be exposed to it 1 percent, but it may happen to you, as it happened to Cate Blanchett through a gift from a Japanese person.

Production companies