NAQOYQATSI A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 2002 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
Three's a crowd in the guise of "Naqoyqatsi," the third and final chapter in experimental filmmaker Godfrey Reggio's trilogy contrasting natural and man-made civilizations.
If you're fluent in the Hopi language (from which the three films' titles are
all derived -- "Koyaanisqatsi" and "Powaqqatsi" being the first two
installments) then you could be forgiven for thinking that Naqoyqatsi is "about"
war as a way of life, since the Hopi title translates roughly as
No, war as a way of life (or "civilized violence" according to an Oxford English interpretation) is not necessarily an obvious theme in Part 3. While there are certainly images of war and warfare--armed forces, generalized militia, goose-stepping Nazis, Middle Eastern terrorists, riots, water cannons, ballistics, headshots of Hitler and Martin Luther King, Jr., discharging firearms, explosions, etc.--these make up a small percentage of the film, and the classic image of a mushroom cloud doesn't even make its appearance until the 60 minute mark (out of 89). It's not a film to be taken literally on any level, but its focus always appears questionable.
As with the previous two Qatsi films the sound here is provided via dizzying Philip Glass soundscapes, with circling, repetitive string and synthesizer sequences marrying the mesmerizing imagery to a tee. And as with previous Reggio/Glass collaborations the film is bold, intense, intoxicating, maddening, and often times simply too much. But perhaps for the first time the film doesn't really convey a feeling of organized structure: "Koyaanisqasti" clearly demonstrated a "life out of balance," and Powaqqatsi gainfully imagined "life in transformation" by exposing the beauty inherent in the rigors of the everyday. "Naqoyqatsi" is not so sure of itself. It applauds athletes and athleticism, loves never ending spirals of capitalist symbolism, prefaces consumerism, posits split-screen images of waxwork world leaders, morphs artistic nudes, tracks slowly around mysteriously abandoned architecture, and pits binary digits one against the other, all to a mesmerizing music score that features deep, sawing cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma and, in the film's opening sequence, a deep baritone intoning the film's title with heartfelt resilience.
There's lots to like though, and lots to take in. Everyday images are presented in a uniquely vibrant light by being "treated" in one way or another--colorized, solarized, truncated, elongated, speeded up, or slowed down. Nevertheless, "Naqoyqatsi" is an acquired taste that may exhilarate some viewers while leaving others confused, annoyed, or just plain bored.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf" online at http://members.dca.net/dnb
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