We Forget The End Is The Begining

Baraka is the kind of film in which one falls asleep at the end; not because they are tired: but because in dreams, one can imagine a perfect world.



Baraka is a movie with no dialect, only has pictures/video, and music in the background. Baraka is quite an amazing movie because of all the diverse photography that was taken, not to mention "Baraka" means "essence" or "breath". It was photographed on six continents and in 24 countries. It has everything from gorgeous mountains, sacred religious acts, to bustling city life. It makes me wonder which is more important: compassion to all living things, or acting as an ant moving through the colony with no meaning at all. Baraka makes city life look like an ant hill where everyone is moving so fast that they only care about themselves and how much money they will make tomorrow. There is so much else in the world, and this movie covers it all.

This film evokes so much compassion and wonderment from the audience. It even relates to my last semester through how real it is. It isn't saying we have done anything wrong as humans, it simply states "here it is, this is what it looks like". After the movie we read a small essay by Mary Ann Brussat where she stated some of the images in which her and her husband were really moved. I think she could have also found the gulf war very awing. It was amazing because when I looked at the video of the gulf after the war, the first thing that shot to my mind was "nobody wins wars" because of the devastation of that area now. Brussat really thought the religious aspect of the video was the most moving. I actually completely agree with her and her choice of the most amazing part. My favorite out of all the religious things was the circle song/dance that all the boys and men did as a ritual. This movement around the circle really made me think "family". The music was quite intense and irrational, making the dance even cooler. I really love the complete cycle this movie presents from beginning to end.



Baraka was all around a very heart warming movie because of all the passion people put into rituals. Sure there are parts that make me cringe (the duck scene), but that's not what the video is trying to show. Even just the music in Baraka sets a mood. Through mood we derive meaning, and the silences between the music are as vital and meaningful as the music itself. Back in first semester we went over "the machine" and everything turning to factory output. This has a direct correlation where extremely crowded subways and streets are shown, followed by little chicks being processed in their thousands. "The machine" is us, and our lives are being isolated from nature.