Baraka

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Baraka
Year: 1992
Director: Ron Fricke
Rating: NR
Length: 97 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.21:1
Audio: Music Only: Dolby Digital 5.1, Music Only: DTS HD Master Audio

Plot:
In the ancient Sufi language, it is a word that translates to 'the thread that weaves life together.' In the pantheon of modern cinema, it remains one of the most unique and acclaimed motion picture events of our time. Shot in breathtaking 70mm in 24 countries on six continents, BARAKA is a transcendent global tour that explores the sights and sounds of the human condition like nothing you've ever seen or felt before. These are the wonders of a world without words, viewed through man and nature's own prisms of symmetry, savagery, chaos and harmony.

Extras:
Scene Access
Featurettes

My Thoughts:

Can you fault a film for being too beautiful? For giving you eye candy until the eyeballs bleed? (we had to take a break after watching for one our hour because it was information overload...

I had never heard about this film until I saw the Blu-Ray release announced or even read the review (I guess in 1992 my mind wasn't set on this sort of film). There is no obvious narrative of any kind and no dialogue in any shape or form (just one scene with some Balinese men chanting), not even title cards announcing what is coming up next. "All you get" is beautiful images of nature and humans. Humans are shown in their whole variety: from New Guinea aboriginals to Japanese going about their everyday routine in Tokyo. All this imagery is intercut almost randomly, apparently with the intent to blur the lines of separation and always keep the viewer guessing what they are looking at. It works rather well at that and slowly you can see some subtle, or not so subtle, subtext (you don't have to...). Many shots are static and the film can feel like a slide show, with definitely enough time given to take it all in. Every so often there's be a close-up of people, some looking directly into the camera. At first I thought that it looked too staged but later I realized that it was done this way consciously.

In all reviews I read the Blu-ray image has been hailed as superb. It definitely held up for my eyes on my 46" screen. Lots of detail is shown and it's apparently one of those movies Blu-ray was made for. The film was scanned with an 8k process (or how that's said) and it shows wonderfully. If you like this sort of stuff then this and Planet Earth are essential to own on Blu-ray.

I guess the film is rather similar to Koyaanisqatsi which is I will now desperately await for release on Blu-ray.