Baraka!

I did not know what to expect from this movie when we began to watch it in class.  When Mr. Currier introduced it as a movie with "no dialogue," i was really skeptical to how good the film would be.
I thought that i would not like it at all, but in the end i was wrong about that.  I thoroughly enjoyed the film, even though there was no dialogue..at all.  I believe the lack of dialogue created what i loved most in the film and allowed it to be a universal piece to reach all types of people.

I really liked the way that they used music to link the different images and scenes throughout the film even though they would be shot in different parts of the world.  I loved how they pulled together scenes from different religious ceremonies all over the world with the music and the types of shooting.  It showed that even though religions are different, they are all similar in that they involve people and devotion to something.  The music was the linking factor to all the different aspects of the film.  Depending on the scene it would change and pull all the different photographic elements together.  While there was no dialogue the music allowed me to realize what was going on in the scene and if it was meant to demonstrate something happy, sad, or unique to the part of the world.  I am a huge fan of music and in a way it was the "language" of the entire film.  Music is universal no matter where you come from, if you play a sad-sounding song for people who all speak different languages they can all gain the same emotion from it.  This film could be shown to anyone all over the world and most people would gain about the same thing from it, or understand it in a similar way.  It was not meant to be a movie with a precise plot line, but an artistic piece meant to exercise the mind.

My favorite aspect of the film was the fact that it was shot all over the world, and it demonstrated how similar we all are but how different we can be.  It showed all the different aspects of human life and how sacred it can be, and how it should be appreciated for what it is.  If you captured all these different aspects of life in one city or one country, it would not show the unique diversity of many cultures and would simply be a documentary of that area; instead of being a documentary of the entire world.  While this film did not focus on some type of "public service announcement" or organization, it helped me see how much good we can do on our Earth and how we can help out those in need.  Even though it did not try to get anyone to donate to some specific charity, it can help open the minds of everyone who watches it to go out and help their fellow human being, in their own neighborhood or across an ocean.