Babel

Corrected entry: When the police first show up to the original rifle owner's house and talk to his daughter at the elevator, how did they even know who owned the rifle at that early stage? The police at the crime scene had not even found the empty cartridges yet. Also they had not even questioned the original (guide) receiver of the rifle as yet. Then to make things worse, in the very next scene of the girl watching TV the text says "In the shooting of an American tourist, suspects have been taken into custody" and shows a picture of the Moroccan boy and father, not even identified or known at that stage. (00:45:00 - 00:46:50)

Correction: The movie is not in chronological order. Each story runs on its own separate continuity.

Corrected entry: The shooting of Cate Blanchett is worse than the 'Magic Bullet' that killed Kennedy. She is facing the front of the bus, leaning her head against the window to her left. The bullet hole appears in the window next to her (where it probably wouldn't have even hit her) and the bullet supposedly went through her left shoulder from front to back. Impossible with the bullet exiting the window beside her.

Joel Amos Gordon

Correction: Actually the boy is shooting from above the bus and in front to the right of the way the bus is facing. So how could the bullet possibly have come through the left side window?

Correction: Actually if you look at the shot of the kid shooting the bus you can see that Cate is actually shot through the window. It enters through the glass, then into Cate's shoulder.

Corrected entry: When the Japanese girl flashes her crotch at the boys in the cafeteria, it's almost shaven. But when she appears fully nude later the same day, her pubic area is rather bushy.

Correction: She is far from shaved in the cafeteria scene. Her line in the bathroom about "meeting the real hairy monster" wouldn't make much sense either if she was.

Andreas[DK]

Corrected entry: When the Japanese girl writes the final note to the detective (the one she puts in her pocket) she was writing for maybe 15 seconds. When the detective looks at the paper later on it's covered with small print. There's no way she could have written so much in so short a time.

Joel Amos Gordon

Correction: First, the camera may not be showing all the time she was writing. Second, it takes no longer to write Japanese characters than writing in English, so, yes, she could have written so much in such a short time.

Corrected entry: The boys in the desert shoot at the tour bus from its right side, but when Cate Blanchett gets hit by the bullet, it comes through the left-side window she's resting against.

Correction: It could have been a ricochet from one of the hundreds of rocks and boulders lining the road.

Factual error: You can see on the text message "20h48." But she receives this message during the afternoon (the time is incorrect). (00:27:35)

julien bouchard

More mistakes in Babel

Yussef: I killed the American, I was the only one who shot at you. They did nothing... nothing. Kill me, but save my brother, he did nothing... nothing. Save my brother... he did nothing.

More quotes from Babel

Question: The last note, the folded one, that Chieko gives the detective to read later appears to be a lengthy one; is there any indication of its contents?

Answer: Wikipedia has this: (n.b., "(EDGE)" indicates the end of that particular line on the notebook page): . . . I wanted (EDGE) . . . myself (EDGE) . . . that's why (EDGE) . . . connected (EDGE) . . . that is (EDGE) . . . although I cannot (EDGE) . . . I have to find out (EDGE) . . . message from my mother (EDGE) . . . I was not sure if I was loved by my mother (EDGE) . . . but that's not the case . . . (EDGE) thank you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babel_(film).

Answer: It's a suicide note.

What is the basis of that conclusion?

Answer: Perhaps this is the clue we need. When reporting her mother's death in this way, she's actually reflecting her own plan. But wait do we know for a certainty that her deafness and muteness are congenital...or were they caused by the loss of her mother? Alternately, this condition might, essentially metaphorically, represent her great lack of contact with her father and others.

More questions & answers from Babel

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