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.

Continuity mistake: When the nanny is walking in the desert, she falls down. However, when she is on the ground, she is wearing shoes completely different than the ones she had been wearing the shot before.

Dandude

More mistakes in Babel

Richard: This is your fucked-up country, it's your responsibility.

More quotes from Babel

Question: Why did the Japanese girl lie about her mother jumping off the balcony? She'd probably have gained the same amount of sympathy from the officer if she had told him about finding her mother after she had shot herself. And why doesn't the father look more surprised that she's naked? He just blinks and hugs her?

Answer: Chieko was traumatized by her mother's death (and feels a great need for physical contact and affection) (though she (mistakenly) manifests this in a sexual way...not too unusual in young disabled people). Her father seems to suffer from this same horrific loss, which means that they're both stuck in a kind of "loss-limbo" (unable to satisfy either's needs). On the balcony, the two holding hands suggests the beginning of the "breaking of the ice" between them. BTW, her nudity-in that scene-has no significance. This is just a father and his child. I wish the movie-makers had given us a clue about that damned note. Though the secrecy of it does kind've suggest that it reflects her intent to end her life...even as her mother did. Her appearance in the nude to the cop (which, on the face of it, seems very erotic) challenges us to remember that people exist on "different levels" or expressions (or "ego-states"). The main thing is that she's calling out for affection and being comforted.

Answer: It's obvious that this girl has quite serious psychological problems. Thus her erratic behavior, of which her father must also have some experience already.

More questions & answers from Babel

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