Koyaanisqatsi (1982)

“Translation of the Hopi Prophecies sung in the film: “If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster.” – “Near the Day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky.” – “A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans.”” – Title Card

Number of Times Seen – 1 (18 Mar 2021)

Brief Synopsis – A documentary with no dialogue that presents the world in both its natural and unnatural state.

My Take on it – Great idea that fails miserably.

The film has no narrative and is just a long collection of shots of landscapes and of random things that happen in the world.

Not easy to follow because it doesn’t have any connecting tissue between the various scenes.

The cinematography is done really well, but in order to help make something engaging to watch, it can’t just look beautiful; it must also have some kind of reason or story to draw in the viewer.

This was truly a waste of 90 minutes because there seems to be no point at all in what they do here which is quite unfortunate.

Perhaps this has some kind of existential meaning to things, but if so, that went right over my head as I watched it.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Godfrey Reggio was hooked on Philip Glass doing the music. He approached Glass through a mutual friend, and Glass replied, “I don’t do film music.” Reggio persisted, and finally the friend told Glass that the tenacious guy was not going to go away without at least an audience. Glass relented, though he still insisted he wasn’t doing the music. Reggio put together a photo montage with Glass’ music as the soundtrack, which he presented to Glass at a private screening in New York. Immediately following the screening, Glass agreed to score the film. (From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy (2/10)