 Director: Ron Fricke
Year Of Release: 1992
Plot: While this documentary has no real plot, narration, dialogues or explicit subject, it takes us on a trip around the world, showing everything from little known rituals from far-flung cultures to the industrial activities of the Western world, as well as exploring the most ancient of ruins, the heavens, different religions and much more in-between. While the film may have no plot, it builds up a picture of our planet by comparing and contrasting different aspects of the world. |
There are a few films that I adore, but which few people I know have ever seen, and which it’s a real slog to get them to watch. For example there’s Harold And Maude, which is an absolute masterpiece, but as soon as you say it’s about a teenage boy who keeps faking his suicide and ends up falling in love with an 80-year-old woman, people immediately don’t want to watch it, as they think it sounds icky. However every single person who I’ve ever actually convinced to watch that movie has thanked me, because it is amazing.
Baraka, and its close kin, Koyaanisqatsi – which Baraka director Ron Fricke was the cinematographer for – are similar in this regard. You tell people it’s amazing, and then as soon as you start talking about, you can see their eyes glazing over as they assume I only like it because I’m an arty farty film type. I can certainly see why people might think that though. After all, a film that has no dialogue, no plot and no explicit subject, and which largely shows you images of people doing stuff where you’re not always entirely sure who they are or what they’re doing, doesn’t exactly sound like a fun time. On the surface, I have to admit, Baraka and Koyaanisqatsi sound insanely dull, even if they’re not.
However, every single person I know who’s watched these movies has been rewarded by the experience of seeing these ‘non-verbal films’. For a start both movies are a succession of some of the most beautiful images ever put on screen. They have a splendour that few filmmakers can capture even for a few seconds, but these movies don’t have a single badly framed or ugly shot.
It’s also true that without a narrator telling you what to think all the time, it allows your brain free rein to create associations and revel in the astonishing diversity of our planet. Is modern Western culture worse than the ways indigenous peoples adapted the environment around them, or is it just different (to be honest though, neither film seems desperately impressed by the modern world)? How can one planet have such a stunning array of different ‘things’, from Uluru to oceans and from ancient jungle temples to modern skyscrapers? There’s also the human race in all its varied and diverse forms. How can we all be so similar and yet all so vastly different at the same time, from our dress, to our rituals, to our religions to the different ways we live? Every time I watch Baraka, it make me think about something new, simply because there’s no authoritative voice forcing you in any particular direction.
For example, this time around when watching the movie, I couldn’t help but notice how even in the most ancient looking of tribal ceremonies, the modern world has often crept in. For example there’s a scene of Amazonian tribespeople dancing, and while they wear traditional costume, they also have modern shorts and flip-flops on. I don’t know whether the shorts are just for the cameras, but they do seem slightly incongruous and a new addition to their way of life, as if the diverse array of western shorts are there purely because the people have no equivalent as part of their traditional costume.
It may not be the most profound of thoughts, but one of the beautiful things about Baraka is that for an hour and a half you sit mesmerised by truly stunning imagery, and your mind is free to wander to places is rarely goes. And how often can you say that happens? Director Rod Fricke has described it as a guided meditation, which is a pretty good description.
The other thing about Baraka is that literally everybody who owns a Blu-ray player ought to own this movie. The documentary was the first film since 1971 to be shot using the super high-resolution Todd-AO format, which offers a 2.20:1 aspect ratio picture, with each frame roughly 2.5 times bigger than standard 35mm film, which gives an astonishingly clear and detailed image.
However not content with that, when they brought the movie to Blu-ray they restored and rem-mastered the picture, digitising it at an 8k resolution (which is roughly four times the information of films when they’re projected digitally in cinemas), and this was then converted into a 1080p HD Blu-ray image.
The result of all these technical processes is that the Baraka Blu-ray is probably the best looking home entertainment release ever. Indeed it makes most HD transfers look a bit pathetic in comparison, with even the latest blockbusters unable to hold a candle to it terms of image quality.
If ever there was a disc to show off quite what HD can offer, it’s this one, and to be honest, it’s difficult to imagine the image quality being surpassed, as it’s pretty much perfect. Baraka really is an astonishingly beautiful Blu-ray. Even the remastered DVD is miles ahead of the vast majority of standard definition offerings.
I know I’m probably on a hiding to nothing saying Baraka (and Koyaaniqatsi) is a brilliant movie that you really ought to watch, because no matter what I say, 96 minutes with no dialogue, plot or explicit subject sounds tedious, ever though it most emphatically isn’t.
Baraka takes film as close to being a spiritual experience as you’re likely to get. On the surface it may just sounds like a sort of ambient moods discs full of pretty pictures to chill out to, but this is a film that will take you to unusual places you’ve probably never seen before, and even the more familiar parts of our world are shown to you in unexpected ways. It’s a film that makes you think about our planet in ways you wouldn’t normally expect, and if nothing else, if you have a Blu-ray player you ought to own it, just to see the astonishing picture and sound quality the format can offer when given such amazing source material.
TIM ISAAC
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