This is true: I watched Babel last night and liked it a lot, but I did not learn until this evening that the film’s non-English parts are meant to be subtitled.
Before I get to the explanation, though, here’s a section of Genesis 11, which, like most of the Bible, I had never read, and which contains the story of Babel:
[5] And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
[6] And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
[7] Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
[8] So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
[9] Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
[10] These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
[11] And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
[12] And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:
[13] And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
[14] And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:
[15] And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
[16] And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:
[17] And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
It goes on like that for a while. Like I said, I’m no expert on the Bible, but I don’t really see how a book whose first chapter comprises interminable lists of implausible genealogies got to be the best-selling volume in all of human history. I didn’t get past the first chapter of The Da Vinci Code, either, though, so maybe it’s just me.
Anyway, here’s my story of Babel.
When the DVD started and no subtitles appeared during the first non-English conversation, I thought it was interesting but not cause for alarm. The movie is called Babel, so I expected some language-related confusion.
As I got into it, I was surprised by both how much untranslated dialogue there was and how much of it I could understand anyway. Communication is whatever percent nonverbal, and I was following all of the stories despite not understanding any of the words. In a film whose characters have trouble making themselves clear to each other because of language differences, I thought it was neat that language differences between the characters and me didn’t turn out to be much of an obstacle. That made the movie better than anyone had given it credit for, I thought.
Some scenes felt a little weird, including some long conversations involving an isolated, deaf Japanese girl, her father and another man. But in those cases I thought that the filmmakers were taking risks with the audience; I never guessed that I was missing something I shouldn’t.
So it was with some surprise to find out this evening, during my second conversation of the day about the film, that the movie is meant to be subtitled. (The first discussion lasted about 20 minutes and never clued me in.)
I don’t plan to watch with the subtitles. The story details that tipped me off seemed kind of gratuitous and I don’t think knowing more of them would add to the experience.