'Koyaanisquatsi' is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio, produced by Francis Ford Coppola with cinematography by Ron Frike and Music composed by Phillip Glass. The duration of the film is 1 hour 26 minutes. The title of the film, 'Koyaanisquatsi', originates from Hopi Indian and it's meaning is 'Crazy life, Life in turmoil, Life out of balance'. The title embodies the film's concept and what is implied through the piece: that modern day humanity is out of balance with nature and our way of life is damaging to us and the earth we live on.
As the film opens, there is a lingering shot of Hopi cave drawings - we then witness a rocket from the Apollo 12 mission taking off and the billowing smoke and debry. The sequence of shots that follow and make up the first half of the film consist solely of beautiful, untouched natural landscapes; desolate desert, vast canyons, rushing water at a waterfalls edge, waves on the sea, sky and clouds moving and changing. The clips of canyons and cliffs are shot with the camera as if you were flying over them which is a thrilling experience and which I can only guess the cinematographer must have filmed from a helicopter or small plane. Some of the natural scenes last over several minutes each with time lapse photography often used to speed up the shot, e.g the clouds forming and moving across the skies. This conveys time passing and natures pulse. The length of these scenes gives the audience time to absorb what they are seeing and appreciate the beauty of our natural planet and it's presence.
One of the things I felt influenced how I felt about what I was seeing was the musical soundtrack to the film composed by Phillip Glass. From the beginning of Koyaanisquatsi the music has a rather eerie and dramatic quality to it that is very atmospheric. When the shots focused on scenes of destruction, such as deserted tower blocks being demolished, or a nuclear missile being launched, it was quite dark and foreboding which created a sense of unease in me. It also tended to speed up or slow down depending on the pace of the subject. As there is no voice-over or characters in 'Koyaanisquatsi', the music itself is the films only source of narration other than the visual images. The music has a powerful ability to draw emotion from the audience and influence their feelings. It really drew you into the piece, and had an almost hypnotic quality to it.
Around half way through the film, the shots we are shown start to focus more on man and our activity on earth. The images shown consisted of things that man are responsible for producing and stealing from the earth, and most either destructive or harmful to the planet: powerhouses from above, chemical plants, oil production, nuclear weapons being tested. On watching these images it is not hard to get the gist of the overall negative message behind them. That human beings are creatures of greed, imposing themselves on nature and causing damage and destruction. We have little respect for our planet and with the industrial revolution and the birth of modern nuclear living, we have forgotten our roots, which were once at one with the natural world.
As the film goes into the second half and it focuses almost solely on modern human existance, things start to speed up. Time lapse shots of an unknown city with the pulse of traffic and people from high up in a sky scraper, the vast American high way, factory workers making various things from clothes to cars, sausage production, commuters on escalators and in a station, people eating in a mall. All sorts of scenes of human life and the daily monotonous grind.
The way the busy scenes of human life were sped up were very effective as it felt almost overwhelming watching so much happen at such a pace - in fact it was almost uncomfortable at times, because it made you feel acutely aware of the amount of human life on the planet and how it never stops.
The film really made me think about modern life and the relentless pace, and ultimately question the degree to which we are all out of balance with nature - and wonder about the inevitable consequence of our continued disrespect for the planet we inhabit. 'Koyaanisquatsi' is a a very powerful and original piece that was successful in conveying it's message to me and the people I watched it with. It stuck in my mind for quite sometime afterwards, which is something I think the film-makers intended.
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