A collection of expertly photographed phenomena with no conventional plot. The footage focuses on the relationship between nature, humanity, and technology.
This experimental film looks at the world and more specifically the effect that humankind has had on the landscape and the environment. Without narration or story, the film shows the world in a pristine condition and untouched: blue skies, beautiful landscapes, and endless vistas. The human-made world is much less appealing. Essentially a montage using a variety of film techniques to provide a visually stunning variety of images.—garykmcd
"Koyaanisqatsi" is a visual concert of images set to the haunting music of Phillip Glass. While there is no story in the traditional sense, there is a definite scenario. The film opens on ancient Native American cave drawings, while the soundtrack chants "Koyaanisqatsi," which is a Hopi term for "life out of balance." The film uses extensive time-lapse photography (which speeds images up) and slow-motion photography to make comparisons between different types of physical motion. In one of the first examples, we see cloud formations moving (sped up) inter-cut with a montage of ocean waves (slowed down), and in such a way we are able to see the similarities of movement between these natural forces. This technique of comparison exists throughout the film, and through it we learn more about the world around us. The film progresses from purely natural environments to nature as affected by humankind, and finally to humankind's own human-made environment, devoid of nature yet still following the patterns of natural flow as depicted in the beginning of the film, yet in chaos and disarray. Through this the film conveys its key message, which is Koyaanisqatsi: life out of balance; crazy life; life in turmoil; life disintegrating; a state of life that calls for another way of living.—Andrew M. Somers <[email protected]>
This movie was designed to have no plot. Meaning is to be created by the viewer, and only the viewer can give value to the images and music. That said, there is a central idea behind the movie, and according to the director it is this: the greatest event in the history of humankind has occurred recently, and it has been largely missed by both the media and academia. Beyond the headlines and everyday crises of international events, a deeper shift in human affairs has occurred: humanity no longer exists in the natural world, and we are no longer connected to it. It is not that we are now users of technology but rather that we exist within technology, we are part of it, and it is part of us. The natural world now exists only to support the artificial one in which we live.—Adam
Opening. Sombre, Black. Minimum Titles. Priests intone the word 'Koyaanisqatsi' over rather sombre organ? music. Might make one imagine a requiem.
To look at some cave ? painting. Remember the old days? Egypt? Priests? Gods?
Bubbling fire. Industry. A smelting? works. (The music has broadened , to involve a soprano line - on the organ)
Slow motion, of oil pump? No! It's a rocket take-off, all the fire.
Next- the earth, mountain range. Seen from this rocket? Seen from a plane or helicopter(whose shadow you could probably see, if sharp.)
Wonderfully odd stones- forget the name in geology. Grand canyon???
Second movement- a siren? like sound, repeated note on a horn? Sounds... imploring, speaks of distress? Calms down a bit- we inspect the stones, contours, colours. Rock formations, not like pebbles. Sorry.
Look! No people? Is it saying. Desert landscape, with mountains.
Start to hear the wind.
The music repeats include another note- which make it sound more hopeful.Looking over the great plains??? sorry to be ignorant. Beautiful, I think is the idea.
Beautiful and old. Like myself. I didn't say. Cut that last bit.
Then, steaming. Volcanoes? Geysers?? A string element has been woven into the soundscape, sounds elegiac??? not too bad. Priests again. Koyan... can't spell.
Actual, desert sands. and the wind ripples over their surface.So - just really... idea? let your mind be blown, by the ceaseless beauty of the earth.
Shadows moving - first clouds, then shadows moving across the hills and vales. Very large, hills and vales. Mountains and...
bats? in a cave. Fade to black.Third, movement? stage of music. A rasping - sounds more serious. Yet more clouds, but they are darker.Watching clouds.
Then torrents of water- a waterfall. Niagara perhaps. See from above. Vertiginous.
The sea. A trumpet solo is sounding more bonny now. The storm has gone??? don't be so sure. Return to beginning, seriousness.
Waves. NB is Reggio his real name? When regio is Italian for director...
Blaring fanfare, sounding much more certain , bold, happy. As we watch photography of clouds streaming over mountains.
Or I do. Then. Fourth change. Buzzing on a plane through a valley- and turbulent flutes. ascend and descend the scale.meanwhile a bassoon???
rushing along the ground- and the different colours of farm fields. Wonderful.
Music supported by brass. As if saying, yes I agree.
So. I'll call that bit over. first 18 minutes. Now, difficult transfer... but now it moves into footage, of blasting a quarry? (don't hear the explosion)
Man, as it were, is introduced- and he is ... a van that looks like it wouldn't be out of place on the moon. Polluting black smoke pouring from.(or no- first man, were the priests on the cave painting.)
and here we have his massive bridges. and pipelines. stretching off into the distance. and pylons.
The organ is back, screeching like a bird- be-ware! as there is footage of pylons. Crisscrossing the desert.
A power station's cooling towers smoking.
Massive reservoir and dam.
Then the music goes a bit hyper. And the footage is of an oil refinery? Explosion in time with music.
Atom bombs , Los Alamos?
Music does not sound so threatening at this point. Bizarrely??
sunbathers. choir. Just outside the power station. Oblivious.
People visiting the tower station. (choir are angels- saying look at those morons?)Clouds reflected in the side of a huge office block.Airplanes taxi in desert heat shimmers.
Does the front of an airplane , look like an angry human face?? We marvel for a moment.
Sixth? change. Repeated scales again- the flux, roads. Traffic.Spaghetti junction?? anyway, roads.
Music exhibiting some of the thrill of driving, plus - the angelic choir -are concerned? for the plight of humanity??
More close-ups of the traffic. Give it a human face.
A car manufacturer. Aerial.
Tanks. Flurry on the strings and flute.More tanks. Fighter plane.View from back? of a stealth bomber??? as it flies.
A bomb dropping.A rocket rising.
Spacecraft jettisons one of its fuel canisters.
Museum- hydrogen bomb?Man o'war. Parachutes- devastations of war.
Shadows of clouds flick across New York City. Fast.in perfect silence.
river trip on the Hudson??? NY river. That I have taken. A 'cello? The size , of some of the building? point.Violin quartet? and a sort of ghetto? derelict buildings.
someone's broken a fire hydrant, in these squats.
interior- lonely slide in a play park- broken street light. Broken pavilion? Birds flock.Then the trumpets sound, we must do something they say? fly overhead- there are many blocks of flats like this- one after another.
Eventually, the detonation, of one.
then another.
then another. then cranes on the dock. A bridge. another high rise. another. another. staccato trumpets. Another.
Don't know what that was. Explosion, bits flying everywhere.
Back to: a glowering sky, turning strings- as though to say, the Gods are not happy?? Looking over a city.
Calming down a bit.
up to minute 39. Will come back.
