The Blessing

Baraka, the blessing, was a great movie to watch in the beginning of 2nd semester. As the class learned in 1st semester, the movie proves that world is closely linked and people are alike.

The first animal that appears in the movie is a monkey bathing in a hot pot. It almost seemed like the monkey was wondering about something and it looks at the stars. It seemed to me that the perspective of the movie may have been the monkey's perspective. In a monkey's perspective different people may seem same.

Mary Ann Brussat suggests healing of the world is responsibility of all human beings. In the film, beautiful natures are shown, such as enormous waterfalls and beautiful rainbows, and then it changes to a scene of a tree that's being cut down. Soon the scene portraits little children marching and playing on the street. I thought this represented how people has to protect the nature so future generation can keep it.

To me, the most impactful and moving scene was comparing people who's getting their subway tickets to the chicks getting their beaks burnt and checked. That was one of the most disturbing scenes in the movie because it made me think if urban society is actually decreasing individualities and destroying the culture. Also I found it disturbing that people are living in such uniformed rules and laws even without recognizing them. No one questions why traffic lights work in order. At the end, a man appears and has a seizure. I believe the man represents how this uniform society has bad effects on people.

Compare to Brussat's impactful scenes, mine is about modern society and how it emotionally and mentally affects people but she focuses more on human harms on nature. 

The musics in the movie are sound of flute (or some instrument), human voice, sounds of nature (like waterfall), and man-made sounds (siren, cars, ceremonies). Especially in scenes with religion, the music is accompanied by bell sounds and has a clear and peaceful tone. There are scenes of skies in the movie. It shows how clouds move and color changes as the time goes. The music allows the viewers to feel either relaxed or alarmed; and the movement of the camera directs where to look. 

Overall, The film teaches that World is very alike to each other and people should work together.