Home :: DVD :: Documentary  

African American Heritage
Art & Artists
Biography
Comedy
Crime & Conspiracy
Gay & Lesbian
General
History
IMAX
International
Jewish Heritage
Military & War
Music & Performing Arts
Nature & Wildlife
Politics
Religion
Science & Technology
Series
Space Exploration
Sports
Baraka

Baraka

List Price: $24.98
Your Price:
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 .. 22 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply amazing
Review: Everything from Whirling dervishes to Snow Monkeys to chick Factories etc. There are three segments that are sinply amazing. The first where it shows people practicing the ancient religions, like the Wailing Wall, Islam, christianity etc. Then the another segment where it introduces Aborigines, Masai, and an Amazonian tribe and then cuts to the rituals or dance and song of all three. The third is of human suffering and claustophobia, where the suffocating urbanity of cities are shown along with the cruelty of chick factories, making comparisons, then a Japanese butoh preformer is shown in a silent scream of agony used in this film as a reaction o the bustling pointless and suffocation. It then cuts to the dumps in India where people scuttle around picking through garbage, it then goes to poverty and the homeless and lingers on the cold and dispassionate stares of Bangkok prostitutes, it then cuts to three Japanese Butoh Preformers who preform a slow and lingering and wavering dance of pain and anguish so beautifully done, with their chalky faces and clothes they look like they are in a trance, it then ends all the while using a beautiful and haunting score it then goes over endless planes and the burning fields of Kuwait, Nazi Death camp Auchwitz and the Cmbodian killing fields. This movie is amazing, it displays unity adn diversity. GEt it or see it in your theater, whatever just watch it man.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SPECTACULAR
Review: Terrific DVD at a great value! Any fan of National Geographic or world travel MUST own this. Perhaps the most spiritually moving production I have ever seen.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Most astounding movie I have ever experienced !!!
Review: The best part about this movie is that each time you view it, a cinematographer's delight, devoid of plot, dialog, or heroes, but resplendent with breathtaking images, themes, and moving music, you can find some thing different to think about as you experience a total sense of immersion. This is a deeply spiritual film, but without making a single presumption of where the viewer's spiritual center may be. With twelve people in a room watching it together, each person will come away with something different. This movie is the ultimate daydream!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Uneven. At times brilliant, at times boring. Needs editing!
Review: The very high rating given this DVD sold me on it. I wish I had not bought it. It is over-rated, I think.

The film needs editing down to 1:20 or less. It had beauty and striking composition and often effective music/video coordination and then ... strangely, is unecessarily repetitive. The star-transit scenes especially just don't work. I mean, how many times do we need to see the great arch at Arches National Monument? It was featured maybe 10 times! Or it seemed so.

The film was a good idea, not realized. And a good many scenes are repeated twice, three times, even. Once was plenty.

I might feel I'd gotten my money's worth if I'd rented this DVD. Maybe. It's a close call. I am disappointed to have bought it. It is not finished! It is obviously giving us many strong messages but not, I fear, terribly effectively.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: YES! YES! but¿
Review: The cinematography is breathtaking and the sound track captivating. Often the film moves from scene to scene by visual analogies that are nearly seamless. In the midst of the films evident spiritual concerns, we witness some of life's cruelties: the hungry and the homeless mostly. Even here the film deftly finds beauty in the faces of the poor without, in any way, masking the dire human consequences of their poverty. In all of these respects the film is quite exceptional.

In some obvious ways Fricke doesn't trust the viewer's ability to understand the film's spiritual theme. It heavily contextualizes its theme by beginning and ending the film with people engaged in spiritual practices, almost as if it is announcing "This film will be about spirituality" and, later, "Don't forget this film was about spirituality." In that respect, Fricke made the film too easy. Also, Fricke relies too heavily on time-lapsed photography. That would be a perfectly acceptable technique if Fricke had done something new with it. But how many times have we seen nature scenes with clouds rushing overhead or the rapid time changes from day to night and back to day again?

New age types will find the film flawless because it mostly privileges non-western spiritual practices. Hedonists (like me) will enjoy it as well: the film is unquestionably a visual feat.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: B EAUTIFUL AWESOME MOVIE!!!
Review: wow. this movie just blew me away. we watched it in class, and i immediately went to buy it. baraka is a beautiful movie that describes without words the major issues of the world. it gets a little scary at times, but that just adds to the wonderfulness of the movie. i recommend this movie to everyone. it'll motivate and touch you like no other movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great movie!
Review: Great movie! This is an interesting look at spirituality across the earth. The imagery is beautiful as are the use of slow motion to make a point. I would have given it 5 stars except that the story could stand to be a little better told. There are so many images in here that at times it seems to jumnp without finishing the sentence (metaphorically of course since there are no words, only music to this movie). Its a wonderful movie nonetheless, giving us looks at rituals and perspectives that we would otherwise never see. The sound track is amazing, blending different sounds from across cultures to create new rhythms and such. One ofthe themes of the movie is that we're all connected and although its subtle, it does come through. Wish there had been more attention to nature in here.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bravo, Ron Fricke!
Review: I don't buy the latent philosophy of this film (its inclination toward Zen/Sufi/New Age centrifugal escapism is too obvious), but when I see a masterpiece I cannot deny it. "Baraka" is a visual art of very good taste, informative, and emotionally disturbing. Also, I completely agree with the authors' silent critique of the big modern cities: they ARE evil, ridiculous, and ugly. There are several scenes in this film that made me believe again that I haven't seen it all yet! Don't miss this one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Why can't I rate more stars?
Review: Tears of joy over this work - just amazing -
I can't watch it again enough to accept the power of the message.
I think to give away the plot I'd have to share the meaning of life - it's a dynamic collage that toys with temporal perception of humanity and landscape in a same and kind way.
It's my firm opinion that one should not be a person without seeing this and if I was God or Arnold I'd enforce that -- but I could be wrong - and fortunately for the rest of us, I am neither.

But I am certain that anyone of whatever bent watches this, they will become a more aware person. Again, Tears of Joy watching such a crisp capture of the universe unfolding as I type.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 70mm Lifescape
Review: Imagine all of the places you'd like to go, but will likely never make it to. Now film it in brilliant 70mm with a soundtrack that sounds like Dead Can Dance or a Bulgarian choir. Imagine no dialogue. Voila, you have "Baraka". Amazing.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 .. 22 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates