Rating: 
Summary: Not a movie for someone with ADD
Review: I've watched this movie twice so far, both with a different group of friends, whose reactions I noted as being radically different. Some people just couldn't sit there and watch it. They didn't have any logical reasoning to not watch it, but it seemed to touch places in their psyche that they weren't prepared to confront. And this movie confronts various parts of the human psyche, many being very dark. It is this reason that I think many people just can't watch this movie. But if you are into very symbolic works of art, definately check it out. Maybe even burn a few before-hand... ;)
Rating: 
Summary: Breathtaking and Inspirational
Review: After watching this reaffirming film for the 5th. time...I've decided that if I am blessed to know the time and place of my death...I want to be watching "Baraka" as I leave this world. Never have I watched a more powerful and inspirational film. It speaks volumes about our world and ourselves and sums it all up in an incredible journey of emotions and soaring insight. To watch the faithful during prayer at Mecca..or bathing in the Ganges..or a holy aesthetic deep in meditation, brought surprising tears to my eyes. And keep an eye out for the oilfields of Kuwait...and the thunderous boom of drums and bagpipes; an incredible composition. Take this film home; leave the cell phones, the car insurance, the latest fashions and the nightly news by the wayside and sink into celebration.
Rating: 
Summary: A Racist Movie
Review: I was extremely disturbed by the lack of context provided in Ronald Fricke's film, Baraka. While I understand that perhaps Baraka was Fricke's attempt to portray a sense of unity and spirituality between humans, animals, and the environment through a variety of intense images, the almost complete absence of the "white" figure and the exoticized narrow portrayals of foreign cultures creates racist tensions that ought to be identified and questioned.White Anglo-Saxon societies have historically embedded the idea that whiteness is the standard for aesthetics and superiority to the point that whiteness has become an invisible and unquestioned norm. While this concept is much more complex, such constructed ideologies have been the foundations for oppressive movements like colonization and slavery. What is scary about Baraka is its failure to acknowledge the role that whiteness has played in shaping the structure of other societies. There is no acknowledgement, for example, that cramped, foreign cigarette factories have been created and perpetuated, in part, by white influence. Instead, the camera and music shift and focus on the image of an Asian figure in a business suit smoking a cigarette--promoting the idea that somehow the Asian person is the dominant body responsible for low-waged cigarette factory labor. Additionally, Fricke exoticizes the rituals of other cultures by failing to provide a context for the images shown. In particular, scenes of dancing Japanese geishas and the display of an Asian man's white painted face contorting and screaming risks being misinterpreted by an uninformed audience as abnormal, mythical, and inhuman. This very sense of de-humanization is precisely what motivated and rationalized past European colonization in places like China and the Philippines where Asian people were no longer seen as rational-minded humans, but as uncivilized and alien degenerates incapable of governing themselves. Thus, the lack of explanation for cultural practices in Baraka threatens to perpetuate the same kinds of racist sentiments that one may not even be conscious of when watching the movie. While it might be easy to pass off complex movies like Baraka as "art," it is a crime to passively accept art without attempting to understand and critique it. Personally, I found the movie to be aesthetically interesting but intellectually disconcerting and unbearable. The only reason I watched until the very end was because I thought that maybe there would be some kind of justification and acknowledgement for the absence of white presence and the unexplained portrayal of foreign exoticism. Unfortunately, there was none.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to describe in words
Review: The film defies categorization. I find it hard to put into words the emotions that this film evokes from me and others I have shared it with. The images captured and arranged in the manner applied to Baraka must be experienced to be understood. I recommend this film to any and everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Splendid Film!
Review: Has no plot. Simply incredible scenic shots the world around. Also looks at various cultures and their mannerisms. Splendid work! Nice soundtrack too! Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling, Haunting, Inspiring
Review: The film delivers its message without the aid of words, relying on compelling cinematography and a moving score. The film is at times haunting and at others inspiring. It conveys in the most powerful of ways the overwhelming richness and depth present on perhaps one of the greatest canvases of all time, Earth. The powerful imagery and sounds give you a perspective on life perhaps only matched by the Qatsi trilogy. It will leave you still and in deep thought about your own place in the world and that of life as a whole. The back cover sums it up best, however. "Mere words do not do the film justice - Baraka must be seen, felt and experienced to be understood."
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking
Review: An amazing piece of work from beginning to end.
Rating:
Summary: Great to see it released in anamorphic format, finally
Review: This is a great film, so great that I now own three copies of it (I am not making this up). It is a testament to the ignorance of DVD developers that I have had to abandon my second purchase of Baraka (my first was the VHS tape) because it was not in anamorphic widescreen format. This means that on my 30" widescreen HDTV, my only two choices were to watch the original aspect ratio in a tiny little centered 20" screen, or to watch it stretched out and distorted. On this third go-around, I finally have a decent picture and am happy. I hope that Amazon.com proceeds to always be vigilant about reporting whether or not the DVDs that it sells are in anamorphic widescreen format. This is a great film and is a casual-viewing alternative to the more substantive and didactic -qatsi trilogy by Goddfrey Reggio.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This is a masterpiece. Superb music, breathtaking photography and beautifully captured scenes. I can't praise this film enough. Don't waste your money on Koyaanisqatsi/Powaqqatsi. Baraka puts these to shame.
Rating:
Summary: In my top 5
Review: If God made a video diary, this would be it.
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