Iñárritu is the major filmmaker of the moment and his widely praised trilogy - Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and Babel - develops a cinematic critique of the interconnected human condition which extends from the heart of the barrio in his native Mexico City to encompass humanity virtually anywhere on the planet. These films, each telescoping the previous in style, theme, and narrative, relate parallel stories which intersect, like life, at some nexus of defeat: an automobile accident, a momentary negligence results in tragedy; a child points a hunting rifle at a distant tour bus, a bullet ripples through many lives, innocent and guilty, around the planet. Iñárritus work [1] captures this interconnectedness, this awareness of the accidental existential encounters which unavoidably and empathetically draw us together, informing our sense of humanity in perpetual conflict with the superficial alienation of the other. We each exist as someone elses other and once this is understood, we realize that every others humanity must be accepted before we can fully presume our own. Iñárritus films communicate something fundamental to this recognition of postmodern global reality. In a world of power politics, imperialistic intrusion everywhere by government and authoritarian entities, a world increasingly driven by acts of terror and war against terror, comprehending human connectedness may well be essential to the ethical future of the planet. Any incidental act can spin into war, real or imagined, so we need be informed to comprehend propaganda and recognize the interdependency of our existence with others. People, not governments, pay for war, and we do so with our lives and our future. Our children die, our old men and women vanish, and the products of our hard work are deconstructed to dust. Globalization is more than cheap sneakers, off-shore telemarketing and outsourced jobs; it has the potential to become global progress when measured against expanding human rights and mutually beneficial economic development, based on respect for international law and human labor. Globalization is possible under a United Nations and a World Court which function democratically, and this is the power of the American Revolution, as a manifest destiny with global meaning. Globalization may be the end point of the American Revolution in history, as opposed to the end of history. These possibilities, won in the democratic revolutions of the last two centuries, are liberal forces accelerating change in a world that cannot stand still, particularly in the context of fascist, theocratic, totalitarian, and dictatorial regimes operative today. At a time when neo-conservative governments, through years of unpopular war, are increasingly distanced from their civil societies, artists like Iñárritu inform superficially divergent cultures - like Mexico and the United States - that we share obvious and common social goals, like the value of work, respect for family, a better future for our children, individual recognition, respect, and social interdependence, regardless of government propaganda against the other. Iñárritu uses the storytellers wily craft to narrate the fragile codependency we all share, no matter where we find ourselves geographically, or existentially on the planet. All of this makes the work of Alejandro González Iñárritu particularly intuitive, postmodern, and immediate to contemporary global audiences.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 21:50:08 +0000
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