Last Thursday, the Philosophy Department showed the 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, which was followed by a discussion. I went to the screening unsure of how a movie could be turned into a philosophical discussion, but that’s just what happened. I spent the first twelve minutes of the film trying to think of what other film it reminded me of. The answer: the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Koyaanisqatsi, Stanley Kubrick’s 1986 science-fiction film, is also vaguely reminiscent of The Gods Must Be Crazy from 1980. After I answered that nagging inner question, I settled back into my custom when watching movies: listening to the soundtrack.
This process was perfectly suited to the film in question, which, while lacking dialogue, combined a score by late-twentieth-century minimalist composer Philip Glass with natural images to create a truly breathtaking experience. (Minimalism is a style of composition characterized by an intentionally simplified rhythmic, melodic and harmonic vocabulary. Glass himself never liked the term, preferring to speak of himself as a composer of “music with repetitive structures.”) In a perfect description of the film’s score, Glass’ website says that his music, “immerse[s] a listener in a sort of sonic weather that twists, turns, surrounds, develops.” I would add to that description that the music sounded strange and untraditional. But I listen to similar stuff in my free time, thanks to my experience as a clarinetist in a wind ensemble so I enjoyed the music.
The film opens with deep, ominous incantation that made me think of Gregorian chants (which are, admittedly, the only historical chants I’m aware of). Such chanting recurred throughout the film while the score maintained its ominous quality. Glass’ “repetitive structures” would bore me if I had to play them as a musician but excited me as a listener as they created a really neat overall effect that kept me engrossed. Part of the time, I had to force myself not to close my eyes and attempt to dissect the score in my mind – because then I’d miss the images. But I’ll certainly listen to the score alone later!
In making the film, as the ominous soundtrack belies, director Godfrey Reggio wanted to show the clash among city life, technology and nature. That is, our glass house is shattering and returning to the sand from which it was made. We’re left with madness. We get verbal proof of this motive for making the movie at the film’s end, when the Hopi word “Koyaanisqatsi” is printed on the screen. The word, which is part of the title and a word that is chanted throughout the movie, is a noun meaning: “crazy life,” “life in turmoil,” “life out of balance,” “life disintegrating” and “a state of life that calls for another way of living.” The movie ends with three baleful Hopi prophecies: “If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster;” “Near the day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky” and “A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans.” That “container of ashes” is an exploded unmanned spaceship.
Part of the discussion following the film was focused on the prophecies and how, if they weren’t included, the film would be a lot more open to interpretation than it is. They were included, though, and as such the director’s desire for a call-to-arms movie seems evident. These prophecies, coupled with images of manmade destruction (spaceships exploding, mushroom clouds, buildings being destroyed), plus one of the definitions of “Koyaanisqatsi” (“a state of life that calls for another way of living”), leaves a pretty bleak view of humanity. We are ruining the one world we call home. The question in my mind, and a question we discussed, is: Is this destruction our fault, or is it inevitable, doomed to happen in the normal course of development? I think that humanity is partly to blame for the destruction, but I also think that destruction is part of rebirth. Fire, for example, is a source of both energy and destruction. Given the fact that natural destruction and decay were noticeably absent from the film, however, I’m betting that the director fully blames humanity for damaging the world and believes that if we continue on this course the earth’s complete desertification will ensue. Even as camels, I doubt we’ll survive long under such complete ruin. No big deal! We’ll just have to jump on the Enterprise and explore strange new worlds instead! If only that were an option…
