"Powaqqatsi" is the second picture in filmmaker Godfrey Reggios' "...Qatsi" trilogy, a series of features that basically meld visuals and music without resorting to a conventional narrative. This one has a message, clearly stated throughout, about the "cost of progress". Its first half shows us different rural cultures all over the world (from Nepal to India to Kenya, etc.), and derives a great deal of impact from giving us a portrait of good, old-fashioned, honest hard work, as well as displaying a cornucopia of beautiful images. The heartfelt music score is once again the work of Philip Glass, and it supplements the images wonderfully, although it can be repetitive.
Where the picture becomes a little less interesting is in the next 25 minutes or so, when we're confronted with the sights and sounds of the urban jungle in which many of us exist. Among the visuals utilized during this portion are those things that we all experience everyday: advertising, newscasts, and the like. But it all comes together in the final quarter, where we see that progress does come at its price; that it can lead to loss of identity, and be built on the backs of others.
All done without the use of a narrator, this is documentary-style filmmaking of a different variety. It does force one to stop and think about the world we live in, and about all the things that many of us take for granted.
This viewer went in blind to this picture without having seen "Koyaanisqatsi", the previous film in this trilogy. And one doesn't have to have done so. The material has a compelling nature regardless.
The title is a Hopi word, explained at the conclusion (before the end credits). It means a life form that consumes other life forms in order to extend its own existence. That pretty much sums up the whole theme of the film right there.
One of the most highbrow projects that the legendary Golan-Globus team (of Cannon Group fame) ever made.
Seven out of 10.
Where the picture becomes a little less interesting is in the next 25 minutes or so, when we're confronted with the sights and sounds of the urban jungle in which many of us exist. Among the visuals utilized during this portion are those things that we all experience everyday: advertising, newscasts, and the like. But it all comes together in the final quarter, where we see that progress does come at its price; that it can lead to loss of identity, and be built on the backs of others.
All done without the use of a narrator, this is documentary-style filmmaking of a different variety. It does force one to stop and think about the world we live in, and about all the things that many of us take for granted.
This viewer went in blind to this picture without having seen "Koyaanisqatsi", the previous film in this trilogy. And one doesn't have to have done so. The material has a compelling nature regardless.
The title is a Hopi word, explained at the conclusion (before the end credits). It means a life form that consumes other life forms in order to extend its own existence. That pretty much sums up the whole theme of the film right there.
One of the most highbrow projects that the legendary Golan-Globus team (of Cannon Group fame) ever made.
Seven out of 10.