Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi
portrays
documentaries at its worst. One of the main objectives of a documentary film is
to keep the audience’s attention and to make your film appealing. Reggio fails at both of these aspects because
he fails to recognize that there are different types of viewer’s learning. Some
viewers are auditory, some are visual, and some learn by reading.
Reggio utilizes sweeping camera motions with vast
nature shots capturing grand cannons, foggy mountains, and the rolling plains. But
wait, Reggio also uses a soundtrack produced my Philip Glass: a minimalist
musician. The same sound ringing in the viewer’s brain over and over and over.
This tends to put off the viewer from watching the film because of the monstrosity
resonating from the speakers. There are no words other than the title for
basically the entire film and there is no narration. This puts off the viewers
who learn by reading because of the lack of words. The horrible sound coming
from the documentary and no narration puts off the auditory viewer. The visual
learner likes the sweeping shots of nature; however, the mind-numbing
soundtrack distracts the visual learner from seeing the film’s nature shots in
all their glory. So most of the viewers
get bored and annoyed after ten minutes because the sound is agitating and
there is no narration to keep people’s attention.
I understand Reggio uses the fact the viewer cannot
focus to support his main message of how the human race is going to crap, but
how can the viewer understand that message when they end up turning off the
film and walk away? I also understand that not everyone hates minimalist music,
but most of my cohorts hate the soundtrack as well. So from the exclusion of most learning types,
how can Reggio present his argument when people turn off the film or fall asleep?
We should submit Reggio to his own torture and see how long he lasts before
falling asleep or opening up an internet browser.
Koyaanisqatsi. Dir. Godfrey Reggio. New
Cinema, 1982. DVD
I just want to say thank you. I know we've already talked about the films but you took a lot of what I was thinking and put it in words. I am right there with you in the fact that I am a different type of learner and that I felt like I couldn't relate or understand the movie because that's not how my brain works. I also really like your visuals on this post! They are super funny and can easily relate and they are not just pictures from the movie.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post! I agree, Reggio sabotages his own message by making his film nearly unwatchable, due mostly to the music. If perhaps, there was good music and possibly even a voice over now and again, or at least some singing, the film would be tolerable. Maybe it would even be good. But the repetitive minimalist style detracts from the films beauty and message, and your post states that perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI felt the exact same way when I watched this film. It is completely ridiculous that Reggio is trying to send out his message in a way that most people wont be able to understand. There are many better methods he could use to get his important message across to the view but to me this film meant absolutely nothing.
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