Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out Of Balance (DVD)
Directed by: Godfrey Reggio
Cinematography by: Ron Fricke
Music composed by: Philip Glass

With all the crap in theatres nowadays, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that movies are an art form, and they can be examined on the same level of creative expression as things like painting, sculpting, or photography. That’s why I find it exciting to discover a movie like Koyaaniqatsi: a genuine work of art that manages to be so powerful, so elegant, and so utterly captivating using only images and music, that it makes you wonder how you can ever sit through another forgettable Hollywood popcorn flick ever again.

Now I’m not saying that Koyaaniqatsi is the ultimate film masterpiece of our time (although occasionally it feels like it could be), only that strives for something of a vastly larger magnitude than pretty much anything you could go out and watch at your local Cineplex Odeon on any given day. Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi indian word that essentially means “Life Out Of Balance”, which is quite fitting because the film indirectly documents and summarizes the entire history of the planet, the evolution of mankind, and provides an external look at our slow descent into self-destruction. It’s like a scrapbook of human existence but with random snapshots rather than photos of specific historical events. There are no actors and no script, no story or dialogue of any sort. At times it feels like a documentary, but there’s no narration and it is completely open to interpretation, with only the Philip Glass’ epic score hinting towards emotions these pictures should be evoking from us.

The movie starts off rather slowly, fading in from a cave painting to calm, soothing shots of nature including rock formations and bodies of water. The tempo gradually picks up as human life enters the picture, and it begins to juxtapose rhythmic footage of industry, buildings, machinery, urban sprawls, and traffic as the music builds and the images speed up furiously into fast-forward motion. Clearly, the main point the movie is trying to hammer home is how technology is spreading like a virus, and how it is decaying and tainting the natural world around us.

The cinematography by Ron Fricke is awe-inspiring. I felt like virtually every frame of this movie could be frozen as a still photograph and framed and hung on my wall. (In fact I found it very hard to narrow down the number of screenshots I used for this DVD review.) The angles and the framing of the shots are clever, and the real-life subject matter often appears fake because it is just captured so brilliantly. It gives you an outside perspective on human life and makes you realize that we take for granted the wonders (and the horrors) of the everyday world around us simply because we see them all the time.

Considering that it is a pure art film, Koyaanisqatsi is not overly pretentious or heavy-handed. It is instilled with a certain spiritual atmosphere that was no doubt intended by director Godfrey Reggio, but it does not feel corny or preachy. Still, I have to admit that Koyaanisqatsi seems a little lengthy for what it is and although it only conforms to the standard 90 minute duration, it may not hold most people’s attention all the way through. I found my mind drifting at times; not because it was boring overall, but because some segments of the movie seem to drag on and repeat longer than necessary. While having your mind drift is an important part of the experience since you need to contemplate what you are seeing, the pacing of certain areas could have used some tweaking. In order to fill up the 90 minutes more impressively, it would have been nice if they added a few more transitions and a bit more variety in the footage.

The DVD contains a 25 minute featurette called “Essence of Life” that showcases interviews with Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass that really give you appreciation for their creative process. Also included on the DVD are trailers for Koyaanisqatsi and the two other movies in the “Qatsi” trilogy, Powaqqatsi (Life In Transformation) and the most recent one, Naqoyqatsi (Life At War), which I don’t believe is out on DVD yet.

As a side note to the nitpickers, I’ve read that the MGM DVD release of Koyaanisqatsi messes with the movie’s “original” aspect ratio a little bit. The footage was shot with a 1.33:1 ratio, but when the movie was released in theatres it was matted to 1.85:1. This DVD reproduces the theatrical version, so I guess technically the images are cropped slightly. It’s really a matter of preference (and finance) whether or not you want to own the MGM version or the other unmatted version, which is apparently harder to find and much more expensive.

Koyaanisqatsi is a movie that is not necessarily made for the casual moviegoer, but is a must-see for just about anyone with an interest in art. For a movie that was released in 1983, it’s still just as relevant as ever, and just as impressive too. Some people might claim that this is the kind of movie you will only watch once, but I beg to differ… I am finding it gets better with each viewing. It’s an exhilarating experience for the senses, not to mention the heart and the soul! — Sean

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