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To me, this movie is perfection.

the audience applauded

Pretty Good

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

It was Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz who observed that "it's judgement that defeats us". Many people felt that Baraka should have given more details of what you were looking at and why instead of only presenting images. But all the locations are listed at the end, it's easy enough to find out which location is where and any history behind it. Baraka is a film that shows you life, a wide spread of life, and presents it without judgement. This is what happens, this is what is going on in the world of 1992; what you make of that, think about it, feel about it, do about it - that's up to you.That's not to say that there isn't a certain amount of guiding going on. The central message being sent to us is a simple one - we're all the same really. Shots of various religions kissing venerated objects follow each other, shots of a Yakuza full body tattoo cuts to tribal body decoration. Everywhere people stare into the camera. There is no attempt to tell us their thoughts, their backgrounds, their lives. The point is to wonder.What you take from Baraka will be personal to you. Some parts you will remember better than others. You may return to it at different times in your life and find different things. You might watch it two days in a row and find different things. Indeed, the scale of the film is such that it really requires repeat viewings, there are simply too many images to digest first time through. And images is what Baraka is all about, each one a living photograph. Fans of Edward Burtynsky will be immediately at home here in some of the vast landscapes and the Asian assembly lines. Each individual scene is so precisely tracked, time-lapsed, composed or lit that it could stand alone. If there's one initial criticism of Baraka, it might be that 90 minutes of this is just too much. Repeated viewings remove this obstacle, however.Baraka was made in 1992, so already parts of it are lost to us. Kowloon Walled City, which appears only briefly, underwent demolition within a year of the film's release. The burning oil fields in Kuwait was a current political event. How stunning these images are to us today, but how much more so in 100 years? Really a film like Baraka ought to be made every 10 years, to help us look at ourselves and evaluate what we are and what we're doing.My personal answer is yes, absolutely. Though it was high-definition before high definition existed and many of the scenes and images are now familiar, a great many still are not. Familiar scenes may even give us respite, which allows the in between moments to hit us still harder. Scenes of homeless children sleeping against hot air vents, or of a burning corpse at a Ganges cremation, or of tiny chicks being dispassionately sorted and flung through disinfected steel machinery, having their beaks scorched and ending up as battery hens. Much of Baraka is beautiful. Some is unpleasant, some is uncomfortable, some is amusing. Often there is beauty in the sadness, or sadness in the beauty. Baraka is life; make of it what you will.

The combination of sound and images has warranted a wide variety of films with a lasting impact, but Ron Fricke's Baraka merits a unique one because of how much it shows and how little it actually says. Shot over the course of twenty-four countries on six continents in only a fourteen month period, Fricke captures some of the most immaculate images of the Earth, showing it, its people, and its natural beauty all in one richly photographed film. At only ninety minutes, this is a film with an impact guaranteed to hit you harder and harder after the credits roll.Fricke takes a look at numerous corners of the Earth, particularly the impoverished ones, with several individuals struggling to survive or forging a method of surviving in the tumultuous lands where they reside. Fricke photographs the wildlife, the communities, and the precious landscapes that exist in these areas, in addition to showing landmarks like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Lake Natron in Tanzania, tribal celebrations in Kenya, and even monks gathered in a monastery.It's fair to assume that Fricke is tired of seeing staged events of human life, or even exhausted from hearing shortchanged and ignorant remarks about people from other walks of life. Just by looking at what he decided to capture for the film, and how he wanted to edit it together, shows a person that is incredibly in-tuned with life around the world and appreciative of the Earth's natural beauty. However, Fricke doesn't dare neglect what he feels has made the Earth flawed. In one interesting sequence, Fricke juxtaposes factory-life with ordinary life in the city, at first showing employees in a cigarette factory and a countless number of baby chickens on a conveyor belt, waiting to be processed, and finally showing the society that embraces such things as cigarettes and freshly cut/prepared poultry.I watched Fricke's followup to Baraka, Samsara, a few years back, and was absolutely marveled by many of the same features this film bears: impeccable natural beauty, a consistent tone and flow despite no narration whatsoever, divine cinematography, and one-of-a-kind sights and sounds. One of Samsara's many extractable morals was that the Earth is so complex and richly detailed and layered that it took many years to perfect and create to reflect the life we know in present day. Through numerous shots of calamity and destruction, however, we saw how that film detailed that something so beautiful and complicated could be demolished or lessened in an instant.After watching Baraka, I can see how that idea was kickstarted. Fricke has no qualms about examining the ugly with the beautiful, or even finding a complex middle ground along the way. With this kind of layeredness, the film is prevented from being one you can view from only one way. Baraka is a free-form, impressionistic film with some of the most striking photography ever committed to film. If there's one film that's a testament to human spirit, human creation, and even arguably godlike creation, it's this one.Directed by: Ron Fricke.

It begins by very beautiful images and ends by a deep sensation of having been hold up hostage by the Writers.The movie begins on the topic of nature and spirituality through the world, then the writers decided to inflict upon us diverse association of images to describe their points of view. Example : comparison between how baby chicken are treated in the industry and people on the subway. Or piles of bones with piles of weapons... The only ideas described are : - nature is beautiful - every one has the same spirituality (at least the same rites) - cities are steamy, polluted and people are sad in it - industry is bad, because people do over and over the same thing (computer tobacco) - war is bad, because people died - then we go back to nature is great (but at night this time)This movie doesn't develop ideas or reasoning : it states the writers points of view. If you're not already on their side, then don't see this movie : it's just for the fan base, sadly.

I first saw this Ron Fricke's documentary way back in 2006 on TV. it did make a great impression about being something mysterious but I couldn't pay serious attention to it owing to other preoccupations. The film, however, had always remained at the back of mind. So when I saw it for second time recently – this time on a large screen - I was awestruck by the sheer magnitude of the film that made me restless till I wrote down that rewarding viewing experience. When searched on the Internet, one gathers that the word 'Baraka' is a Sufi word - meaning blessing of God in the form of spiritual wisdom or the divine presence. And how truly and spell-bindingly this film brings out that essence even though not a single word is spoken throughout its entire length of 96 minutes! Directed by cinematographer himself, the film was shot in 6 continents covering 24 countries including my own and neighboring Nepal. Baraka showcases unforgettable snapshots and moving images that transport us to glory & vastness of nature, natural wonders, serenity, spirituality, sacred sites, rituals, prayers, tribal life, city life, industrial sites and also the man-made disasters that threaten the mankind as well as earth's other creatures. These powerful images establish the links between humanity and nature…how our own life style reflects on the natural rhythm of the planet. As the film progresses, these images begin to creep onto our consciousness, rule our feelings and finally evoke compassion. By dispensing with dialog or any visual text, this film gives altogether different dimension to documentary film making that defies the hitherto tradition. Music composer, Michael Stearns's hypnotic and soul-stirring music is the real icing on the cake. It combines visuals with musical artistry...a magical blend of ancient…folk…traditional…global to modern music. His music definitely deserves large chunk of success this film has earned.Not only the images are mesmerizing and a great visual feast for eyes but also the film is equally soul stirring experience that connoisseurs & film buffs can't afford to miss. Surely deserves 8 out of 10