I don't think that the description accurately describes what Reggio intended the film to mean. For example, from the Wikipedia article:
Reggio stated that the Qatsi films are intended to simply create an experience and that "it is up [to] the viewer to take for himself/herself what it is that [the film] means." He also said that "these films have never been about the effect of technology, of industry on people...
I looked at an old ad for this movie from 1983 at the Beverly Center in Beverly Hills and it says widescreen stereo. So it was always a widescreen and not a square one that a lot folks seem to be implying.
today's l.a. times has an article about aids in navajo nation, with most indians not even knowing what aids is...! And then they try to treat it with wu, wu, wu, indian herbs and dancing!
I understand that the point of this movie was to show how humans are destroying the planet, but I do find the time lapses really cool and entertaining.
It is more than how we are destroying the planet. It is how we have destroyed ourselves. The transition from "The Grid" to "Microchip" to "Prophesies," should make you scream out loud "what the fuck have we done to ourselves?"
I see the planet thing, but I'm having difficultly seeing how it was showing us destroying ourselves. I got the reference about humans being twinkies on the manufacturing belt and our cities being grid. Can you help me understand it more?
@MSHSAirplaneManiac: We've created this gigantic machine called The Grid and the juxtaposition of healthy young people and old, broken people illustrates what it does to us over time in Prophecies. The machine is not kind.
@monk22yrs Well, not really. Half the world's population live in cities of some sort, yes, but hardly what we'd call "developed". Those other cities even have sewage and cars--yet a whole host of new problems (some of which are due to their sewage system and the use of cars--check Luanda for example), problems that were priorly absent.
The ma'oi were a tiny factor in the deforestation of Easter Island. General abuse of the environment has been catastrophic for the native population.
@monk22yrs Arguments from experience are bad/reactionary, forgive me, but a year in India and a few visits to China didn't convince me that either is getting better. They're trying to prevent a collapse. India faces a greater challenge, in part due to the imbalance in their development. They have great IT, yet bad infrastructure. 47% had access to phones while 31% had access to toilets (UN, 2008).
The scope of your claim: Life for some humans is better, in spite of life for others being worse.
@AEidoloclast again, thousands of years ago: even pharohs had bad teeth, from sand getting into all the bread that was made. And the domestication of cats began cause Egypt was over run by mice, akin to tv news now and then showing hundreds of mice roaming some Aussie farm.
China is certainly better off than in mao's days---when deng xioping's own kid was thrown out a window and crippled. China's latest setback---the censorship of trash tv!
@monk22yrs Thousands of years ago, when the global human population was between 27 and 200 million? I'm not saying "once, things were better for all." Rather, things have gotten better for a fraction of humans, and at the expense of other people or the environment.
China's setbacks extend beyond censorship. Currency policy, escalating property prices, and income gap aside--they've made an impact on ocean temperature. A one-meter increase in sea level would displace 67 million of their people.
I remember when I was like six or seven and my dad rented this on VHS and I was the only member of my family who sat and watched the whole thing through with him. I had no clue what the hell was going on but for some reason even though I don't remember the movie the memory of the event is like one of my biggest childhood memories all it took was hearing the refrain being used in a video to make me want to re-watch it and that to those of you who bothered to read this is the sign of a great film.
The Humans of planet Earth have become easily distracted by a terrible affliction presented to them by the very social architects who control civilization. People treat their life as if the more they consume, the more they experience, the happier they are. They find out quickly that this is a false notion - quite the opposite happens. The more they consume, the more depressed they become, so they think they will be happy if they consume more. Religion and human nature plays a part in this.
@Antithropocentric Apparently the meaning is lost on you as well. I'm sure you feel your life is in balance by making mean-spirited generalizations about people. You understand little about life and even less about art and film. Enjoy your tepid life of small mindedness in a tunnel of bigotry. I will not be joining you.
@David1173 Now what kind of response is that? I saw nothing wrong with Antithropocentric's comment. What he said wasn't mean-spirited at all - it was sensible, plus he used a quote which many people, myself included, agree with. We're not excluding ourselves from this. We're all part of the problem. I just as much as you and anybody else here. And never did I see a hint of egotism in his comment; none of our lives are truly "in balance" and they won't likely ever be. Just some food for thought.
@TemeculaValleyLapse His stereotypical comments about 'Republicans' was the thing I disagreed with. What you put on your voter registration card is miles from the nonsense we see from our elected officials. I know Democrats who changed their letter to an 'R' so to speak simply because they no longer had confidence in their own party. I'm sure the reverse is true as well. His rant makes it seems as those most Republicans would hate this film. I know 4 who did, and loved it.
@David1173 Oh okay. From what I've seen, you could say that narrow-minded people like he described are on both sides of the political spectrum, not just one or the other. I know both Republicans and Democrats who love and hate the film. I'm neither; I don't vote. It's not a lack of interest in politics or world affairs - it's actually that I've paid so much attention to them, and mixing that with my personal views on the world and my own philosophies have made me come to conclusion to not vote.
PLEASE HELP ME!!! my only question is when we die do we fly, because I have no friends and no hope. just give me an answer so I can move on with my life. judging by the end of this video, we crash and burn. I FUCKING HATE LIFE!!!
The juxtaposition of the perfectly crafted videography and the abnoxious youtube commercials make this an order of magnitude better than the directory could have amply imagined.
In response to the top comment. They DID show this in my highschool. We had to make our own versions. I'd already seen it cause Philip Glass is one of my favorite composers and I was really happy to see the reaction my classmates had to it.
OK... this movie isn't as bad as it first seems... though not on the level of "Chronos". It is a process to watch due to its length and lack of dialogue- and I don't mind that. Some things that annoyed about this movie was the score and the visuals (although, being an old movie, it couldn't help in that regard). More than these though, I'm not too sure that the message of this movie was clearly presented.
"The message of director Godfrey Reggio is clear: humans are destroying the planet, and all of human progress is pointlessly foolish."
No, it is NOT clear in this movie that humans are destroying the planet. What IS clear from this movie is that the modern way of life is too fast-paced. Thus the definition given of this movie's title @ 1:21:21 is ENTIRELY a' propos to the impression given in this film... that we need to SLOW DOWN.
Looking at the faces of individuals in the crowd throughout the film, ESPECIALLY from 1:08:45 to 1:11:44 (and even to 1:12:19), the impression given is that the fast-paced life of the modern world depresses the soul, takes the life out of the individual, and destroys the human bond between individuals. THIS the direct message given by the pictures of the film.
If they wanted to show how we are destroying the planet why not show some animals struggling to survive urban development?
Or an oil spill? Or a bear fishing in a polluted river? I don't think the movie fully portrayed what it was intending to the audience- that "humans are destroying the planet". Nevertheless, it was good enough for me to give it a thumb up (it started getting interesting to me halfway through).
It would be nice if this could be remade with modern graphics and the additions of all the natural and man-made distasters since this movie was released in 1982.
When I watch Chronos, it hearkens back to the masterpieces of Michaelangelo, da Vinci, Mozart, Beethoven; watching THIS movie reminds me of the trash of Picasso, Wagner, the modern artists of today... and Lady Gaga.
@marcdaddy33 just found out a woman i used to date a long time ago she has a son it is mine biologically.
his name is andrew he's 12 years old he's very smart and black which is great for me because you know how father and son like to have diversity shit
is this extremely shaky for anyone else? i was getting motion sickness for god's sake... i'm not feeling this movie even though i'd consider myself a tree hugger. i get it, we're ruining the planet. it would be much more useful had the film been on restoring the earth... get people interested in that line of work. we need more people like that. people who just sit around and think about how horrible all the destruction is aren't doing the planet any good at all.
we are digging the precious things from the land, i.e. oil for our fossil fuels & mining for jewels polluting rivers not allowing the living Earth to replenish itself bringing storms & quakes ozone damage global warming, mankind loosing its once peace of mind with economic upset so-called this next end of the world countdown self-prescribed can't be denied when we run out of resources overpopulating. like it said "way of life that calls for another way of living..."
I remember seeing this film on HBO and the whole time wondering when someone would start the narration. The film had concluded and me still wondering when someone would say something. I enjoyed the hell the out of it. Show this to someone and don't tell them there's no dialogue and watch their face as the film goes on.
@screwface1011 I do wonder where the film summary got the whole 'The message of director Godfrey Reggio is clear: humans are destroying the planet, and all of human progress is pointlessly foolish' considering there is no narration. Seems a pretty exact sentiment for a film that can really only appear to convey a general idea or emotion.
This is an awesome movie. Don't be put off by the comments about this being an environmental movie -- even the scenes of technology out of control are oddly beautiful.
I love the movie and the score so much.. it's too bad the ads totally ruin it. they take away so much from the film, you'd be better off renting from netflix, or buying it, or whatever
If they showed this film in high school, there would probably be a lot more kids going to college for Anthropology, Sociology, and Environmental Science - then maybe we could better work on the problems facing civilization. Unfortunately, the only jobs for the masses involve working in 'commerce' private sector in some way. There is no money to be made, and it is quite difficult to make a living trying to save the environment.
@mycatisromeo realisitically a tiny scintilla of the american high school population would be willing to sit through the first five minutes of this film, let alone pay the least bit of attention. this scintilla is approximately coextensive with those that go into those fields that you so valorize and envision saving the world.
trends are in motion. individual actors make no difference. what will be will be as the result of the actions of the multitudes.
The did show this in some stupid class I ended up dropping way back when I was in high school (90's). It's hard enough to make a living doing anything let alone something there is no demand for. Things will always change on Earth, a fact extreme environmentalist can't seem to deal with. Is there more we can do? Of course! Everyone should play a role in keeping our planet clean and beautiful, but these doomsday accounts aren't going to help any cause.
@mycatisromeo I'm watching it in high school right now as an art series platform. Humans sadly only have prominent eyesight and only care for what is right ahead of their noses rather than seeing what is beyond their creations.
@mycatisromeo well said and agreed, when are humans going to VALUE the actual environment we live in and learning about how best to preserve it for future generations..sadly probably not in time to save the planet for the children, Idiocracy has come to 'Merka instead so idiots like Rick Perry/ James Inhofe/ Michele Bachmann (name your favorite Repugnant moron) making decisions instead of ACTUAL SCIENTISTS
@GlennRA3 Actually, Glenn, I'm showing a large portion of it today in a high school English class. You'd be surprised at the level kids can rise to when given the opportunity.
Some high-school students would, some wouldn't. I think that's missing the point. Being able to sit through a movie of this caliber for a grade and then going home and listening to Katy Perry and watching Family Guy does not make them cultured.
A lot of the truly great art in this world is dying. Hearing Twilight and rap music described as great art scares me. Art is treated as the purview of pretentious snobs: incomprehensible and far too boring for mainstream consumption.
@TheAdmiralPancake Rap can totally be considered art. Not the stuff on the charts nowadays, but listen to someone like De La Soul or NWA. Early rap is incredibly influential.
I don't know a lot about rap. I know that I like some of the early stuff. Even gansta rap is fine by me. If you want to express a message through the use of violent imagery, that's fine. The problem I have is when it's gratuitous.
If you want to paint a picture of life in the inner city through rap, I can respect that. If you want to swear a lot and talk about guns and drugs for no reason, I don't consider that art.
Besides, regardless of how good rap is, I still think the beauty of older music is being lost. I know that music evolves, but there is music from thousands of years ago that little today can hold a candle to.
A lot of old music is dying when it's still as good today as it was when it was written. I see that as a problem.
@xtrastage De La Soul makes sense...but NWA is your example of rap as art? I understand that it was groundbreaking, and I do like NWA, but I would not necessarily use them as an example. I would say A Tribe Called Quest or Blackstar or maybe even 2pac, dunno just my opinion of course. But NWA made some really ridiculous songs and some of the lyrics by Yella and EZ were pretty dumb as hell...
@mycatisromeo, you've got that right. Most modern economies are geared toward destroying nature and/or converting it into utilitarian materials. Preservation is considered a threat to economic growthism, but that's a fatal form of progress, being as the planet is finite.
@Antithropocentric Unfortunately, how are you going to tell the humans of planet Earth that they can't have everything that they 'think' they want when they work for it? When the more they work, the less time they have doing important things like helping others and spending time with friends and family, and making the money the must have in order to purchase more shit they don't need. It's a viscious cycle; brought to you by consumer culture of christmas and pop-idol envy.
@mycatisromeo, quoting Jerry Hannan, popularized by Eddie Vedder: "We have a greed, with which we have agreed."
I haven't counted myself among the "we" for a long time now, but it's hard to fully escape the herd. I think it's just a mess that may never get cleaned up.
I remember when I was six and my dad rented this on good old vhs. I actually did sit and watch it through with him the whole way, but I had no clue what the fuck was going on.
I saw the Philip Glass Ensemble perform the soundtrack to this live while the movie played on a huge screen at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. It was right up there with the most awesome shows I've ever seen.
Even walking away from a nude houseboat trip on Lake Powell.
Just imagine, you're nude on a houseboat somewhere in Lake Powell or Wahweap Bay or Padre Bay and you suddenly get the urge to put on your sneakers and start walking up the rocks to the tops of some of the nearby peaks. You're standing there in total silence looking out for miles in every direction wearing nothing but your sneakers or sandals (or maybe even nothing at all.
I'm 47 and live in NJ. I haven't been west of the Mississippi River (yet), but when I get enough money to do so I'm going to spend a week hiking through various areas that are shown between 0:03:47 & 0:12:00 or so.
For me hiking through these locations wearing nothing but a very comfortable pair of brand new sneakers would be the ultimate. Sitting on the edges of shear cliffs in the Grand Canyon or Monument Valley (if the local Indians would permit it), naked as the day I was born...
@CalebTheTimeTraveler Yeah MGM screwed up the description on the film. Godfrey Reggio has expressed his distaste for MGM's description of the film himself. It's the opinion of someone at MGM and they decided to call that the 'official synopsis'.
@NoiseMarines It's in the former Pruitt-Igoe apartment complex in St. Louis, Missouri - all of the 32 buildings were demolished throughout the 1970s. Extremely high crime & poverty were the primary causes of abandonment & decay. It no longer exists today, however some of the property was developed into low-income housing and the rest of it remains a fenced-off lot, overgrown by weeds and trees.
"humans are destroying the planet, and all of human progress is pointlessly foolish."
If human progress is pointlessly foolish then this film is hypocritical. The technology needed to create, distribute and view this film are only possible through the advancements criticized in this work.
Some of the views of human made landscapes are as awe inspiring to me as the natural landscapes. To attempt to quantify advancement simplistically is foolishness.
@Hebron14 That's actually MGM's opinionated description of the film - not an accurate one. Godfrey Reggio, the director of Koyaanisqatsi, has expressed his disdain for not only MGM's description of the film but other opinionated "professional" descriptions of the film too. He even said that the film does not criticize technology. He intends for it to be up to the viewer to find their own meaning(s) out of this movie and it's 'theme'.
@TemeculaValleyLapse Thank you for the insight. That blurb from MGM was tainting my view of the film. I will try re watching it with that suggested opinion retracted.
First five minutes, and it's made the message blindingly clear. Beautiful native painting, fireball, rocket, the message is obvious. It's presented atrociously! On a semi-related note, the message itself is a stupid and overplayed one. Paraphrasing Jurassic Park, (which I cannot cite as I unfortunately do not have the book in my possession) we cannot kill the earth, for we are the earth. We cannot break the planet, we can only break ourselves. [/rant] Sorry, Glass, but I hate this movie. 0 chars
Guys guys, if you're forced to watch an ad that kills the movie for you, I dare you to torrent this movie out of spite. And not the MGM release, torrent the IRE version, it's not as blurry, it's 4:3 because the MGM version cut out the top and bottom portions of the film to make it 16:9. Do it. Make Godfrey Reggio proud. :D
@keeponblinking So, you're conjecturing that Godfrey Reggio was in it just for the money, and would totally frown at you sticking it to MGM, after they wronged him and the IRE, all throughout the 90's?
@ThatOneGuyNamedBen No it wouldn't. Words simply don't do a story of this magnitude and beauty any justice. If there were any narration at all, it would just detract from the richness of the experience.
Number 1 movie to watch under the heavy heavy influence of lsd
mexicanninj 1 month ago
I don't think that the description accurately describes what Reggio intended the film to mean. For example, from the Wikipedia article:
Reggio stated that the Qatsi films are intended to simply create an experience and that "it is up [to] the viewer to take for himself/herself what it is that [the film] means." He also said that "these films have never been about the effect of technology, of industry on people...
WillsWords 1 month ago 3
I'm Very Cold ((OuO))
chloemoron20002 1 month ago
it's just art. everybody just get over it.
bustan44 1 month ago
I'm not seeing any ads, perhaps because I'm using adblock? I haven't seen ads on YouTube (or anywhere else) for months now. I'm starting to miss ads.
eduTouY 1 month ago
Commercials?
What commercials?
Adblock+ FTW.
Scorch238 1 month ago 2
I looked at an old ad for this movie from 1983 at the Beverly Center in Beverly Hills and it says widescreen stereo. So it was always a widescreen and not a square one that a lot folks seem to be implying.
clevelandphil 1 month ago
an ok 1950s this is cinerama travalogue.
today's l.a. times has an article about aids in navajo nation, with most indians not even knowing what aids is...! And then they try to treat it with wu, wu, wu, indian herbs and dancing!
monk22yrs 1 month ago
MGM's giving US the evil eye?
Nagneto 1 month ago
I understand that the point of this movie was to show how humans are destroying the planet, but I do find the time lapses really cool and entertaining.
MSHSAirplaneManiac 2 months ago
@MSHSAirplaneManiac
It is more than how we are destroying the planet. It is how we have destroyed ourselves. The transition from "The Grid" to "Microchip" to "Prophesies," should make you scream out loud "what the fuck have we done to ourselves?"
MrBubosibiricus 2 months ago
@MrBubosibiricus
I see the planet thing, but I'm having difficultly seeing how it was showing us destroying ourselves. I got the reference about humans being twinkies on the manufacturing belt and our cities being grid. Can you help me understand it more?
MSHSAirplaneManiac 2 months ago
@MSHSAirplaneManiac: We've created this gigantic machine called The Grid and the juxtaposition of healthy young people and old, broken people illustrates what it does to us over time in Prophecies. The machine is not kind.
MrBubosibiricus 2 months ago
@MSHSAirplaneManiac At least that's my take on it. YMMV, of course.
MrBubosibiricus 2 months ago
@MrBubosibiricus the world is actually a lot better now, than it was hundreds of years ago!
easter island with its giant stone heads-----and no trees, cause they cut down the trees to roll the heads in place.
the black plague at the time partly cause no indoor plumbing.
no horse shit on streets----thanks to cars; before cars every street had horse shit that somebody got stuck cleaning up.
monk22yrs 1 month ago
@monk22yrs "The world is a lot better now, than it was hundreds of years ago"-- for humans living in developed cities.
AEidoloclast 1 month ago
@AEidoloclast well, that's about....half the population.
even the one billion in china, and one billion in india are getting better.
monk22yrs 1 month ago
@monk22yrs Well, not really. Half the world's population live in cities of some sort, yes, but hardly what we'd call "developed". Those other cities even have sewage and cars--yet a whole host of new problems (some of which are due to their sewage system and the use of cars--check Luanda for example), problems that were priorly absent.
The ma'oi were a tiny factor in the deforestation of Easter Island. General abuse of the environment has been catastrophic for the native population.
AEidoloclast 1 month ago
@monk22yrs Arguments from experience are bad/reactionary, forgive me, but a year in India and a few visits to China didn't convince me that either is getting better. They're trying to prevent a collapse. India faces a greater challenge, in part due to the imbalance in their development. They have great IT, yet bad infrastructure. 47% had access to phones while 31% had access to toilets (UN, 2008).
The scope of your claim: Life for some humans is better, in spite of life for others being worse.
AEidoloclast 1 month ago
@AEidoloclast again, thousands of years ago: even pharohs had bad teeth, from sand getting into all the bread that was made. And the domestication of cats began cause Egypt was over run by mice, akin to tv news now and then showing hundreds of mice roaming some Aussie farm.
China is certainly better off than in mao's days---when deng xioping's own kid was thrown out a window and crippled. China's latest setback---the censorship of trash tv!
Millions of chinese want trash culture.
monk22yrs 1 month ago
@monk22yrs Thousands of years ago, when the global human population was between 27 and 200 million? I'm not saying "once, things were better for all." Rather, things have gotten better for a fraction of humans, and at the expense of other people or the environment.
China's setbacks extend beyond censorship. Currency policy, escalating property prices, and income gap aside--they've made an impact on ocean temperature. A one-meter increase in sea level would displace 67 million of their people.
AEidoloclast 1 month ago
@monk22yrs actually they cut down the trees on Easter Island to build boats, shelter, and tools. But yes, your conclusion is valid.
eduTouY 1 month ago
I love the grid part. I've been here playing it over and over.
voriangray 2 months ago
JUST WATCHED THIS SHIT TRIPPIN BALLS! UPVOTE DIS SHIT
Reflexial 2 months ago
I remember when I was like six or seven and my dad rented this on VHS and I was the only member of my family who sat and watched the whole thing through with him. I had no clue what the hell was going on but for some reason even though I don't remember the movie the memory of the event is like one of my biggest childhood memories all it took was hearing the refrain being used in a video to make me want to re-watch it and that to those of you who bothered to read this is the sign of a great film.
Kulkanar 2 months ago
The Humans of planet Earth have become easily distracted by a terrible affliction presented to them by the very social architects who control civilization. People treat their life as if the more they consume, the more they experience, the happier they are. They find out quickly that this is a false notion - quite the opposite happens. The more they consume, the more depressed they become, so they think they will be happy if they consume more. Religion and human nature plays a part in this.
mycatisromeo 2 months ago
The meaning of this film is lost on most Republicans, I'm sure. Nature exists to be exploited, not respected, in their tiny, money-grubbing minds.
"Just a bunch of slow-panning desert crap; where are the oil rigs and animal kill-shots?"
Antithropocentric 2 months ago
@Antithropocentric Apparently the meaning is lost on you as well. I'm sure you feel your life is in balance by making mean-spirited generalizations about people. You understand little about life and even less about art and film. Enjoy your tepid life of small mindedness in a tunnel of bigotry. I will not be joining you.
David1173 2 months ago
@David1173 Now what kind of response is that? I saw nothing wrong with Antithropocentric's comment. What he said wasn't mean-spirited at all - it was sensible, plus he used a quote which many people, myself included, agree with. We're not excluding ourselves from this. We're all part of the problem. I just as much as you and anybody else here. And never did I see a hint of egotism in his comment; none of our lives are truly "in balance" and they won't likely ever be. Just some food for thought.
TemeculaValleyLapse 2 months ago
@TemeculaValleyLapse His stereotypical comments about 'Republicans' was the thing I disagreed with. What you put on your voter registration card is miles from the nonsense we see from our elected officials. I know Democrats who changed their letter to an 'R' so to speak simply because they no longer had confidence in their own party. I'm sure the reverse is true as well. His rant makes it seems as those most Republicans would hate this film. I know 4 who did, and loved it.
David1173 2 months ago
@David1173 Oh okay. From what I've seen, you could say that narrow-minded people like he described are on both sides of the political spectrum, not just one or the other. I know both Republicans and Democrats who love and hate the film. I'm neither; I don't vote. It's not a lack of interest in politics or world affairs - it's actually that I've paid so much attention to them, and mixing that with my personal views on the world and my own philosophies have made me come to conclusion to not vote.
TemeculaValleyLapse 2 months ago
PLEASE HELP ME!!! my only question is when we die do we fly, because I have no friends and no hope. just give me an answer so I can move on with my life. judging by the end of this video, we crash and burn. I FUCKING HATE LIFE!!!
nickthegrizzly2 2 months ago
@nickthegrizzly2 Send me a message if you still need help.
ContraPoints 2 months ago
@ContraPoints I posted a comment on your channel
nickthegrizzly2 2 months ago
Koyaanisqatsi, brought to you by Gillette
NinkasiDelight 2 months ago 14
The juxtaposition of the perfectly crafted videography and the abnoxious youtube commercials make this an order of magnitude better than the directory could have amply imagined.
dpolant 2 months ago 2
In response to the top comment. They DID show this in my highschool. We had to make our own versions. I'd already seen it cause Philip Glass is one of my favorite composers and I was really happy to see the reaction my classmates had to it.
tristanthetemplar 2 months ago
What is the music playing around 25:00? The name of the composition is fine enough.
AleekahTV 3 months ago
@AleekahTV The Grid
BenrBertram 2 months ago
@BenrBertram Thanks.
AleekahTV 2 months ago
how appropriate is the commercial during Koyaanisqatsi?
not fucking appropriate at all!!!!!! fuck youtube! all you wanna do is make money and make people spend money on things they don't fucking need.
fuck you youtube.
Einstein0GETBaC 3 months ago
This intent of this documentary wasn't actually to make a point of any kind. The intent was to have the audience make their own point.
BIOL6895 3 months ago
@BIOL6895 what's you point you smart ass you
Einstein0GETBaC 3 months ago
Verizon sucks
fifteenmeeneets 3 months ago
OK... this movie isn't as bad as it first seems... though not on the level of "Chronos". It is a process to watch due to its length and lack of dialogue- and I don't mind that. Some things that annoyed about this movie was the score and the visuals (although, being an old movie, it couldn't help in that regard). More than these though, I'm not too sure that the message of this movie was clearly presented.
(cont...)
marcdaddy33 3 months ago
Part 2
"The message of director Godfrey Reggio is clear: humans are destroying the planet, and all of human progress is pointlessly foolish."
No, it is NOT clear in this movie that humans are destroying the planet. What IS clear from this movie is that the modern way of life is too fast-paced. Thus the definition given of this movie's title @ 1:21:21 is ENTIRELY a' propos to the impression given in this film... that we need to SLOW DOWN.
(cont...)
marcdaddy33 3 months ago
Part 3
Looking at the faces of individuals in the crowd throughout the film, ESPECIALLY from 1:08:45 to 1:11:44 (and even to 1:12:19), the impression given is that the fast-paced life of the modern world depresses the soul, takes the life out of the individual, and destroys the human bond between individuals. THIS the direct message given by the pictures of the film.
If they wanted to show how we are destroying the planet why not show some animals struggling to survive urban development?
marcdaddy33 3 months ago 2
Part 4
Or an oil spill? Or a bear fishing in a polluted river? I don't think the movie fully portrayed what it was intending to the audience- that "humans are destroying the planet". Nevertheless, it was good enough for me to give it a thumb up (it started getting interesting to me halfway through).
It would be nice if this could be remade with modern graphics and the additions of all the natural and man-made distasters since this movie was released in 1982.
marcdaddy33 3 months ago
When I watch Chronos, it hearkens back to the masterpieces of Michaelangelo, da Vinci, Mozart, Beethoven; watching THIS movie reminds me of the trash of Picasso, Wagner, the modern artists of today... and Lady Gaga.
marcdaddy33 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@marcdaddy33 just found out a woman i used to date a long time ago she has a son it is mine biologically.
his name is andrew he's 12 years old he's very smart and black which is great for me because you know how father and son like to have diversity shit
RosaParks0GETBaC 3 months ago
Chronos is a better film.
marcdaddy33 3 months ago
is this extremely shaky for anyone else? i was getting motion sickness for god's sake... i'm not feeling this movie even though i'd consider myself a tree hugger. i get it, we're ruining the planet. it would be much more useful had the film been on restoring the earth... get people interested in that line of work. we need more people like that. people who just sit around and think about how horrible all the destruction is aren't doing the planet any good at all.
bananaface888 3 months ago
we are digging the precious things from the land, i.e. oil for our fossil fuels & mining for jewels polluting rivers not allowing the living Earth to replenish itself bringing storms & quakes ozone damage global warming, mankind loosing its once peace of mind with economic upset so-called this next end of the world countdown self-prescribed can't be denied when we run out of resources overpopulating. like it said "way of life that calls for another way of living..."
brendanhave 3 months ago
I remember seeing this film on HBO and the whole time wondering when someone would start the narration. The film had concluded and me still wondering when someone would say something. I enjoyed the hell the out of it. Show this to someone and don't tell them there's no dialogue and watch their face as the film goes on.
screwface1011 3 months ago
@screwface1011 I do wonder where the film summary got the whole 'The message of director Godfrey Reggio is clear: humans are destroying the planet, and all of human progress is pointlessly foolish' considering there is no narration. Seems a pretty exact sentiment for a film that can really only appear to convey a general idea or emotion.
KaylinBoehme 3 months ago
thumbs up if scrubs brought you here...
VikingAxStudios 3 months ago
I bet most of you came here looking for 34:20 Pruitt–Igoe
sonofagunM357 3 months ago 2
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sonofagunM357 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I watch this movie on lsd :D
mexicanninj 3 months ago
This is an awesome movie. Don't be put off by the comments about this being an environmental movie -- even the scenes of technology out of control are oddly beautiful.
Definitely one of my favorites of all time.
pghmike4 4 months ago 2
wow
mrjones12468 4 months ago
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Worst music video ever.
rhythmythicles 4 months ago
in 4th grade this film terrified me.
cuddleb0t 4 months ago in playlist cuddleb0t's favorites
I wonder how much fossil fuel burning and strip mining went into the making of this film.
MrPentatonicScale 4 months ago
I recommend you guys skip through all of the commercials right at the beginning.
A film like this deserves to be experienced without interruption.
phoenixdef 4 months ago 5
A beautiful movie about the industrialization and consumerism of humans... ADS.
TheEliminator16 4 months ago
I love the movie and the score so much.. it's too bad the ads totally ruin it. they take away so much from the film, you'd be better off renting from netflix, or buying it, or whatever
coSMia2010 4 months ago
Beautiful!!
quantumechanick 4 months ago
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gabrielapetrie 4 months ago
"an art-house circuit sensation?"
for real?
if you're under 40, much of your concept of modern music dePENDS
on THIS FUCKING MUSIC. de PENDS ON IT.
DE FUCK"ING PENDS.
..... god.
and you'd play all nonchalant. what a fuckup!
gabrielapetrie 4 months ago
@gabrielapetrie so true. hollywood scores today wud be somewhere else without philip glass.
xxxyyyzzzar 4 months ago
duhhhhhhh beduh beduh duh duh duh di-duh-d-d-d-duh duhh dab dahhhh DAAABBBBHHH??!?!? for real, koyannisqatsi? playing for me for free?
.... moses killed like 30,000 people for worshipping a false idol. you KNOW that. don't you?
gabrielapetrie 4 months ago
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jad743ify 5 months ago
240,000 views vs. 110,000,000 views of Katy Perry's new song TGIF. Yes, the numbers speak for themselves, the planet is doomed.
mycatisromeo 5 months ago 32
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mycatisromeo 5 months ago
If they showed this film in high school, there would probably be a lot more kids going to college for Anthropology, Sociology, and Environmental Science - then maybe we could better work on the problems facing civilization. Unfortunately, the only jobs for the masses involve working in 'commerce' private sector in some way. There is no money to be made, and it is quite difficult to make a living trying to save the environment.
mycatisromeo 5 months ago 36
@mycatisromeo they showed this in my high school.
TheDingadergen 4 months ago
@mycatisromeo realisitically a tiny scintilla of the american high school population would be willing to sit through the first five minutes of this film, let alone pay the least bit of attention. this scintilla is approximately coextensive with those that go into those fields that you so valorize and envision saving the world.
trends are in motion. individual actors make no difference. what will be will be as the result of the actions of the multitudes.
nathanielchandler 4 months ago
@mycatisromeo
The did show this in some stupid class I ended up dropping way back when I was in high school (90's). It's hard enough to make a living doing anything let alone something there is no demand for. Things will always change on Earth, a fact extreme environmentalist can't seem to deal with. Is there more we can do? Of course! Everyone should play a role in keeping our planet clean and beautiful, but these doomsday accounts aren't going to help any cause.
DankStarDC 3 months ago
@DankStarDC Not everything in life is meant to help the human race
Neptutron 3 months ago
@mycatisromeo I'm watching it in high school right now as an art series platform. Humans sadly only have prominent eyesight and only care for what is right ahead of their noses rather than seeing what is beyond their creations.
BetWinston 3 months ago
@mycatisromeo well said and agreed, when are humans going to VALUE the actual environment we live in and learning about how best to preserve it for future generations..sadly probably not in time to save the planet for the children, Idiocracy has come to 'Merka instead so idiots like Rick Perry/ James Inhofe/ Michele Bachmann (name your favorite Repugnant moron) making decisions instead of ACTUAL SCIENTISTS
oneirishpoet 3 months ago
@mycatisromeo
You obviously don't teach modern high school students. They wouldn't sit through 10 minutes of this.
GlennRA3 2 months ago
@GlennRA3 Actually, Glenn, I'm showing a large portion of it today in a high school English class. You'd be surprised at the level kids can rise to when given the opportunity.
MrDabedat 2 months ago 6
@MrDabedat
Some high-school students would, some wouldn't. I think that's missing the point. Being able to sit through a movie of this caliber for a grade and then going home and listening to Katy Perry and watching Family Guy does not make them cultured.
A lot of the truly great art in this world is dying. Hearing Twilight and rap music described as great art scares me. Art is treated as the purview of pretentious snobs: incomprehensible and far too boring for mainstream consumption.
TheAdmiralPancake 2 months ago
@TheAdmiralPancake Rap can totally be considered art. Not the stuff on the charts nowadays, but listen to someone like De La Soul or NWA. Early rap is incredibly influential.
xtrastage 2 months ago
@xtrastage
I don't know a lot about rap. I know that I like some of the early stuff. Even gansta rap is fine by me. If you want to express a message through the use of violent imagery, that's fine. The problem I have is when it's gratuitous.
If you want to paint a picture of life in the inner city through rap, I can respect that. If you want to swear a lot and talk about guns and drugs for no reason, I don't consider that art.
TheAdmiralPancake 2 months ago
@xtrastage
Besides, regardless of how good rap is, I still think the beauty of older music is being lost. I know that music evolves, but there is music from thousands of years ago that little today can hold a candle to.
A lot of old music is dying when it's still as good today as it was when it was written. I see that as a problem.
TheAdmiralPancake 2 months ago
@xtrastage De La Soul makes sense...but NWA is your example of rap as art? I understand that it was groundbreaking, and I do like NWA, but I would not necessarily use them as an example. I would say A Tribe Called Quest or Blackstar or maybe even 2pac, dunno just my opinion of course. But NWA made some really ridiculous songs and some of the lyrics by Yella and EZ were pretty dumb as hell...
JAGNFL 2 months ago
@mycatisromeo, you've got that right. Most modern economies are geared toward destroying nature and/or converting it into utilitarian materials. Preservation is considered a threat to economic growthism, but that's a fatal form of progress, being as the planet is finite.
Antithropocentric 2 months ago
@Antithropocentric Unfortunately, how are you going to tell the humans of planet Earth that they can't have everything that they 'think' they want when they work for it? When the more they work, the less time they have doing important things like helping others and spending time with friends and family, and making the money the must have in order to purchase more shit they don't need. It's a viscious cycle; brought to you by consumer culture of christmas and pop-idol envy.
mycatisromeo 2 months ago
@mycatisromeo, quoting Jerry Hannan, popularized by Eddie Vedder: "We have a greed, with which we have agreed."
I haven't counted myself among the "we" for a long time now, but it's hard to fully escape the herd. I think it's just a mess that may never get cleaned up.
Antithropocentric 2 months ago
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runnerjoe2324 2 months ago
I remember when I was six and my dad rented this on good old vhs. I actually did sit and watch it through with him the whole way, but I had no clue what the fuck was going on.
Kulkanar 5 months ago
I saw the Philip Glass Ensemble perform the soundtrack to this live while the movie played on a huge screen at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. It was right up there with the most awesome shows I've ever seen.
CapedSam 5 months ago
Thank you for making this ad-free.
FreeArtFreestheWorld 5 months ago in playlist FreeArtFreestheWorld's Favorited Videos 4
Kind of like some of the indigenous Indian and African tribes of various parts of South America and Africa.
Like the Yawalapiti tribe (there are videos of them on youtube), wherever they're from.
nudist0885 5 months ago
Even walking away from a nude houseboat trip on Lake Powell.
Just imagine, you're nude on a houseboat somewhere in Lake Powell or Wahweap Bay or Padre Bay and you suddenly get the urge to put on your sneakers and start walking up the rocks to the tops of some of the nearby peaks. You're standing there in total silence looking out for miles in every direction wearing nothing but your sneakers or sandals (or maybe even nothing at all.
Now THAT'S getting back to nature.
nudist0885 5 months ago
I'm 47 and live in NJ. I haven't been west of the Mississippi River (yet), but when I get enough money to do so I'm going to spend a week hiking through various areas that are shown between 0:03:47 & 0:12:00 or so.
For me hiking through these locations wearing nothing but a very comfortable pair of brand new sneakers would be the ultimate. Sitting on the edges of shear cliffs in the Grand Canyon or Monument Valley (if the local Indians would permit it), naked as the day I was born...
Heaven
nudist0885 5 months ago
This is what Alex the Droog was forced to watch while the authorities "cured" him.
thruthefence 5 months ago
I thought "Head" was good too!!
Any of you guys see that one????
thruthefence 5 months ago
black people
kyle21843 5 months ago
"The message of director Godfrey Reggio is clear: humans are destroying the planet, and all of human progress is pointlessly foolish."
I could not disagree any stronger.
Not in that it conveys the opposite of that thought, but in that the film conveys anything outright.
The film is about life. A chaotic life. A life out of balance.
But it doesn't what balance is supposed to be there.
What you take from this film, is your own projections.
CalebTheTimeTraveler 5 months ago 3
@CalebTheTimeTraveler Yeah MGM screwed up the description on the film. Godfrey Reggio has expressed his distaste for MGM's description of the film himself. It's the opinion of someone at MGM and they decided to call that the 'official synopsis'.
TemeculaValleyLapse 5 months ago
This was amazing. I've been wanting to see it since I read "1000 movies to see before you die"
Dancing88Mike 5 months ago
Dude, there are SO many ads on this.
burgerkingmurders 5 months ago
this movie never stops amazing me
retsukage 5 months ago
damn...........all those cameros...........wonder what became of all of them
Theasshole85 5 months ago
wow
this film is a forgotten classic
Theasshole85 5 months ago
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bigdickfromindiana 6 months ago
life without words. it only takes a progression of video to show what a cancer the human population is to this earth. we destroy everything.
opeth41 6 months ago
Jesus Christ
WhoistheWatcher 6 months ago
52:32
HOT....HOT...HOT...HOT....DOG DOG DOG DOG
sk8rdood67 6 months ago in playlist sk8rdood67's Favorited Videos
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sk8rdood67 6 months ago
I can not watch the end, with the space shuttle, without coming to tears.
KewKewKashi 6 months ago
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scograham 6 months ago
This was released in 1982. There is no space shuttle footage in it. Love this movie. Brilliant message and music!
scograham 6 months ago
Tumblr folk are awesome for bringing me to more phillip glass. So so beautiful!
Tinkeroftime 6 months ago
10:07 reminds me of parts of FF7 for some reason. Enormously beautiful.
DjRjSolarStar 6 months ago
no matter how hard we try to exploited mother nature ,she will take it back one day
damirbrnabic 6 months ago
beautiful images of landscape,make you get in touch with nature
damirbrnabic 6 months ago
Boobs at 1:03:25
swarrior216 6 months ago 3
@swarrior216 Bingo
Dancing88Mike 5 months ago
Without this movie, how would the atheists attend church?
MrRodomontade 6 months ago
Mushroom!!!!XD
Darkie87Henson 6 months ago
no wonder otto was going 2 watch this high
crazygrrl342 6 months ago 2
Is that Pripyat at around 30 minutes in?
NoiseMarines 6 months ago
@NoiseMarines It's in the former Pruitt-Igoe apartment complex in St. Louis, Missouri - all of the 32 buildings were demolished throughout the 1970s. Extremely high crime & poverty were the primary causes of abandonment & decay. It no longer exists today, however some of the property was developed into low-income housing and the rest of it remains a fenced-off lot, overgrown by weeds and trees.
TemeculaValleyLapse 6 months ago
Anyone else see the nude woman at 1h03m23s approximately? home.comcast.net/~nirvgorilla/Koyaanisqatsi%201h03m23s.png
nirvgorilla 6 months ago
MOLOCH!!
MrRocketman19 6 months ago
wtf did i just watch?
NeedLife774 7 months ago
I don't know I don't know I don't know man this is the type of shit to make you go insane and shatter peoples FUCKIN MINDS!!!!!!!
Shadow2ashes 7 months ago
who watched this because of the simpsons? lol like
mrmadkow 7 months ago 3
Quote from the poster of the video:
"humans are destroying the planet, and all of human progress is pointlessly foolish."
If human progress is pointlessly foolish then this film is hypocritical. The technology needed to create, distribute and view this film are only possible through the advancements criticized in this work.
Some of the views of human made landscapes are as awe inspiring to me as the natural landscapes. To attempt to quantify advancement simplistically is foolishness.
Hebron14 7 months ago 2
@Hebron14 That's actually MGM's opinionated description of the film - not an accurate one. Godfrey Reggio, the director of Koyaanisqatsi, has expressed his disdain for not only MGM's description of the film but other opinionated "professional" descriptions of the film too. He even said that the film does not criticize technology. He intends for it to be up to the viewer to find their own meaning(s) out of this movie and it's 'theme'.
TemeculaValleyLapse 7 months ago 3
@TemeculaValleyLapse Thank you for the insight. That blurb from MGM was tainting my view of the film. I will try re watching it with that suggested opinion retracted.
Hebron14 7 months ago 2
this is just my opinion but..... i do not like this movie
XvChriisvX 7 months ago
96 people forgot to take a microdot before watching this...
bynrdskynrd 7 months ago 14
makes ya think
MINECRAFT510 7 months ago
Wow.
Sunoco 8 months ago
at about 41:00 MICRODATA
mikedressner 8 months ago
Magnificent!!!!!
C17Inspector 8 months ago
Mindfuck. This is it.
IHeartBrattyPets1212 8 months ago 3
What..? I'm so hyped this is on YouTube. I paused my porn for this.
JonneyeTV 8 months ago 25
@JonneyeTV wha...? i watch this and porn simultaneously...
somewhereone 8 months ago
Ponies brought me here.
daemonxblaze 8 months ago 5
It's okay for me to watch this. Why? Because I purchased (and own) the DVD.
brnleague99 8 months ago
Wow.
macsm 8 months ago
I'm surprised to see so many haters on this movie. But then again, this is YouTube, afterall...
TemeculaValleyLapse 8 months ago 4
@TemeculaValleyLapse Smart lad...
evaengineer 8 months ago
First five minutes, and it's made the message blindingly clear. Beautiful native painting, fireball, rocket, the message is obvious. It's presented atrociously! On a semi-related note, the message itself is a stupid and overplayed one. Paraphrasing Jurassic Park, (which I cannot cite as I unfortunately do not have the book in my possession) we cannot kill the earth, for we are the earth. We cannot break the planet, we can only break ourselves. [/rant] Sorry, Glass, but I hate this movie. 0 chars
pogogo51 8 months ago
Guys guys, if you're forced to watch an ad that kills the movie for you, I dare you to torrent this movie out of spite. And not the MGM release, torrent the IRE version, it's not as blurry, it's 4:3 because the MGM version cut out the top and bottom portions of the film to make it 16:9. Do it. Make Godfrey Reggio proud. :D
moopMASTER2000Films 9 months ago
if you actually watched this whole thing from beginning to end and found it entertaining, then your life is incredibly dull
keeponblinking 9 months ago
@keeponblinking You're a moron.
moopMASTER2000Films 9 months ago
@moopMASTER2000Films I disagree
keeponblinking 8 months ago
@keeponblinking So, you're conjecturing that Godfrey Reggio was in it just for the money, and would totally frown at you sticking it to MGM, after they wronged him and the IRE, all throughout the 90's?
moopMASTER2000Films 8 months ago
@moopMASTER2000Films You're a moron.
keeponblinking 8 months ago
@keeponblinking And you're an even greater moron for hating Koyaanisqatsi.
moopMASTER2000Films 8 months ago 4
@moopMASTER2000Films I disagree
keeponblinking 8 months ago
@keeponblinking Explain why.
moopMASTER2000Films 8 months ago
@keeponblinking I masturbated throughout. Very fun.
FloydIV 8 months ago
i find the music incredibly annoying
keeponblinking 9 months ago
Koyaanisqatsi and Fantasia (1940) are my two favorite movies of all-time. And I was born in 1992.
TemeculaValleyLapse 9 months ago
Ponies: The Anthology.
That is all.
CMSSL4D2TF2LoL 9 months ago
This would just be so much better if Morgan Freeman was narrating..
ThatOneGuyNamedBen 9 months ago
@ThatOneGuyNamedBen No it wouldn't. Words simply don't do a story of this magnitude and beauty any justice. If there were any narration at all, it would just detract from the richness of the experience.
qtfan1121 9 months ago 2
@qtfan1121 jokes..
ThatOneGuyNamedBen 9 months ago
@ThatOneGuyNamedBen ...? Care to elaborate there, Chief?
qtfan1121 9 months ago