Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 18
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 3
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Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 1
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Named after a Sufi word that translates roughly as "breath of life" or "blessing," Baraka is Ron Fricke's impressive follow-up to Godfrey Reggio's non-verbal documentary film Koyaanisqatsi. Fricke was cinematographer and collaborator on Reggio's film, and for Baraka he struck out on his own to polish and expand the photographic techniques used on Koyaanisqatsi. The result is a tour-de-force in 70mm: a cinematic "guided meditation" (Fricke's own description) shot in 24 countries on six continents
Sep 24, 1993 Wide
Jan 25, 2000
Magidson Films
All Critics (21) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (4) | DVD (13)
The film's one-world thesis is asserted but never made convincing, as Fricke zigzags from the Western Wall to whirling dervishes to the Grand Mosque of Mecca in a superficial gloss on faith (and everything else).
The form is ravishing, though the content suffers by comparison.
It is claimed that the great age of travel is dead - that there are no longer amazing, exotic, beautiful and fearsome places for the traveler to discover. A movie like Baraka gives hope.
Nothing in this epic visual poem is less than extraordinary.
Critics and audiences have struggled to find the right words to describe the effect Baraka has on them for 16 years; but it seems appropriate to be speechless after seeing this wordless masterpiece of cinema.
images [and juxtapositions] in BARAKA . . provoke speculation about our place in the cosmos
[It] begins like a National Geographic tour....a vacation from dialogue and narrative, traveling strictly on imagery... [but]Baraka gets old before the 93 minutes are up.
Baraka's major strength is its realization that life happens all over the world and not just in America.
This is a film that gazes with such awe at the mystery of life on earth that it seems almost childlike and yet does it in a way so purely cinematic that it can only come from the hands of a wizened master.
will appeal greatly to any children of the sixties ... who believe in the common unity of mankind and how we all seek the same universal source'
Extraordinary non-narrative film that enables us to see with our eyes and feel in our flesh that the healing of self and the healing of the planet and inextricably linked.
Over 90 minutes of the most visually stunning filming ive ever seen. A must see on blu ray due to the amazing restoration of the original film to a high def transfer that will put any movie to shame. You will feel like your there. You feel like you can reach into the screen and touch it. This is something else.
August 25, 2010Super Reviewer
Beautiful, but not exactly thrilling entertainment for an hour and a half. Some of it is interesting, some upsetting, like the bit with the chickens getting thrown around and all the human skulls lined up. Some of it not so interesting. If you like photos you will probably like this as it is really nicely framed and
January 17, 2008Super Reviewer
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