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Naqoyqatsi (Naqoyqatsi: Life as War)

Naqoyqatsi (Naqoyqatsi: Life as War) (2002)

tomatometer

53

Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 8

The weakest film in Reggio's trilogy.

audience

70

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 4,081

My Rating

Movie Info

Filmmaker, philosopher and activist Godfrey Reggio completes the film trilogy he began with Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi in this visually striking examination of the impact of technology upon our culture. Naqoyqatsi is a word from the Hopi language which roughly translates as "war as a way of life" or "a life of killing each other," and in this film Reggio uses a intense barrage of images - most of which have been drawn from existing film footage and then altered using a variety of optical and

PG,

Documentary, Special Interest

Godfrey Reggio

Jun 24, 2003

Miramax Films - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (59) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (26) | Rotten (27) | DVD (9)

If the message seems more facile than the earlier films, the images have such a terrible beauty you may not care.

May 28, 2003 Full Review Source: Newsday
Newsday
Top Critic IconTop Critic

At its best, Naqoyqatsi awakens the eyes, but it doesn't really do much to tweak the conscience. It's difficult to feel a sense of outrage while you're in a trance.

February 14, 2003
Denver Rocky Mountain News
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If you open yourself up to Mr. Reggio's theory of this imagery as the movie's set ... it can impart an almost visceral sense of dislocation and change.

January 30, 2003 Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News
Dallas Morning News
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Filmmaking at its purest and most visceral.

November 15, 2002 Full Review Source: Washington Post
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Pretentious, ponderous and redundant."

November 15, 2002
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Feels like a bloated mass of data without much coherence.

November 8, 2002 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An extensive and virtually flawless presentation of one of American cinema's most fascinatingly singular achievements.

December 13, 2012 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

Too much of a good thing being bombarded with an hour and a half of trippy images that appear to be lecturing me on how miserable, yet strangely beautiful, modern life is.

May 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

The only feeling one comes away from Naqoyqatsi is admiration of its technological virtuosity--certainly not what Reggio intended.

December 27, 2006 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com
TheMovieReport.com

Socially aware, but so nihilistic and fatalistic that it's irrelevant since it is unwilling to push towards the social change that the prior films supported so adamently.

March 1, 2004

Reggio's ever-evolving style in this film doesn't have the same mesmerizing quality as his previous efforts...but nobody makes more accessible non-narrative conceptual cinema.

December 31, 2003 Full Review Source: SPLICEDWire
SPLICEDWire

The collected sum of the images equal a work of kitsch art.

December 31, 2003 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Instead of helping us step out of our world, which has become inundated with imagery, Naqoyqatsi gives us more of the same, and our eyes glaze over.

October 15, 2003 Full Review Source: About.com
About.com

The saturation bombing of Reggio's images and Glass' evocative music ... ultimately leaves viewers with the task of divining meaning.

April 11, 2003 Full Review Source: Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune

Like its two predecessors, 1983's Koyaanisqatsi and 1988's Powaqqatsi, the cinematic collage Naqoyqatsi could be the most navel-gazing film ever.

April 11, 2003 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Can be viewed as pure composition and form -- film as music

February 18, 2003 Full Review Source: Movie Habit
Movie Habit

Despite its visual virtuosity, 'Naqoyqatsi' is banal in its message and the choice of material to convey it.

February 10, 2003 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion
One Guy's Opinion

Audience Reviews for Naqoyqatsi (Naqoyqatsi: Life as War)

I understand that Naqoyqatsi is a premonition of the future and that is why it is so synthetic but that is also the reason why I didn't like it as much as the others, its pretty soulless. I've said that Powaqqatsi was an imitation of Koyaanisqatsi, Naqoyqatsi is it's bastard child. Aesthetically, it's brilliant, or at least to begin with, after a while it does start to resemble a cross between a Yes (the prog rock band) video and something from the early 90's acid house movement. Why didn't they update the music to match? With its limitless subject matter, there was so much missed out too, where was all the post 9/11 footage? Steven Soderbergh's grubby mitts are all over this, it could and should have been brilliant but it is way off the mark, ahead of its time or past its sell by date, either way, it just doesn't work. That said, I would love to see a proper post 9/11 Qatsi film!
December 8, 2010
SirPant

Super Reviewer

The third installment in Godfrey Reggio's visual montage trilogy. The computer generated imagery makes it more nuanced than the previous two.
July 24, 2011
YFilter
W. Williams
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Foreign Titles

  • Naqoyqatsi (DE)
  • Naqoyqatsi (UK)
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