Koyaanisqatsi was an interesting film examining our relationship with the natural and unnatural order of the universe. The goal of the film seemed to be to compare events in nature and events in urban environments. At first the film starts with a monotonic primal music with chanting of what I believe sounds like the word "koyaanisqatsi." There are shots of cave paintings, exploding volcanoes, and waves crashing with clouds rolling. I believe this was to set up natural chaos.
All the while these things are happening, there are time lapses of nature on mountains and landscapes to show the passing of time on nature. Eventually the film switches to mechanized modern objects. Cars, planes, and tanks. They are shot with their own chaotic music but it begins to sound more modern slowly. The images are frantic with a lot of repetition, such as cars in a row in a traffic jam. These shots set up the unnatural man made chaos. There are also shots of man made explosions such as bombs and missiles which mirror the lava and natural explosions from the beginning. These are the parallels of nature and the unnatural. The message is communicated by the way images of nature and the unnatural are juxtaposed, since there is no other dialogue or explanation other than the definition of "koyaanisqatsi" to mean life unbalanced. I also like the use of appropriate silence in the movie where you are set up for an even more unsettled feeling, and the way that the modern scenes seem to have a different soundtrack of more 80s reminiscent soundtrack. Almost David Lynch-esque at some points.
Over all, the movie gave me a sense of anxiety
towards the way we are. The mechanical way society is, car after car, building
after building, all the while time goes on illustrated by the clouds and light
changing during time lapses. The urgency that time is never going to stop and
we constantly go through an assembly line of life in our urban societies, always moving like the tides. Everyone walks on the streets, their individual lives and
goals blurred by the sense of group dynamics. Even later when the camera focuses in on individuals you still are left with a feeling of mystery. They are one small part of a
whole sidewalk full of people and all the while time is going on. We are part of an eternal tapestry of chaos and it all seems a little meaningless when we die and others take over the oppressively stressful urban landscape, while the waves and clouds are eternally in their own state of chaos with no goals other than to eb and flow.
