Synopsis
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
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Cast
- Marlon BrandoSelf (archive footage)
- Elton JohnSelf (archive footage)
- Julia Louis-DreyfusSelf (archive footage)
- Adolf HitlerSelf (archive footage)
- Bill ClintonSelf (archive footage)
- Fidel CastroSelf (archive footage)
- Martin Luther King Jr.Self (archive footage)
- Ronald ReaganSelf (archive footage)
- Paul McCartneySelf (archive footage)
- Ringo StarrSelf (archive footage)
Recommendations
- 90
Washington Post
Filmmaking at its purest and most visceral – a tale full of sound and visual fury, signifying, if not exactly nothing, then something not so readily articulated in words. - 75
Philadelphia Inquirer
There are extraordinary collisions of image and music here that make for some breathtaking sequences, but when that portentous, Gregorian-chanting chorus kicks in with its repetitive mantra of the film's title, it sure sounds a whole lot like they're saying "narcolepsy," not "naqoyqatsi." - 75
New York Daily News
Images wash over you like wind-blown rain, fierce and beautiful at the same time, largely shaped into themes by the haunting music of Philip Glass, who is here joined by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. - 75
New York Post
Who needs mind-bending drugs when they can see this. - 70
Los Angeles Times
Much of this is involving, although the pace is so relentless that it leaves little time to breathe or grasp precisely what Reggio is attempting to say. - 67
Entertainment Weekly
If Microsoft and Nike ever merged into one corporate megalith (MicroNike?) and commissioned Leni Riefenstahl to direct its visionary new Super Bowl commercial, the result might look something like Godfrey Reggio's Naqoyqatsi. - 63
Boston Globe
A movie that seems to have been made mostly on the hard drive of a Power Mac G4. But whatever, we get it: Technology destroys everything. - 60
The New York Times
By far the grimmest of these nonnarrative, nonverbal cinematic tone poems with epic ambitions. Although none of the three could be described as cheery, Naqoyqatsi, whose title is the Hopi Indian term for war as a way of life, reeks of doomsday.
