As professor smith said in class, this was a film that completely different than anything I had ever seen. The only other movie I had watched without any speaking was the artist. While I had not particularly enjoyed that movie, I found Koyaanisqatsi incredibly powerful.

The film starts with serene images of canyons, mountains, forests, and oceans. The music is repetitive in a way that washes over you and provides a sense of tranquility and happiness. The music then drastically changes and images of nature are replaced by highways and skyscrapers. Ominous music blares as you see nuclear power plants and hoards of human beings scurrying through cities.

While the music was captivating and really helped convey the tone that the author was portraying, what really stood out to me about the movie was the incredible videography. The shots of nature were all incredibly striking and beautiful. Many of them were overhead and slow. I especially loved the sped up shots of the clouds flowing over the mountaintops. These sped up shots were in stark contrast to the sped up shots of people in the streets. The people seemed to be scurrying all over the place with no real purpose. Going and going and going but doing so unnecessarily.

I felt the peak of the movie was about half way through. This was the only time that there was no music behind the tracking shots. After such a long score that never stopped, the quiet felt deafening. It was at this moment of quiet that a city of rubble was shown with no people in it. I think the point was to demonstrate that we are destroying these naturally sceneries to build and build more and more but in the end the legacy we will be leaving on this earth is one of ruin.