While watching Koyaanisqatsi I was reminded of Alex DeLarge being brainwashed in Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. The scene in Burgess’ book that I am referring to is when Alex, a dystopian, ultraviolent thug, is being brutally trained to feel ill at the sight or thought of violence – eyes held open looking at a screen with violent images flashing. He is injected with a substance that triggers the reaction of illness. Of course this is a dramatic reference, but I think Koyaanisqatsi attempts to have a similar effect. Instead of aiming to make viewers disgusted by acts of violence, Koyaanisqatsi aims to make viewers repulsed by the American military-industrial complex.

I felt overwhelmed with imagery and music. While I was angered by the images of destruction (particularly exploding mountains and bombs dropping), I was also angered by the film itself, having scenes that lasted too long (such as the Saturn 5 rocket explosion). Of course, this is what makes Koyaanisqatsi so unique and effectively disturbing. I also was saddened by the dark image of humanity that is painted by this film. The film began with beautiful images of undeveloped, pure nature – river cutting through a rocky desert landscape and clouds rolling over lush green mountains. Clouds are shown to be moving as water moves in the ocean. A desert scene then becomes infiltrated by human impact – some kind of industry appears with wastewater pools and bombs are shown detonating in this landscape.

Koyaanisqatsi intentionally makes viewers extremely uncomfortable with images that linger for unconventionally long periods of time. Images of people (i.e. such as a fighter pilot, gogo-girl-esque casino workers, people on city streets) starring into the camera for more than several seconds left me feeling uneasy and even somewhat violated by the film. I felt that the film was targeting me personally. After all the people on the screen were starring right into my eyes as if they were saying “Are you getting it? Do you see what is happening here? Are you feeling guilty yet?” After all we, the viewers, are all feeding into this fast-paced, industrialized, crowded, machine-like world. We are the processed meat on the conveyor belt.

Koyaanisqatsi aims to show how our American lifestyle will fulfill the Hopi prophecy of the destruction of our world. The film aims to showing the disturbing consequences of our imbalanced, crazy lives. Our bombs and rockets will create the “ashes..thrown from the sky,” our power lines will comprise the “cobwebs spun” in the sky, and our extensive resource extraction and land use will ‘invite disaster” as foreseen by the prophecies. The film aims to disturb us and prompt a change in our aggressive and disastrous military-industrial cycle and congested, unhappy cities. It is a call to slow down because moving quickly is sickening (as shown by the whirlwind of lights of our complex highway systems). This message is strongly conveyed through the association of human action with industrial images. The highway system aglow is paired a circuit board. Humans are associated with meat on a conveyor belt. Rows of duplicate cars turn into rows of tanks. One of the first images of humans in the film is hell-like with fire and red lighting. We are creatures of destruction stuck on the conveyor belt of our ways – cogs in a machine. We are clockwork oranges – explosive ones!

It is clear that viewers are meant to walk away feeling ill at the thought of industry and our fast-paced, destructive lives. However, I wonder how effective a film like this is in prompting change. Who would sit down to watch it? It is a cult film for a reason. A very specific audience would watch it willingly. I suppose when you have a truly captive audience – an Alex DeLarge situation – like in a classroom, people who would not ordinarily watch the film may watch and be impacted. Perhaps anyone who watches it fully can realize that they don’t want to be a cog in the machine. They want to break free and create change. The style of Koyaanisqatsi makes it more fit for forced viewership or cult viewership, not widespread dissemination of information for the masses. For this reason, I would not recommend the film as a catalyst for change. However, I would recommend the film for it’s artistic novelty and aggressively disturbing tactics. Nonetheless, I am a strong believer that art in many forms can be utilized to prompt collective action and change in our world.