Like many other students have said in the blog responses, Koyaanisqatsi really made my head spin. It was not only the head cold I had on Monday combined with watching the fast pace clips, seeing the bright lights, following the repeating scenes and hearing the loud repeating music that did me in. I think that what made my head spin the most was the realization that we live in a world of mundane order and repetition that we do not even pay attention to because it is just how we live and never question it. I think that this is an important realization for most of us to have and I would recommend that others watch this film in order to gain this understanding. However, I don’t think that everyone would realize this idea or at least act on it after watching the film. As an environmental studies major I am already in tune with the gloom and doom of our society. Not everyone is as versed in these issues so I that is why I worry that other would be bored by the repetition, overwhelmed by the sounds and images and would fail to see this larger message.

The argument in the film is that Earth has its own system that it self balances but humans throw the balance off. There are no data sets and graphs that show this destruction but the images and obvious contrasts of the natural world to the human world clearly show this impact. The clips of the rolling clouds and rolling waves are cut to overlap each other and at first make it seem like they are a continuation of the clip before it. However, when the viewer takes a second look at these clips they may realize that the film is actually showing different systems. These images advance the idea that systems of the Earth which seem so different actually function similarly and follow a natural flow. To contrast these natural cycles, images of human intrusion are abruptly cut to in the film. There is no longer a natural flow in the images, like there were of the nature scenes, but rather fast paced and mind numbing clips, such as the various highway and factory scenes. There are also clips of nature being absorbed by man such as the beautiful full moon being absorbed into the skyscraper and the ever-growing mushroom cloud. This is important to note because it symbolizes how human development is consuming nature without even considering the consequences. The final clip of the burning rocket is a very powerful message that symbolizes the Koyaanisqatsi prophecies. In summary these prophecies are warning that when we mess with the Earth, we are only bound to burn up and fail in the end–just like the rocket did.

As a side note:

I was interested in why there are clips of human faces and slow-mos of people walking down the street and turning to the camera. Is this to contrast the idea that we are just nameless people in the rat race like the factory and car clips suggest? Is it there to remind us that we are people and we each have stories despite how many of us there are? Or are they there just to put a face to the consumption and destruction?