Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out Of Balance

Thien Tran

Mr. Jacobs [e-mail]

Lit & Film

10/20/15

Koyaanisqatsi The film Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, was directed by Godfrey Reggio. The film shows the relationship between humans and nature through the contrast between the music and the visuals. The music composer Philip Glass use tone of the music to guide the audience along the way and provide meaning to what’s taking place in the film

The film begins with slow, calm music by Glass played over pictures of the natural world. Sand blows into natural patterns, the water of the mountains ease their way down into rivers, and the wind blow clouds across the sky. However, human beings to show up and change the mood, both visually and aurally. At first, human beings is almost imperceptible then there's a shot of rows of agriculture rather than the more anarchic of mountains, sand, and rivers. Immediately the camera shot shows a dramatic side of mountains being exploded away to make a power plant. The first human being we see approaches a power plant truck and is immediately surrounded by black smoke. It is the first time that human

Breaking the balance of nature to live surrounded by man's happiness, by exterminating the natural habitat, also destroys itself, which will cause many problems for the next generations. At the end of the film, there is a translated quote of Hopi Prophecies said, “If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disasters.” This quote wants to tell human need to take precaution when they’re doing damage to the land that they live on, or else they might have to face those problems soon or later. When there is an earthquakes, tsunamis, or another wake-up call from nature, crying out loud to the surrounding environments. The culprit is not Mother Nature, who’s cause problems, but the real culprit is human that urge to make life easier and more advances that go beyond what is really