Koyaanisqatsi

1982

Action / Documentary / Music

36
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 91% · 23 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 91% · 10K ratings
IMDb Rating 8.2/10 10 44276 44.3K

human vs nature technology civilization social commentary rural area nature run amok

Plot summary

Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.

Director

Godfrey Reggio Photo
Godfrey Reggio

Top cast

Sammy Davis Jr. Photo
Sammy Davis Jr. as Self - On TV
Edward Asner Photo
Edward Asner as Self - On TV
Peter Sellers Photo
Peter Sellers as Self - On TV
Dick Cavett Photo
Dick Cavett as Self - On TV
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
760.84 MB
1280*682
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 26 min
Seeds 12
1.42 GB
1920*1024
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 26 min
Seeds 100

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by petter-62556 8 / 10

Like a documentary made by aliens about the 80's

A very beautiful flow of clips, even though some of them should frighten more than intrigue.The tempo is also part of what makes is so captivating. The clips slowly builds up and creates an alarming story. At the same time every sequence stands on its own. The lack of words gives it an almost alien view of earth and man's relationship to the planet. Together with the score by Philip Glass it sucked me in and I have rarely been so focused on every frame throughout an entire movie. It must have been quite amazing to see this in a movie theater back in the 80's with the big screen, speakers and also i guess in a time when similar creations were more scarce than now. It's by far the most visual movie I have seen and the fact that it only relies on images and music to tell a story made it bypass my rational filters and made me fully present in the moment for 86 minutes straight.
Reviewed by RJBurke1942 9 / 10

A socio-political tour de force, and proof that life on Earth is indeed out of balance.

We are but dust and grime upon the face of the earth...When this visual opera of the senses was released, somehow I managed to miss it for all these years. Only now, have I been able to get a DVD and feast myself to one of the most mesmerizing documentaries I've seen. Now I can get to see the sequels...In the twenty-five years since its release, nothing much has fundamentally changed. The only real difference is that the scale of life out of balance has ballooned to the point where humanity has finally realized – perhaps too late – that we are indeed on the path to self-destruction unless radical steps are taken to change our ways. Some might argue that I'm too pessimistic and point to the Montreal protocol (it set the wheels in motion to stop using CFCs that were causing the depletion of the earth's ozone layer) as proof that we can pull together when danger is imminent.Perhaps true...but the problem is that many still don't think that life on earth – not in the upper atmosphere – is truly out of balance. This documentary takes us all back to what it was like all those years ago – and, as you will see or have seen on your TV news programs today, it's now all that much worse...The metaphors abound, beginning with Earth, Air and Water as the three dominant and necessary conditions that permit life on this planet, then relentlessly but gradually, showing how humanity changes the very conditions that support balanced life. Mountains explode, fires consume, people increase and multiply together with the trappings humanity needs to keep consuming: traffic jams, food and automobile production, steel and glass monuments to Mammon – surely a parody of Kubrick's images of the monolithic Sentinel in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – freeways that look like arteries with blood coursing through veins, images from space that show glowing cities which morph into electronic circuits for computers – we've become the machines we've invented – and, of course, the milling millions, moving through life as though they are the walking dead, oblivious to all except the self and self-gratification.It is at once a pretty picture and a damning one – of particular note, the sequenced implosion of the abandoned Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St Louis, designed, ironically, by the architect of the World Trade Center, Minoru Yamasaki.The music very sensibly doesn't belabour the use of the title; it's chanted only during the opening sequence and during the finale which, in my opinion, is the most stunning tracking shot I've seen yet as the camera follows the detritus from an exploding rocket (a Russian one, I think) plunging back to earth. For the rest of it, just sit back, let the music waft over and through you as you watch your future begin.This is a film that everybody should see at least once.
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