Koyaanisqatsi

About an hour into the movie, the camera operator is reflected in the elevator's glass window as the elevator passes "between" floors while shooting the escalators.

Godfrey Reggio's film uses only images and music to portray it's meaning. There is no dialogue, and no narrator occupies the films space.

30 years on and this movie means just as much, if not more today than when it was made. One of the most important pieces of film to be ever made.

Videos strung together, coordinated with Phillip Glass' music. Nature (clouds, waves, mountains, shores) is described as beautiful, enduring, good.

"Koyaanisqatsi" is an American documentary movie from 1982, so this one will soon have its 40th anniversary and maybe it happened already, depending on when you read this review. I got to see this on the big screen tonight for the first time and also for the first time in general.

The word Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi Indian expression which means 'Life out of balance'. The 1982 film, by Godfrey Reggio, is an experimental representation of this, which is a beautiful assault on the senses for its audience.

This is a tough film to review or recommend. It is film that is destined to have a very limited and niche audience.

A visual poetry experience coming from the 80s, Koyaanisqatsi portrays Earth as an Art object. Our planet as the surviving hero observing its human parasites devastating all even themselves.

Without a plot, actors, or dialog, "Koyaanisqatsi" (with its hypnotic musical score and remarkable artistic cinematography) was a surreal, spellbinding trip for the eyes and ears."Koyaanisqatsi" contrasted the stunning, tranquil beauty of nature with the vibrant, frenzied hum of contemporary urban society in America.

... doing what they do best, scarring the planet with concrete, raping its natural resources, pollution, destruction and chaos.