Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Babylon Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 17, 2023

Writer/Director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land) turns the camera on Hollywood and the moviemaking landscape, and turns back time by about a century, for Babylon, a film of shameless excess, loose characters, and a looser structure that chronicles both the transition from silent to sound film era and the path of various people on both sides of the camera as they navigate the changing workspace and the evolving lifestyles and life events that define them both on camera and off of it. The film is bloated and struggles to hold direction and find purpose, but it nevertheless proves to be a somewhat engaging blend of true-life chronicling and fictional characterization. The film is not for audiences unprepared for its visual and aural excesses, but those prepared to indulge in everything Hollywood in the 1920s had to offer should find the picture a satisfying venture of sight and, indeed, sound.

'Babylon' follows an ambitious cast of characters -- The Silent Film Superstar (Brad Pitt), the Young Starlet (Margot Robbie), the Production Executive (Diego Calva), the Musical Sensation (Jovan Adepo) and the Alluring Powerhouse Performer (Li Jun Li) -- who are striving to stay on top of the raucous, 1920s Hollywood scene and maintain their relevance at a time when the industry is moving on to the next best thing.

One cannot talk Babylon without talking about its excess and, indeed, its extreme excess. In some ways the film brings to mind The Wolf of Wall Street, certainly a film in a whole different league in terms of quality and narrative and timeframe and so on and so forth, but the pictures share an appetite for slathering the screen in as much sexual frenzy and self indulgent mayhem as possible. Babylon oozes sexuality, sensuality, and plenty of soulless satisfaction. It gazes, intently and intensely, on the extremes of human behavior at the top fo the success chain. The opening celebration of debauchery underscores the rest of the film, including the "last hurrah" of the silent era during a mesmerizing sequence in which various films are being shot in tandem, practically right next door to each other, with full orchestras off to the side and many people sacrificing life and limb, at times literally, in the name of the finished product. The production is itself an orgy of excess and extreme of another variety and parallels quite impressively with the sexual debauchery of the opening segment.

The transition to shooting for the sound era offers a startling contrast of stop-and-start frustration for the cast and crew alike, unlike the uninhibited free flow of the partying and filmmaking seen previous. Chazelle builds a fascinatingly and intoxicatingly slow burn sequence of one thing upsetting the flow after another, with anger and frustration mounting, and it is rather incredible to consider how a single variable -- here sound -- can alter the full dynamic of the moviemaking process, especially for those unaccustomed to accounting for it. Gone was the almost "anything goes" flair of the silent era, replaced by a need for exactness and precision that frustrates the actors and filmmakers to the point of extreme meltdowns, and in one case, literally, where an overheated cameraman dies during the shoot.

The film itself is also an exercise in excess as, from the dawn of the sound movies forward, it pulls in various directions, but never without leaving its sense of larger-than-life desire and limitless lust for life behind. The film tries to blend the retrospective turn on Hollywood broadly with stories of a more personal nature for the characters as they find themselves in trouble beyond their careers. These elements feel less than enthusiastic in scale and scope, presented largely, it would seem, in an effort to internalize and draw focus to a film that is otherwise just about a parade of external sight and sound of extremes. Still, even if some of the character arcs are less than original, the parts are played well, with Robbie in particularly soaking in the opportunity to act with near limitless inhibition, whether she's acting within her part in a film-within-the-film or presenting her character as an individual beyond the lens' reach.

Babylon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Babylon was shot on film and looks satisfyingly grounded on Blu-ray. The picture holds some softer corners but is otherwise in very fine shape, capturing nicely defined details and textures with film-quality ease and efficiency. To be sure the picture is not the most abundantly sharp at every stop, but consider the overall clarity within the picture's stylistic choices and the image satisfies, especially in close-up where facial textures and clothing lines and fabric definition excel. Likewise, the picture thrives in some of its larger-scale settings, especially outdoors, but also on various interior movie sets as well where vintage products and props enjoy hearty definition. Color rendition is fine, presenting with excellent depth and tonal variance. Color vividness is impressive as situations warrant, but the film can also look slightly washed out and murky by design. Black levels are deep and accurate, flesh tones are good within any given lighting condition, and white balance is strong. The image shows no major print anomalies or encode artifacts. This is a good-looking Blu-ray from Paramount.

Babylon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dolby Atmos soundtrack is an exceptional example of modern audio engineering, even as the film takes place about 100 years ago. The sense of sheer scale in the opening sequence is nearly unrivaled for the orgy of audio that pours into the listening area. Between the raucous partygoers and the intense blasts of the era big band music, the sense of immersion is real, and the clarity and surround content are a match. Add in the wonderful subwoofer balance and altogether these elements make the sequence hard to beat for distinction and definition. The track holds to a balance between extreme audio aggression and intimate balance throughout. Listeners will be repeatedly awestruck by the engineering at work to sort everything out while also mixing it all together to audio perfection. Whether effects, atmosphere, or action, the track delivers in perfect working order. Dialogue is always clear and center positioned for the duration as well.

Babylon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Babylon contains all of its extras on a second Blu-ray disc; the feature film disc contains only the film. No DVD copy is included, but Paramount has bundled in a digital copy code.

• A Panoramic Canvas Called Babylon (1080p, 30:50): The "wild time" that was Hollywood of the 1920s: life and partying, filmmaking at the time and building the cinema industry, characters and the perspectives they bring to the film, the rigors of the shoot, recreating Hollywood 100 years ago, costume design, the film's technical details and inspirations, shooting on film, making the first "sound film" scene in the film, music in the film, and more.
• The Costumes of Babylon (1080p, 2:51): As the title suggests, this piece goes in-depth (as in depth as it can in under three minutes) into the period costumes seen throughout the film.
• Scoring Babylon (1080p, 1:50): A brief look at the film's music.
• Deleted and Extended Scenes (1080p, 9:15 total runtime): Included are Manny Drives Jack - Deleted, Elinor Chats with Extra - Extended, Cutting Room - Deleted, Dressing Room Fight - Deleted, Powder Room - Extended, and Passport Search - Deleted.

Babylon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Many film aficionados are going to have a good time with Babylon, flaws and all. The film's excesses stretch throughout, and while the core narrative is coherently linear, the larger purpose beyond painting a vivid picture of lust-for-life extremes seems scattered. The Blu-ray is quite good, with solid video and excellent audio in addition to an entire bonus disc's worth of supplements, even if they are on a second disc for feature film spacing purposes, not breadth and length of supplemental content. Fans will love this package.