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KOYAANISQATSI and POWAQQATSI were both principally photographed in the 1980s, when widescreen television was a vague idea somewhere off in the future and a large picture tube was 27" across. While conceived as theatrical features, both films were shot with consideration of possible television broadcast, which at that time was almost exclusively full-frame 1:1.33 (4x3). The alternative to "protecting" for 4x3 by composing the image to work well in full frame would have been to "pan and scan" the widescreen image when transferred to videotape for home video release and TV broadcast.
I am sure that anyone who has seen KOYAANISQATSI and POWAQQATSI would agree the pan and scan approach would have yielded a ludicrous result for these films: for this reason when the films have been broadcast they are presented in the full "academy" aperture of 4x3, showing _more_of the original film frame than was shown in the theater. And when video transfers of the films were made prior to the MGM DVD they were also made 1:1.33. This reflected the conventional practice at the time, when very few films were transferred to video wide-screen.
However in the past few years there has been a markedly increased interest in wide-screen home video and the the technical means to display wide-screen video adequately in the home has become commonplace, arising chiefly from the popularity of larger displays. Reflecting this new environment the decision was taken now to release the films on DVD in their original 1:1.85 aspect ratio. I repeat that this image is exactly as originally intended by the director, Godfrey Reggio and the cinematographers.
I don't mean to imply that the 4x3 image in earlier transfers is somehow "invalid". I think this way of watching the films is very interesting.
It is a mark of how carefully crafted were these films that both ratios work very well. However, in no sense is the viewer of the MGM DVDs "losing" something by watching the films as they are shown as a motion picture, at 1.85, anymore than the audience was "missing something" watching the premier of KOYAANISQATSI at Radio City Music Hall in 1983.
Joe Beirne
Producer, NAQOYQATSI
But I will say, while it's my favorite movie, I can only stand to watch it about every 5 years, because for about 3-4 days after watching Koyaanisqatsi, I can barely deal with this society. It just makes me want to cry to drive on city streets.
So if you're already trying to come to grips with reality, this movie probably would be counter-productive. But for everybody who thinks everything about modern western civilization truly is "progress", I couldn't recommend this film enough.
What it will be for those people, is a priceless perspective adjustment. It won't make you permanently pessimistic or anything, it will just give you a new perspective.
Basically, the first fifteen to twenty minutes of the film has some wonderful shots of the desert, waterfalls, geologic formations, clouds billowing so close it's as if one's inside them, and aerial photography that makes one appreciate the landscape.
The rest of the movie then shows the human side. Caterpillar tractors lay out pipes, dotting the landscape with a network of electric towers, resembling wire framework travesties of men, power plants billowing steam and smoke smack in the middle of the desert, atomic tests in the desert, nuclear plants... abominations invading the environment. Rivers have been stopped by dams. And the military testing in the desert does nothing more than pollute the ground and air with explosions.
Switch over to the big city and the 12 lane highways, with its network of overpasses, byways, merging lanes, cars moving bumper to bumper, passing each other. Then we see the decrepit slums, abandoned projects, which are then blown up, slowly sinking to the ground in clouds of dust.
The time-lapse photography of people milling in line for subway tickets, eating, bowling, playing video games, etc. shows the city as the organism, streets, entrances and exits as blood vessels, humans as the blood cells. The night scenes of traffic, with white and red dashes zipping is very telling, as is the cycle of traffic going, stopping, going, stopping at each signal light. Later on, the speed of the film goes quicker, to demonstrate the quickening rate and insanity of human consumption, waste, and stress. Is this really worth living for, I ask you?
There are some images that are analogous. An aerial view of the concrete jungle, at what we've created, is replaced by an infrared satellite photo, then a closeup of a computer chip, showing the inputs going into multiplexers and demultiplexers, coming out as outputs. It shows how mechanized we have become compared to the more serene, less chaotic ways of nature, going in one way, going out through another. Another is a shot of sausages being cranked out, followed by people moving up escalators. Notice the similarity?
The most telling shots of the thousands of people in New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco is that they don't look very happy at all, but for them, it's what they know, what they are, part of this mechanized, corporate world.
The translation of Hopi prophecies sung in the movie follow the conclusion, and they are sobering and chilling: "If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster." "Near the Day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth through the sky." "A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans."
Philip Glass's score, which alternates from frenetic synthesizers during the time-lapse footage and elegiac sobriety in the slo-mo shots, adds to this one-of-a-kind movie. However, this is best seen on the big screen for maximum impact.
The impact is tremendous but like all works of art you either like it or you don't. Read more
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