Opening. Sombre, Black. Minimum Titles. Priests intone the word 'Koyaanisqatsi' over rather sombre organ? music. Might make one imagine a requiem. To look at some cave ? painting. Remember the old days? Egypt? Priests? Gods? Bubbling fire. Industry. A smelting? works. (The music has broadened , to involve a soprano line - on the organ) Slow motion, of oil pump? No! It's a rocket take-off, all the fire. Next- the earth, mountain range. Seen from this rocket? Seen from a plane or helicopter (whose shadow you could probably see, if sharp.) Wonderfully odd stones- forget the name in geology. Grand canyon??? Second movement- a siren? like sound, repeated note on a horn? Sounds... imploring, speaks of distress? Calms down a bit- we inspect the stones, contours, colours. Rock formations, not like pebbles. Sorry. Look! No people? Is it saying. Desert landscape, with mountains. Start to hear the wind. The music repeats include another note- which make it sound more hopeful. Looking over the great plains??? sorry to be ignorant. Beautiful, I think is the idea. Beautiful and old. Like myself. I didn't say. Cut that last bit. Then, steaming. Volcanoes? Geysers?? A string element has been woven into the soundscape, sounds elegiac??? not too bad. Priests again. Koyan... can't spell. Actual, desert sands. and the wind ripples over their surface. So - just really... idea? let your mind be blown, by the ceaseless beauty of the earth. Shadows moving - first clouds, then shadows moving across the hills and vales. Very large, hills and vales. Mountains and... bats? in a cave. Fade to black. Third, movement? stage of music. A rasping - sounds more serious. Yet more clouds, but they are darker. Watching clouds. Then torrents of water- a waterfall. Niagara perhaps. See from above. Vertiginous. The sea. A trumpet solo is sounding more bonny now. The storm has gone??? don't be so sure. Return to beginning, seriousness. Waves. NB is Reggio his real name? When regio is Italian for director... Blaring fanfare, sounding much more certain , bold, happy. As we watch photography of clouds streaming over mountains. Or I do. Then. Fourth change. Buzzing on a plane through a valley- and turbulent flutes. ascend and descend the scale. meanwhile a bassoon??? rushing along the ground- and the different colours of farm fields. Wonderful. Music supported by brass. As if saying, yes I agree. So. I'll call that bit over. first 18 minutes. Now, difficult transfer... but now it moves into footage, of blasting a quarry? (don't hear the explosion) Man, as it were, is introduced- and he is ... a van that looks like it wouldn't be out of place on the moon. Polluting black smoke pouring from. (or no- first man, were the priests on the cave painting.) and here we have his massive bridges. and pipelines. stretching off into the distance. and pylons. The organ is back, screeching like a bird- be-ware! as there is footage of pylons. Crisscrossing the desert. A power station's cooling towers smoking. Massive reservoir and dam. Then the music goes a bit hyper. And the footage is of an oil refinery? Explosion in time with music. Atom bombs , Los Alamos? Music does not sound so threatening at this point. Bizarrely?? sunbathers. choir. Just outside the power station. Oblivious. People visiting the tower station. (choir are angels- saying look at those morons?) Clouds reflected in the side of a huge office block. Airplanes taxi in desert heat shimmers. Does the front of an airplane , look like an angry human face?? We marvel for a moment. Sixth? change. Repeated scales again- the flux, roads. Traffic. Spaghetti junction?? anyway, roads. Music exhibiting some of the thrill of driving, plus - the angelic choir -are concerned? for the plight of humanity?? More close-ups of the traffic. Give it a human face. A car manufacturer. Aerial. Tanks. Flurry on the strings and flute. More tanks. Fighter plane. View from back? of a stealth bomber??? as it flies. A bomb dropping. A rocket rising. Spacecraft jettisons one of its fuel canisters. Museum- hydrogen bomb? Man o'war. Parachutes- devastations of war. Shadows of clouds flick across New York City. Fast. in perfect silence. river trip on the Hudson??? NY river. That I have taken. A 'cello? The size , of some of the building? point. Violin quartet? and a sort of ghetto? derelict buildings. someone's broken a fire hydrant, in these squats. interior- lonely slide in a play park- broken street light. Broken pavilion? Birds flock. Then the trumpets sound, we must do something they say? fly overhead- there are many blocks of flats like this- one after another. Eventually, the detonation, of one. then another. then another. then cranes on the dock. A bridge. another high rise. another. another. staccato trumpets. Another. Don't know what that was. Explosion, bits flying everywhere. Back to: a glowering sky, turning strings- as though to say, the Gods are not happy?? Looking over a city. Calming down a bit. up to minute 39. Will come back.
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