Francis Ford Coppola’s Koyaanisqatsi is a reflection of the events on Earth, starting with its creation, leading up to the rise of humans, and ending with the destruction of all that is man-made. According to Coppola’s film, we are our own destruction, especially in light of all of the changes and amendments that we have made to planet Earth. These changes are, ultimately, the ones that will destroy us in the end. In persuading the viewers of the film to see this prediction as well as to realize the beauty and purity that is nature, Coppola employs dark-toned music, emotional outreach, and strategic effects and symbolism.
Koyaanisqatsi begins with a still of what seems to be cave drawings, and cryptic ones at that. That is, the drawings are somber and create a dark tone for the movie. These drawings may foreshadow that what the viewer is about to see has a grave ending, especially because the drawings depict human-like figures in constrained forms. After the shot of these drawings, the viewer sees explosions occurring, which I felt were synonymous with the big bang theory, or the predicted mechanism by which the universe came to be.
Supporting further my inference about the explosions are the subsequent shots of different locations on Earth, such as natural rock forms, moving clouds, cascading and glistening waters, green mountains, and endless rows of plants. These shots were, in essence, of an untouched Earth; that is, an Earth untouched by humans in which nature runs high and low, and far and wide.
The films comes to a pivotal point once the camera approaches and then travels over a rock-like projection, which perhaps represents a transition to a different time in the Earth’s history. This new timeframe introduces humans on Earth. The film wastes no time in demonstrating that the effect humans have on the Earth is a destructive one, for the clips after the camera makes it way over the rock projection involve many explosions of rock forms, which may be for the creation of human mines, caves, or industries.
Coppola expounds on the devilish nature of humans with regards to the Earth in the film when he introduces the viewer to a machine or industrial vehicle that strategically has the number six on its structure. Although this notion may be far-fetched, I felt as though the number 6 may have been a reference to the devil in lieu of 666. Even more, the machine becomes engulfed by a black smoke, which might be a reference to the ashes of hell.
After this scene, the viewer observes different clips of man-made creations, such as power plants, highways, buildings, and the atomic bomb, symbolizing the intrusion of humans, their intellectual superiority, and advancements on Earth. Again, the film reaches another pivotal point, in which the camera moves across abandoned, run-down buildings. Many buildings are then demolished by the traditional, anthropocentric manner. In other words, the buildings are blown up.
Following the demolition of the buildings are clips of cities and people within those cities. We see that life becomes structured and industrial goods and services become the norm. Long lines, crowded streets, and overpopulated cities do not seem to bother people. An interesting scene in one of the clips of the city life was an electronic sign with the words “Grand Illusion” forming. I believe that this was an ironic suggestion, in that our lives are like a grand illusion because we often live them as though we are most important and no other issues are as important as the ones we have. In actuality, this mindset is highly unrealistic, because our actions have consequences on other organisms and the balance of the Earth and all of its ecosystems. In a way, we see that the demolitions and the cities highlight our anthropocentric views because they demonstrate that we feel at liberty to build, destroy, and then rebuild again without regards for our environmental, societal, and economic consequences.
Just as we feel at liberty to create cities and places for humans to comfort themselves, the film also demonstrates that we tend to produce excessively and, consequently, indulge excessively. Coppola includes in the film many clips of industrial workers and processes in which all sorts of products are mass-produced, including jeans, sliced meat, hot dogs, cars, and Twinkies. This production adheres to the notion that society is constantly on the upward move. That is, much of society wants to increase its profit and status, since with such achievements comes power. I believe that power drives the actions of many people, since being in a position of power gives a person the right to be right. Once again, however, reality shows us that, in the environmental crisis that we are in, we cannot focus on power and who has more money or investments than everyone else. Of essence to the survival of other organisms, the Earth, and ourselves is minimization. I do not imply that we should not be able to enjoy life. Rather, I mean that we should practice limits.
With this said, I can see why Coppola included many of the different forms of recreation in Koyaanisqatsi, such as the people playing Pacman, bowling, watching movies, and shopping in malls and grocery stores. We are consumed with playing the best video games, buying the best products, and having luxurious-type lifestyles, many of the times at the abuse of depleting materials and energy resources. In the film, we also see the individuals increasingly consuming fast foods, which mirrors the increasing consumer activity in the world on products that we probably do not need but want for personal pleasure.
Like the swipe of a public transportation card, as seen in the film, our lives have become extremely predictable and mechanical. We are machines that run on schedules and so we want machines and products in our lives that ensure that our schedules run smoothly. Our need to satisfy our schedules means producing speedy cars, unhealthy electronics such as cellular phones, and other environmentally unfriendly products. In addition, companies feed off of the wants of consumers and, resultantly, seek cheap labor, which dehumanizes people in many other countries and causes the quality of life to decrease for many people. Here we see that environmental issues run deeper than just the environment.
An interesting scene to me, which is probably one of the last pivotal points in the film, is one in which the television displays different products, issues, news stories, obscenities, sports games, and other programs. After this shot, the setting of each clip becomes more frantic and the people look flashier. Eventually, another scene related to television sets appears in which the sets all explode, perhaps representing an overload of consumer wants, business greed and profits, and environmental havoc. After all of the franticness, Coppola employs pathos in the film to invoke emotional engagement, in my opinion, for the environmental issues. He does so by appealing to the human heart by displaying what many of us consider unfortunate and immoral ways of living life. It is as though we are all brought back to reality and realize that…oh yes…our actions do have an impact on the world. In a sense, when we see the impacts, such as depression, poverty, substance abuse including cigarettes, prostitution, and violence, we have a partial messianic moment and realize that action must be taken to overcome the environmental issues to rectify the social adversity. I mention partial because it may not be that viewers feel completely ready or able to do something about the issue; the viewers simply know that they must do something.
One of the most brilliant parts of Koyaanisqatsi is, perhaps, the last scene, in which a rocket ship blasts off into the air and blows up while in the air. The whole ship burns and eventually a small piece remains and slowly deteriorates. The dwindling piece of rocket ship represents our society. If we cannot find ways to restore the Earth’s balance, it is this slow, sad demise that we are headed for. Only we can stop this atrocity from occurring, and only such can be done if we all employ environmental sustainability and remain emotionally involved with the issue.
Coppola makes sure that the audience realizes its impending doom via the strategic, dark-toned music of the movie. The song where the singer repeats “koyaanisqatsi” is quite chilling. This song is present at both the beginning and end of the movie and is a reminder that we must act fast to correct our environmental wrongs. Even more, the film provides several definitions for koyaanisqatsi, which all ultimately culminate to a meaning of an inefficient way of living that needs to be changed. The human-like drawings, which were present at the beginning of the film, and the Hopi prophecies are symbols that represent the wrongdoings of humans toward the environment and the consequences we will have to pay if we continue to live the way we do.
Koyaanisqatsi is a brilliant reflection of what the Earth has become largely because of the actions of human beings. The film compels us to evaluate our own lives and pinpoint what it is that we are doing wrong and what we can ultimately do to amend our wrong actions. Even more, the film juxtaposes a beautiful, natural world with a polluted, corrupt one to probably show us that our actions are more detrimental than we think. To walk away from this film feeling defeated by the simmering rocket ship part is not the intention, then, that I feel Coppola had for us all. Rather, I feel that he wanted to make us think about the issue and realize, in a messianic-like moment, that the Earth is in a critical state and we must do something about the environmental issues. By taking such actions, we can change our predicted fate and prevent our society from becoming the simmering rocket ship piece.
Sherifa Baldeo
