Koyaanisqatsi

Hayley Desmond
Contrast and Ambiguity in Koyaanisqatsi
The resounding theme of Koyaanisqatsi is the disconnection between the natural world and the modern lifestyle. Starting with sweeping shots of natural landscapes, the film progresses to bustling scenes of urban life, then splicing the two together. While the contrast the creators seek to create is clear, the statement driving the piece is less forthright. One might wonder whether there is any thesis at all. In certain moments it seems to tentatively toy with issues such as income disparity, only to quickly retreat to sped-up footage of traffic. It sometimes seems to be a critique of consumerism, and other times of urban living in general. The cinematography is masterful, but it is used more to illustrate contrast than to comment on it.
Koyaanisqatsi juxtaposes several themes, the two most prominent being nature and industry. To do this, it relies heavily on abrupt cuts between scenes, sometimes accompanied by changes in the accompanying music. Following several minutes of peaceful shots of nature, a truck suddenly comes on screen, hurdling towards the audience. The next scenes, of electrical lines, digging cranes and explosions, are set to building music. A shot of a mushroom cloud slowly zooms out to reveal a tree in the foreground, again showing the vicinity of industry to the natural world. Perhaps the point is that these processes are not removed from nature: they take place within the context of Earth’s ecosystems. That is more a viewer’s extrapolation than anything deliberately stated in the film, however.
Some other sequences seem to bring in a related phenomenon, the military-industrial complex. An image of a camouflaged jet flying through a desert landscape brings another aspect to the juxtaposition of industry and nature. This theme is developed further by an aircraft carrier with the phrase “e=mc2” on it and gratuitous footage of explosions with frenetic music playing in the background. Demonstration of the human consequences of military action comes much later, just before the credits start to roll. It would have been much more effective to include at least some of the footage of wounded people nearer to the military montage. As in many cases, here Koyaanisqatsi would have benefitted from being more ham-fisted. The viewer is left guessing about the director’s prerogative for most of the film. Regardless, the military uses of technology and natural resources are certainly brought to the audience’s attention.
The other major relationship stressed in the film is that between nature and the modern lifestyle. A scene of people reclining on a beach, set to peaceful music, pans out to show some sort of giant industrial plant in the background. This the same technique employed earlier with the mushroom cloud and the tree. It hints at the failure of society to connect its use of natural resources with the actual natural world, as the beachgoers all appear to be serenely enjoying the setting, paying the plant behind them no mind. Clouds are also used thematically to connect nature and modern living. Much of the footage of nature features large, fluffy clouds rolling across landscapes. There are also many shots of similar clouds being reflected on glass skyscrapers. This particularly resonated with me, as it is a view I am very familiar with: my window at the residence hall faces the windows of Bellevue Hospital, and much of the sunlight that comes into my room is reflected by that glass. When I look out my window, I often see a blue sky and large clouds on the glass, so it was startling to see the exact same thing on screen. I consider myself to be fairly connected with nature for city-dweller, but the familiarity of the shot in the context of this film made me reconsider how we view nature in an urban context.
More than concerning itself with just the modern lifestyle in general, the film focuses on urban living. The first shots that are not of landscapes or giant hunks of metal are of the streets of New York. Throughout the rest of the piece, shots of cars on overlapping freeway ramps and of people rushing through city streets abound. There does not seem to be much distinction made between industrialization and cities. Urban environments are not presented as a third entity, but rather lumped together with factories and mining, in contrast to Earth’s natural state. Since the film is, if nothing else, a critique of industrialization, I, as a city-dweller, found this somewhat bothersome. While it is industrialization that makes cities possible, suburbs and rural areas also are affected and contribute to the waste and environmental problems that are so patent in modern living. It is not fair to present industry and cities as one and the same when indeed it is the lifestyle enjoyed by all people in developed nations that is depleting global resources. The association that I am complaining of is evident in certain sequences. A scene of a hotdog assembly line cuts to very visually similar footage of people on escalators. Sped up recordings of people working in a warehouse are juxtaposed with shots of New York waking up, the sun rising and people starting to go about their business. Interspersed in the film’s most cohesive montage of consumerism are glimpses of lone people in crowds, looking forlorn. I am not sure whether the film looks at city living in particular because it is the most disconnected from nature, but that is the best explanation that comes to mind.
Koyaanisqatsi, as just mentioned, has one major sequence on consumerism. It blends footage of children watching television, advertisements for canned soup, and other, similar scenes. For me, one of the most powerful moments in the film comes at this point: a billboard advertising “a place in the sun” stands before a backdrop of smokestacks. This exemplifies the commodification of nature. Our usual lives in the post-industrial world are so removed from nature and centered around consumption that even trees and unobstructed sunlight become things to be sold to us. This shot reinforces the divide between the natural world and our world. The rest of this montage also briefly touches upon income disparity, with a man being moved from street to stretcher just before a glamorous-looking lady gets in a cab. Shots similar to this are present throughout the rest of the film, but never more than a few seconds are spent on the topic of wealth distribution. I was disappointed that consumerism and social equity were relegated to such a small timeslot, while plenty of screen time was given to highway traffic set to the same few bars of Philip Glass.
This film is an amalgamation of themes, with only a couple being well-developed. I would say something about the major points, but there are no points, only themes. The viewer gets a general sense of the director’s stance, but this does not count for much given all of the room for one’s own interpretations. Thus, I feel that much of the analysis I have written here has been little more than my own biases manifesting themselves on the ambiguous canvas that is Koyaanisqatsi.