Koyaanisqatsi

Name: Koyaanisqatsi
Genre: Music, Documentary
Released: April 27, 1983
Duration: 86 min
Rating: 72
Cast: Lou Dobbs, Marilyn Chambers, Ted Koppel

1983

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 7 Ratings

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7.0

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7.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 7 Ratings

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Koyaanisqatsi

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Movie Details & Credits

Island Alive | Release Date: April 27, 1983 | Not Rated

Starring: Lou Dobbs, Marilyn Chambers, Ted Koppel

Summary: A collection of expertly photographed phenomena with no conventional plot. The footage focuses on nature, humanity and the relationship between them.

Director: Godfrey Reggio

Genre(s): Music, Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 86 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Chuck Bowen

Koyaanisqatsi is enraged with modern societal convention, but still expresses awe of the spontaneous, incidental poetry that can exist despite invisible oppression. Read full review

Noel Murray

Reggio has a flair for iconography, and whatever external baggage Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi may carry, they should be admired for their vivid, astonishing illustrations of humanity consuming itself in clouds of its own smoke and debris. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

Koyaanisqatsi asks the viewers to ponder their relationship to a social system that has come to dominate them rather than serve them. Much of the film is exhilarating and beautiful in a way that may seem counterproductive to that end. But the cumulative effect is more meditative than frightening. It's not a world-shaking film, but it is an affecting one. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Koyaanisqatsi is an impressive visual and listening experience, that Reggio and Glass have made wonderful pictures and sounds, and that this film is a curious throwback to the 1960s, when it would have been a short subject to be viewed through a marijuana haze. Far out. Read full review

Vincent Canby

Koyaanisqatsi is an oddball and - if one is willing to put up with a certain amount of solemn picturesqueness - entertaining trip. Read full review

Jim Robbins

Koyaanisqatsi is at first awe-inspiring with its sweeping aerial wilderness photography. It becomes depressing when the phone lines, factories, and nuke plants spring up. The pic then runs the risk of boring audiences with shot after glossy shot of man’s commercial hack job on the land and his resulting misery. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

At once maudlin and doggedly sarcastic, the film gives you the uncomfortable sensation of being condescended to by an idiot; it is, transparently, a product of the advanced technology it purports to despise. Read full review

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User Reviews

yeahyeahyeahs

Sep 17, 2021

This movie is a true masterpiece, unique and wild, untouchable in its genius and expression. I read the French review that is currently up that gave it a 0 and I could not help myself but to reply. Calling Phillip Glass uninspired without evidence or proper argument is nothing but a crime.This movie is a true masterpiece, unique and wild, untouchable in its genius and expression. I read the French review that is currently up that gave it a 0 and I could not help myself but to reply. Calling Phillip Glass uninspired without evidence or proper argument is nothing but a crime. This movie doesn't "serve" a purpose more than any other film. It is a triumph of light, colour and sound in its own right.

Any film-goer who has not watched this start to finish can consider their experience of the last two centuries incomplete.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Broyax

Mar 26, 2021

Sous ce nom à coucher dehors aussi imprononçable qu’improbable se cache un étron écolo-gogol et en l’occurrence un vrai faux documentaire à la godille qui entend dénoncer l’activité de l’homme et son impact sur la planète…

Il s’agit pour la grande majorité de plans en accéléré après avoirSous ce nom à coucher dehors aussi imprononçable qu’improbable se cache un étron écolo-gogol et en l’occurrence un vrai faux documentaire à la godille qui entend dénoncer l’activité de l’homme et son impact sur la planète…

Il s’agit pour la grande majorité de plans en accéléré après avoir planté sa caméra en divers endroits, près d’une usine ou bien en ville, dans la circulation ou dans un centre commercial, ou dans les rocheuses ou juste vers le ciel pour voir les nuages défiler ou alors simplement n’importe où…!

Ce n’est qu’un long, très long vidéo-clip d’une plombe et demi, sans commentaire, ni effets sonores, bêtement illustré par la musique désagréable d’un Philip Glass fort peu inspiré… C’est donc à la fois long comme un jour sans pain et chiant comme la pluie : oui, nous confirmons que c’est vraiment à dormir debout, cette merde !

Je suppose que c’est biodégradable et qu’on peut la recycler en papier-cul tout beau, tout neuf ; du moins, je l’espère, que ça « serve » au moins à quelque chose !… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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