A welcome assault on the senses, 'Koyaanisqatsi' is not for the impatient or nervous. You have to give it time because it is slightly dull in the very beginning, as the music and landscapes are fairly ordinary. Once it gets going, its really fascinating. Some gorgeous images, none generated by a computer I might add, and a soundtrack to match the intensity makes this a unique movie experience. I saw it on the big screen when it was first released, and it was MUCH better than on my not-that-big television.

One of the things I also like about this movie is the fact that since there is no dialogue, it can be shown in any country in the world unchanged. We would all see it the exact same way. I like the idea of that very much.

The movie ends with the definitions of Koyaanisqatsi (from the Hopi language),n. 1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life out of balance. 4. life disintegrating. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.

Also the Translation of the Hopi Prophecies sung in the film.

"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 in the sky."

"A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans."

This is an operatic meditation on the modern life. The Philip Glass music gets very hypnotic. I would prefer less of the urban landscape only because it's gets a little repetitive. However it was probably very compelling back in the day. Some of the more interesting scenes are the pilot standing in front of the fighter plane, the industrial press compressing a block of metal and the falling rocket debris. It is an unique movie experience that compels the viewers to think.

"Koyaanisqatsi" is an American documentary movie from 1982, so this one will soon have its 40th anniversary and maybe it happened already, depending on when you read this review. I got to see this on the big screen tonight for the first time and also for the first time in general. This film is slightly older than myself. It runs for under 1.5 hours, so definitely not the longest watch and the really high rating here on imdb got me curious about this project. You can already see from my rating that I did not appreciate the outcome too much, but I will elaborate on this a little later. First things first: The director is Godfrey Reggio, still alive today and he just turned 80. This was his first filmmaking effort and many others should follow. But nonetheless it is also still a contender for being his most famous work as you can see from the fact that here and there it is even still shown in movie theaters. Reggio is also the producer here and one of the writers. The beginning showed us that this one, at least the version we saw, was presented by Coppola, which certainly increasded the movie's popularity by quite a bit. I mean he is the man who made the Godfather films and also a lot more. Every filmmaker would love such an encouragement for his work I'm sure. As for the title, I am not really sure what this means. I think it is Hopi as there are quite a few verses from this language included in this movie, a language I have never heard of I must admit. In any case, we hear this exact word that the film is named after being sung on two occasions, the beginning and the end of it all. I liked the sound of that honestly. The music generally did not turn out to my liking here, which I shall also elaborate a bit more later on, but these almost ancient chants we hear KOYAANISQATSI KOYAANISQATSI were a bit on the haunting side and one of the more memorable aspects from this film e got here. Speaking of the title and Hopi verses, at the very end we get the English translation and this implies that what man did with nature, all we saw throughout the movie is not mentioned in a positive light at all, which you could not be too sure before that because there is not really any statement for or against before that, just the neutral depiction.

The film basically goes from nature to civilization. It starts with wide open spaces where men did not do any change. This changes quickly though and the longer the movie goes, the bigger the technological impact by humans turns out to be. Halfway into the film I was tempted to write that we see all kinds of technologies, but we do not see humans. This was bound to change so quickly afterwards and the scenes in the second half were packed with humans. In the first half, I only remember one (and that could also have been a dummy) we see several times, at least twice, and he is in the middle of a big fire blast, so literally no chance for him to survive. Or her. But probably him. The music becomes also more intense as the film goes on. It is pretty loud and pretty boastful you could almost say. Actually, to me it implied a really annoying presence or artificial superiority if you wanna call it that. I guess this was exactly the idea. It should feel as fast and intense as the people we see moving like ants basically. So maybe there is indeed a negative implication throughout the film and I was wrong earlier by saying that there isn't. At least, I found the music very annoying. But still it fit the images. Said music is by Philip Glass by the way, a three-time Oscar nominee, but still took 15 years after this film for his first nomination to come into effect. There is a lot of fire in this film, constant blasts, many explosions, but all before the humans take over. We see streets and cars on so many occasions. On one occasion, even it almost looked like Berlin here with the signs we see, but I suppose this was also filmed in America, so I'm probably wrong. Who knows though. Feel free to shoot me a message on that issue if you like. Now there is so much time lapse photography in here, especially when we see people in the last third. On very few occasions, there is also slow motion to see, also towards the end and not really before that. I guess this is all I really have to say. I cannot agree too much with the extremely high rating here and I must say tat I have no intention to ever see this film again I suppose. Kinda doubt I will perceive it differently. By the way, there is no narration here, literally no speaking at all, so you also won't need subtitles and can watch it wherever you're from without having to worry about not getting the meaning. Basically all you hear from beginning to end is the music. I still would like to say that even if my general verdict is negative here, there were still moments and scenes I liked. i think on some occasions they did a really nice job with depicting the combination of nature and technology. One example that stays a bit memorable to me was when we see a gigantic skyscraper and in it is the reflection of the sky above it. We really see several clouds, the image is as clear as it gets. Or a little later, we see in time lapse mode again how the position of the sun changes and the shadows on the skyscraper get more significant. Now that is really all I have to add here. Negative recommendation for this one. Skip the watch.