Koyaanisqatsi
Short description
Koyaanisqatsi is a documentary that sets images of the natural world against scenes of modern urban and industrial life across the United States. It travels from untouched landscapes to crowded cities, contrasting slow, unspoiled environments with the accelerated pace of contemporary society, its buildings, highways and crowds. The film has no dialogue or spoken narration; its structure comes from the arrangement of images and from the minimalist score by Philip Glass, which carries as much weight as the visuals. The title is a Hopi word meaning life out of balance. It is the first part of what became the Qatsi trilogy.
Godfrey Reggio directed and produced, working from a screenplay he wrote with Michael Hoenig and Ron Fricke. The film was made over several years and released in 1983. It was only Reggio's first feature; his next film as director listed here is Naqoyqatsi, made nearly two decades later. The credited cast consists largely of public figures appearing in archival footage, among them Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, Sammy Davis Jr., Ed Asner, Pat Benatar and Marilyn Chambers, none of whom perform a dramatic role.
The film took about two million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 8.2 out of 10 from roughly 44,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.9 out of 10 from about 800 votes. A critics' rating of 8.4 out of 10 from 23 reviews places it slightly above the audience scores recorded on IMDb and clearly above the smaller TMDB sample.
What's left behind the scenes
- Philip Glass conditionally divided the film into 12 roughly equal parts and wrote an individual musical theme for each. When Reggio saw and heard the final result, he was horrified by such pragmatism and re-edited the film so that the visuals would match the sound.
- There is one scene in the film depicting a mountain range. It was given to the director by MacGillivray-Freeman Films. It's a scene left over from the filming of 'The Shining' (1980).
- The film 'Koyaanisqatsi' took 6 years to create. 3 years were spent on filming. The remaining three years were spent by Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass on writing the music for the film, editing, and fitting them together.
- Godfrey Reggio initially wanted to invite Philip Glass as the composer for the film. He reached out to Glass through mutual acquaintances, but the composer stated, “I don’t write music for films.” However, after much persuasion and a special private screening of a trial montage of the film using Glass's music, he finally agreed to write the soundtrack. This resulted in the composer's first commercial success, and he subsequently wrote the music for all subsequent films in the 'Katsi' trilogy.
- Initially, the rights to the film belonged to Francis Ford Coppola's film company, American Zoetrope. When the company went bankrupt, the rights passed to PolyGram. But PolyGram didn't last long either. Now the rights belong to MGM.
- Reggio initially wanted to insert an authentic, difficult-to-interpret symbol into the credits, but then decided that no one would understand or appreciate it.
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