Naqoyqatsi (Naqoyqatsi: Life as War) (2002)

48% of critics liked it
(52 reviews)
72% of users liked it
(3,992 ratings)

Filmmaker, philosopher and activist Godfrey Reggio completes the film trilogy he began with Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi in this visually striking examination of the impact of technology upon our culture. Naqoyqatsi is a word from the Hopi language which roughly translates as "war as a way of life"… More Filmmaker, philosopher and activist Godfrey Reggio completes the film trilogy he began with Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi in this visually striking examination of the impact of technology upon our culture. Naqoyqatsi is a word from the Hopi language which roughly translates as "war as a way of life" or "a life of killing each other," and in this film Reggio uses a intense barrage of images - most of which have been drawn from existing film footage and then altered using a variety of optical and digital techniques - to express his belief that technology is no longer at war with nature. Instead, we have allowed technology to become the "nature" in which we live, and as it stretches our physical and emotional environment in new and troubling directions, we have created for ourselves a world of greater chaos, violence, and confusion. As with his previous features in this trilogy, Naqoyqatsi features an original score by Philip Glass, featuring cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma; director Steven Soderbergh, a noted admirer of Reggio's first two films, served as executive producer. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 29 min.
Directed By: Godfrey Reggio
Written By: Godfrey Reggio
Genres: Documentary, Special Interest

In Theaters: Oct 18, 2002 Wide
On DVD: Jun 24, 2003
Studio: Miramax Films

Critic Reviews

Jan Stuart, Newsday
If the message seems more facile than the earlier films, the images have such a terrible beauty you may not care.
Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News
At its best, Naqoyqatsi awakens the eyes, but it doesn't really do much to tweak the conscience. It's difficult to feel a sense of outrage while you're in a trance.
Matt Weitz, Dallas Morning News
If you open yourself up to Mr. Reggio's theory of this imagery as the movie's set ... it can impart an almost visceral sense of dislocation and change.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
Filmmaking at its purest and most visceral.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
Pretentious, ponderous and redundant."
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
Feels like a bloated mass of data without much coherence.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Too much of a good thing being bombarded with an hour and a half of trippy images that appear to be lecturing me on how miserable, yet strangely beautiful, modern life is.
Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com
The only feeling one comes away from Naqoyqatsi is admiration of its technological virtuosity--certainly not what Reggio intended.
Derek Smith, Cinematic Reflections
Socially aware, but so nihilistic and fatalistic that it's irrelevant since it is unwilling to push towards the social change that the prior films supported so adamently.
Rob Blackwelder, SPLICEDWire
Reggio's ever-evolving style in this film doesn't have the same mesmerizing quality as his previous efforts...but nobody makes more accessible non-narrative conceptual cinema.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
The collected sum of the images equal a work of kitsch art.
Jurgen Fauth, About.com
Instead of helping us step out of our world, which has become inundated with imagery, Naqoyqatsi gives us more of the same, and our eyes glaze over.
Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune
The saturation bombing of Reggio's images and Glass' evocative music ... ultimately leaves viewers with the task of divining meaning.
Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Like its two predecessors, 1983's Koyaanisqatsi and 1988's Powaqqatsi, the cinematic collage Naqoyqatsi could be the most navel-gazing film ever.
Marty Mapes, Movie Habit
Can be viewed as pure composition and form -- film as music
Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion
Despite its visual virtuosity, 'Naqoyqatsi' is banal in its message and the choice of material to convey it.
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
What was once original has been co-opted so frequently that it now seems pedestrian.

Read all 17 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Anthony L

I understand that Naqoyqatsi is a premonition of the future and that is why it is so synthetic but that is also the reason why I didn't like it as much as the others, its pretty soulless. I've said that Powaqqatsi was an imitation of Koyaanisqatsi, Naqoyqatsi is it's… More
I understand that Naqoyqatsi is a premonition of the future and that is why it is so synthetic but that is also the reason why I didn't like it as much as the others, its pretty soulless. I've said that Powaqqatsi was an imitation of Koyaanisqatsi, Naqoyqatsi is it's bastard child. Aesthetically, it's brilliant, or at least to begin with, after a while it does start to resemble a cross between a Yes (the prog rock band) video and something from the early 90's acid house movement. Why didn't they update the music to match? With its limitless subject matter, there was so much missed out too, where was all the post 9/11 footage? Steven Soderbergh's grubby mitts are all over this, it could and should have been brilliant but it is way off the mark, ahead of its time or past its sell by date, either way, it just doesn't work. That said, I would love to see a proper post 9/11 Qatsi film!