Koyaanisqatsi Illustrates Modern Life: An Unchanging Pattern

Marianna C. Ford

Biology 131

Professor Timmons

November 7^th, 2010

Koyaanisqatsi Illustrates Modern Life: An Unchanging Pattern

            Godfrey Reggio’s film Koyaanisqatsi made in 1985 uses clips of current technological advancements to show how it has conformed modern day society into the homogeneous patterns of everyday life. Using profound clips of the beauty of nature and of the expansions of technology Reggio leads the viewer to see that humanity has become unknowingly dependent on technology.  Koyaanisqatsi is a unique film due to its lack of dialogue but powerful in the sense that the audience can draw their own conclusion from the astounding yet unchanging clips of daily life. Reggio uses scenes of technology at work and of highly developed functioning cities to show how modern day life has become homogeneous and to prove that society has become too dependent on inventions that have and can fail.

            In Koyaanisqatsi Reggio uses the juxtaposition of film clips to show how modern society life has fallen into an unchanging pattern. The homogony of life expressed in the movie is best conveyed in the scene that takes place in a factory where twinkies are made. This scene shows women working in the factory whose job is to move the twinkies from one conveyor belt to the next for packaging. The workers movements during this clip are unchanging and all in sync. This part of the movie captures the harmonized actions and daily routines of present society. The idea of the unchanging routines of life from the scene of the twinkie factory can be used as a parallel to another scene from Koyaanisqatsi which captures highway traffic in a developed city. The clip of traffic records hundreds of cars moving at high speeds in condensed areas. The streams of cars are moving in harmony, all in the same direction, and appear to be an unending flow of vehicles in this scene.  Reggio uses the twinkie factory scene and the seemingly endless line of traffic scene to show how modern life has become like an unchanging pattern.

            Throughout the movie Reggio highlights many of the inventions of man in daily use. During the last scene of Koyaanisqatsi Reggio returns to the first clip of the movie which was a zoomed in view of a rocket ship: a new invention. The scene shows the rocket before takeoff and then captures the launching. Unlike most of the other clips from the movie the shot of the rocket departure was at a normal speed for the viewer to really catch the essence of the scene. As the rocket, named the Challenger, climbs higher into the atmosphere an unexpected tragedy occurs in the clip. The rocket bursts into flames and explodes. The rest of the scene captures the burning rocket as it spirals back down towards earth. After showing the numerous clips of modern technology at work and functioning as intended Reggio ends Koyaanisqatsi with an invention, the rocket, failing. Reggio shows that while life has become more efficient due to inventions, those inventions that make life easier can still fail.

            Reggio’s film Koyaanisqatsi illustrates how the industrialization of cities and society has transformed life into a repetitive action and how even though new technologies have simplified daily life, technology can still fail. By comparing scenes of monotonous work in factories and daily functions of the public like driving in highway traffic Reggio shows how the industrialization in society has brought about a homogeneous way of life. While these inventions and technologies have made life easier yet unchanging they have also proven to be unreliable. The lack of dependency that has come with these new inventions has led to tragedy in society which was exemplified in the movie with the failed launch of the rocket ship the Challenger. Koyaanisqatsi shows the functions of new technology in daily life and the effects it has on society.