Well, if you're an extroadinarily lazy sociologist, I can see where these movies would be helpful. However, I felt that they were far, far too general (probably because rather than tell one or two stories, they're trying to tell 5 at once) to say anything really profound. (Not to mention the fact that there are so many long stretches that have no dialogue at all that really could have benefitted from some, but I digress.) The guy who directed Babel's first movie, Amores Perros is supposed to do this well, but I've not seen it, and I'm fairly reluctant to do so after seeing this one.