FiveHundredFlicks
I was sat flicking through the TV channels last night and caught the opening scene of Babylon on BBC2. I couldn't believe it. I also couldn't understand how I'd forgotten about the film and why the DVD was missing from my collection.Babylon is a classic film without equal. I was 14 in 1981 and going to blues with my older brother.Dub, real classic heavy dub, was my sound track to the early 80's and Babylon was one of those films which summed up the experience of many black and white bwoy dem in a time before gangsta (c)rap corrupted everything.Jamacian Patois with a slight cockney twang has been replaced by Jafaican. Collie weed and Blue Mountain Sensi replaced with skunk. Choparitas replaced with bling. Babylon is a snapshot time capsule of a film and it should be cherished as such, without analysing it too much and it should only be compared on its own terms. Been playing the soundtrack this morning and I've ordered the DVD to fill that gap in my collection. If you get the chance, watch the film.Bim!
maphubaird
Strange film really. I didn't see it at the time, was born the year it was made, perhaps that's why i have such a problem with it - it is a film of its time, dealing with issues of its time, issues which have changed (thankfully) quite a lot since my birth. But I'm really pleased I saw it (watched several times in fact to try and put my finger on what it was that bothered me so) and pleased I bought the 2007 Italian released DVD for other film on there - Dread Beat An' Blood - which is a little bit special. Its about dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, who is a total hero and great in front of the camera, but its also a fine piece of film-making by Franco Rosso. Essentially, the title says it all - Babylon - a society based on 100% wickedness, rotten to the core. In the film's dystopian vision of late 70's South London our hero succumbs to overwhelming pressure from ALL sides only to a take a defiant stand in the final scene. However it seems to have shot itself in the foot: In an effort to create SUCH a bleak world, the characters themselves are undermined - how much can you sympathise (in movie world!) with someone who has essentially just made poor choices and let down everyone around them? The final act of redemption, (or is it stupidity, suicide, throwing your life away?) is unconvincing and seems to owe more to punk than it does the reggae Sound System culture this film supposedly celebrates. And it doesn't, in my view - Bizarrely!?! After watching several times in disbelief I feel this was another casualty of the script's agenda of mounting pressure from 'Babylon-system' which never lets up and permits no refuge or shelter (sound systems included). Is there any point making a film called Babylon without a sign post to a way OUT of Babylon? Commendable as it is to try and make a hard hitting film that doesn't follow a standard pattern of good triumphing of evil - this is in fact evil triumphing over good, a much more interesting creative proposition - it IS a cheesy film, it does NOT pretend to be proper social realism or documentary-like, and most importantly: it just DOESN'T WORK. I mean, when the Rastafarian God, Jah, is repeatedly said to be 'a TERRIBLE God' (in a perversion of Rastafarian religious rites!?!) something is wrong. (Its terrible as in vengeful btw). Sadly, (so very sadly), I found myself wondering if the fact that this film's writers and director were WHITE had anything to do with confusion and contradiction this film drowns in.But then, as i stated at the beginning, it could well be ME. Race relations in Britain were pretty much at an all time low around the time this film was made, Thatcher had only just come into power and that seemed to signal more conflict and a drift toward colonial-type values, not welfare values. But, crucially for our purposes, the reggae records of the time tell a different story! True, all the buzz-words of the time like 'revolution' and 'resistance' are there but its always with 'righteousness' and LOVE. Or at least that's the way I see it, and that's basically my point... as viewed from 2008 - happier times.Or perhaps I'm simply reading too much into it: it's low budget cult trash! - one of my favourite genres btw : ) Should this stuff stand up to examination at all? My answer is: Like most low budget cult trash, it DIDN'T REALIZE it was low budget cult trash! It feels like it has 'something to say', and of course most things always do on one level or another. Obviously you have to be a little more forgiving - and because its a film about Sound Systems shot in Brixton for fcuks sake! : ) (And Brixton looks awesome.) But I say its asking for it, because more than anything all these errors make it fail as a piece of ENTERTAINMENT: When 'the cool white guy' is head-butted to the ground for 'talking black' by his best friends and they do/say nothing but just step over him because they're upset their sound system has been smashed up by nasty racists kept awake at night by the noise, its unbelievable. When they portray sound system members smashing a rival's headlights (Jah Shaka's!?!?!), threatening each other with machetes and big dogs and just general poor sportsmanship, (all be it kiiinda lightheartedly), its ridiculous. And Jah, a TERRIBLE God? I don't think so. ; )A missed opportunity really, all the more tragic because Britain has precious little Black Cinema from these times. Strange too, as the cast included Aswad's Brinsley Forde and Jah Shaka, the excellent music is by Matumbi's Denis Bovell, and the director, Franco Rosso, despite being an Italian, was South London-based and had a long association with Sound Systems - he even claims to have enlisted help of black Brixton youths with the actual writing of the script. And Rosso had just made the Linton Kwesi Johnson documentary, more than adequate grounding for Babylon I'd say. Strange it would fail in the ways it does.That just leaves, the other writer: Martin Stellman - who at the time would have been riding high on the success of Quadrophenia, which is fcuking DODGEY, along with everything else The Who ever did. And was probably brought in at a late stage as a 'safe pair of hands'. Its got his fingerprints all over it. I blame him!!! ; )Go see it!(if anyone has comments about this rant or the film in general, I'm interested to hear, post a review yourself or we can discuss it on Babylon's IMDb notice board - thanks! Matt)
jaxche
Saw this film in 1983, had it on tape - but cant find it!! Now, over 20 years on, I still remember several scenes word 4 word, as me and my cousins acted it out, especially Beefy's scene at the end - entering dance hall with big machete tucked down his tight red tracksuit while everyone was bubbling to "Warrior Charge". And yes Karl Howman (from Flash ads) is wickedly funny with his accent "Cho man we dealing pure wickedness" Aaahhh Love it. The film is a masterpiece, don't know why I cant find it on DVD or VHS - if anyone knows where it can be obtained - Please let me know. Also looking for No Problem - UK comedy which starred Janet Kaye, Victor Romero Evans with Beastie and Tosh too!!
