Babylon

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Jamacian Patois with a slight cockney twang has been replaced by Jafaican.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!

Babylon is a slice of Black British life in London in the late 70s and early 80s and given the Brixton riots of 1981 this film was strangely prescient.

The film revolves around racism from police, violence against blacks, poverty, disillusionment and reggae music.

Brinsley Forde from the reggae group Aswad and who had also been a child actor is a garage mechanic by day and an underground DJ by night.

The film follows him as he loses his job as a mechanic, gets beaten up by police, is falsely charged and forced to go on the run where he ends up in even more trouble.

Along with Forde, you have Mel Smith, Karl Howman, Maggie Steed and Trevor Laird as the better known performers.

While Forde's downward spiral is predictable it is a well paced film, the footage of London of that time now belongs to another era.

The use of music especially reggae music is an important ingredient in the film with famous Black DJs of the era making an appearance in the film.

It is low budget and harks back to another era although the message is still valid today. It deals with the issue of black racism. The racism here is open whereas today it might be more covert.

Interesting to note that these are not black youths involved in a life of crime. They are getting by in the inner city during a recession. Low paid work by day and their love of music at night.

The film by Martin Stellman and Franco Rosso is rarely shown on British TV, is an important document of 1980s British filmmaking.

Saw USA release in the theatre in Austin and it beat my hopes. Great soundtrack and a story that is still pertinent to today. Sad it took so long. Need this in more mediums.

you dun even CAAAAARRRREE!!!" Hard hitting film about black youths growing up in south london during the 80s, dealing with racism. The scenes where the two white police officers beat up the hero are chilling and brutally realistic. In the 70's black youth embraced rastafari and the movement allowed them to form their own identity and stay united. Brindsley Forbes is excellant, as is the soundtrack by aswad. Check out warrior charge "tune is had like concrete!" DUBPLATE!!! Why is this excellant film not on DVD or video? It has been shown on channel 4 once before and I did have it on tape but lost it.

Nowadays the only way to see it is by renting it from some black music/video shops if you can find it. Yes ronnie is the guy from brush strokes. "Fat larry your one crook" "Brixton y'acall dis?" The only OTHER film that has lyrics like this is The Harder They Come. If anyone has this on video can you please contact me so I can get a copy!

Cheers!

As an avid follower of British cinema, I like to think that I've seen most of the worthwhile films that our country has produced. But I'm always on the lookout for films that I haven't seen, but sound interesting, and so I stumbled upon Babylon, then tracked it down on DVD and gave it a watch.

Co-written by the writer of Quadrophenia, and directed by an Italian born director, and starring Brinsley Forde of Aswad, comedian Mel Smith, and Karl Howman, perhaps best known these days as the face of Flash household cleaning products, it seems an unlikely sort of project, which perhaps, not surprisingly due to its sensitive subject matter dealing with the institutionalised racism of late 1970's England, seemed to receive little attention when it was released.

This is a shame, as although not quite a classic film, the director, Franco Rosso, who sadly was unable to generate funding for any future film projects after making this film, shows that given time he could have been a significant voice in British Cinema. Babylon is a film made by a gifted director just finding his feet, with some memorable scenes littered throughout. It strikingly portrays working class London in the late 1970's as a pretty unforgiving environment, though, the drab atmosphere of the setting is frequently punctuated by tracks from the film's reggae soundtrack, bringing you into the characters' world as they seek solace from these surroundings in the reggae music they play through their cherished sound system.

Babylon should definitely have a place in anyone's top 100 British films of all time. For me It only narrowly falls short of classic status because the ending feels a tad abrupt, and the whole film does feel like it does not run quite as seamlessly as it should. Perhaps that's down to the editing maybe. Even so, I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in British films.