Babylon

A nostalgic picture of imagery backed by the raw realism the style captures - 70s and 80's in LDN. It's hilarious, sad at times with a pendulum of the good and bad moments city life had to offer in the build up to the Brixton riots in 1981. Highlighting the divide between culture and colour. A moving picture that's a brilliant insight into the history. The language spoken IsIyaric (pseudo-dialect of English consciously created by members of the Rastafari movement) warms to your ears as the film progresses so no need for subtitles.

A lesson for anyone wanting to get a glimpse of racism in the UK. It's shows how two wrongs dont make a right, and the wheel of revenge goes round in circles with no true winners.

The music masterclass which always seams to be ticking over in the background, ever changing and adapted for dark moments in the film keeps you intrigued. That's is my favourite thing about it. It reminds us that we should all love eachother equally regardless, because we are all trying to make are way in this world and a little reggae heals the soul. A World class film that disserves more recognition in the modern day. 10/10 will stay fondly in the memory as a cult classic.

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.

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!

This was a film of it's time, I am one of the lucky ones who saw it when it premiered the one and only time on Channel 4 back when it was a new station. It features great performances by most of the cast and outstanding ones from Brinsley Forde, Karl Howman & Trevor Laird. The soundtrack to the movie is excellent and also brings back some fond memories of what life was like back in that time. People not from the UK or who are not familiar with Brixton get a real eye opener about what life for black youths, but black young men in particular was like. The deprivation, the listlessness and the treatment by the police, treatment that led ultimately to the riots in ensuing years

I cannot understand why this film wasn't released on DVD, the 25th anniversary 2 years ago would seem to have been a great opportunity. Perhaps we need a petition on the .gov.uk site to implore the powers that be to set and keep the date for release!!!

Perhaps we should arrange a big screening somewhere in the west end. I highly recommend this film. Definitely one for the collection.

This is a wonderful film, featuring a almost all black cast apart from a couple of white characters, one being (Mel Smith in a cameo role) as a boss and the other(karl Howman) a friend of the young black men. It deals with the race relations in a brutal way, and is quite hard to watch at times but this is what proper film making is all about imo. It has its fair share of funny moments as well, like the main character having to take his truant little bro to school but he keeps running off trying to avoid going. A film about race,family,friends and love in a well acted and competently directed film without being flashy which it does not need to be. The scenes with the token white friend and and his black pals are the strongest scenes in the movie. Also a final point which it is great to see what certain parts of London looked back then, grim and uninviting.