The Tribe

I enjoyed the movie a lot. Its an interesting take on how people can and/or do view society, as opposed to how they can/do act on that.

Not sure why I have to write 10 lines of text, guess this is why I haven't written many reviews. Is that 2?

Fitting, however, certainly the theme of the movie is conformity and its a fascinating theme for me.

Its a thinking movie, I gave it an 8.

Hate to give away anything, watch it, decide for yourself! That 10 lines yet?

Guess not. The movie is a take on counter-culture vs. mainstream, IMO, it was intelligent enough to hold my interest and I enjoyed it.

I really liked this. It was really nice to see so refreshingly different. I thought it was interesting to explore how such a 'tribe' such as that featured in the film might survive in todays world and how they would work to stand together and overcome intolerance and fear of others who refuse to understand or live and let live. Also good to see such great British actresses as Laura Fraser and Anna Friel on our screens.

I will confess that the movie had me intrigued almost from the very beginning about who these people were who were basically squatting in a building in a crime infested part of London that had been purchased by a developer hoping to transform the area. The company sends Jamie (Jeremy Northam) in to basically get them to leave and they refuse. But he does discover that they're a very unusual community - dressed all in black, under the leadership of Emily (Joely Richardson) and living a weirdly erotic and even cult-like existence, with even the tough neighbourhood that surrounds them being afraid of them. Jamie is gradually drawn in with them, especially attracted to Emily, and starts to basically lead a double life. The group is mysterious. Who are they? Why is everyone so afraid of them? I have to confess that for a fleeting moment at the start of the movie as they were introduced I thought this might turn into some type of horror move. Dressed all in black, I thought perhaps this was going to be revealed to be a community of vampires or witches or something. But no. Nothing like that.

And, ultimately, that was the biggest weakness of the movie for me. The movie kept me watching from start to finish to learn about this group and who they were - but in the end there really wasn't much resolution. I never got a true sense of what this group was about. They had a weird kind of relationship with a cult of some sort that operated in the area; they had a relationship apparently with Japanese business interests - but who were they? What was the appeal? How did Emily recruit them - and why did she start in the first place? As this came to an end, the whole movie felt a bit like a big tease that didn't give any real resolution. The group in the end just seems to come off as a group of people who've dropped out of society - except they haven't, as evidence by their clear materialism and overtly hedonistic lifestyle. So, in other words, the movie left me as I began with it - asking "who are these people?"

It's a BBC production and, frankly, its production values feel dated. (Admittedly, this is 27 years old, but it felt even older.) I'm not sorry that I watched it. It was intriguing, but in the end it failed to really explain things adequately. (5/10)

This film is about a concept which most people don't tend to think about: how could a group of people isolate themselves from surroundings which they don't like and manage to lead a paradisiac life? Admittedly the story is sometimes a bit silly, but if you complain about these things you're missing the point, which is about how willing people might be to leave their current life, job, wife, etc. I really liked this film, and it's a shame it's not available to buy.

I feel this movie was an unusual look at tolerance, greed and peolpe's willingness to stick by each other, and how outside influences can kill a tribe , much like the missionaries did to the native populations in certain areas of the world.