Babylon

2019
7.3| 1h35m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 08 March 2019 Released
Producted By: Diversity Music
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: https://www.kinolorber.com/film/babylon
Info

Drama telling the story of Blue, a young man of Jamaican descent living in Brixton in 1980, as he hangs out with his friends, fronts a dub sound system, loses his job, struggles with family problems and has his friendships tested by racism.

Genre

Drama

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Babylon (2019) is now streaming with subscription on Netflix

Director

Franco Rosso

Production Companies

Diversity Music

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Babylon Audience Reviews

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded
Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.
Theo Robertson Nice to see via the comments and the message board that this film was held in high regard . I remember it well . It's one of those tough , gritty realist type movies broadcast late night on Channel 4 sometime in the late 1980s when that particular channel was interested in showcasing challenging home grown talent . In those days my peers and myself would nearly always be watching movies on VHS cassette and would involve people with American accents suffering terrible and gory deaths via mad axemen and monsters . It'd be a novelty in seeing a serious film , never mind a British produced one and this type of movie in look and feel would be occasionally attempted by Ken Loach or Alan Clarke . That said perhaps the novelty of seeing BABYLON gave it a reputation that possibly isn't that deserved As I started to watch it again I really found asking myself I'd be able to make it all the way through to the end credits down to one reason - the characters talk in heavy Jamaican tones . I did recognise the Jamaican phrase for " Good afternoon . How are you my friend ? " which is " Hey mon " but after that I was totally puzzled as to the conversations taking place . Just about every black character in the film talks like that with the ironic exception of the one bloke who does look like he's just stepped off the boat from Kingston and you're now able to understand what's going on to an extent. Nice to know he also has a white friend because that means there's at least two people I can understand . There's other white people too but they're incapable of opening their mouths without a tirade of racial insults spewing from it . And this is the problem with BABYLON - there's hardly one single likable or sympathetic character in it and is rather dated in every aspect One can see the point the film is making . It was produced in 1980 , the year before the Brixton riots and a time when institutionalized racism was the norm and what BABYLON deserves very great credit for is in its sophistication in not painting society as " White people = rabid racist oppressors , Black people = poor innocent victims " . What I mean by this is that several white characters mouth racist insults but you see them having a motive for being angry . A mechanic walks out in the middle of work earning the ire of his employer . If the boss was truly racist would he have given a black kid a job in the first place ? A group of reggae fans are having all night parties in a lock up garage thereby upsetting the residents nearby . Now if the actions were done by a group of white chavs the outcome would possibly have the same outcome ? The police are painted as racist bully boys but you'd to have to a very naive reader of The Daily Mail not to believe there's a large element of truth in this especially taking on board the location and the period it's set in and explains to an extent the motives of most of the black characters who do have very large chips on their shoulders. This level of sophistication where the audience are allowed to make up their own minds as to the causes of racism or indeed if we're racist simply because we're human and want to belong to our own tribe is left open ended but is striking in the refreshing and ambiguous way it's put forward . Also interesting that a couple of characters are portrayed as being violent " queer bashers " and if you really want to really confuse and upset a bleeding heart liberal just show a couple of black guys beating up a homosexual . You wouldn't get that in EASTENDERS BABYLON isn't a great film and because of the language problem makes it rather inaccessible for a mainstream audience along with the dated look . It is however a good example of a British realist drama and despite being a political film is thankfully free of the political overstatement that Loach might have brought to the story . I've also had a look at the resume of the director Franco Rosso and was surprised and a little sad that his career didn't really progress beyond this movie because with a couple of more films under his belt I'd be very interested in seeing what sort of director he'd be like as he matured . As it stands BABYLON seems a career highlight of a far too short career
tieman64 Thank Margaret Thatcher for "Babylon", a tale of several West Indian youths living in a dank and dreary Great Britain. She's not mentioned in the film, but she might as well be the Bible's fork-tongued Whore of Babylon. Her city? London, to which the film's title alludes (Rastafarians and Christians use the word "Babylon" to refer to a corrupt and decadent society)."Babylon" was directed by Franco Rosso, and was late to a wave of British films revolving around West Indians living in South London. The first of these was Horace Ove's "Pressure", also the first British film to be directed by a black director. Like "Pressure", "Babylon" is a gritty, neorealist account of black Londeners, chief among whom is Blue (played by reggae vocalist Brinsley Forde), a Rastafarian disc jockey who's trying to prepare for an upcoming music competition. Like the characters in "Pressure", Blue struggles with crime, racism, prejudice, violent slum life, personal and racial identity and finds the only positive outlet in his life – his music – repeatedly challenged.The inter-war and postwar (1944-1962) years saw a huge increase in Caribbean migrants arriving in Britain. The first of these were lured over to fight in World War 2 (tens of thousands of West Indians were recruited for service in the RAF and Royal Navy), work in industries and agriculture, all sectors which were facing serious labour shortages. These shortages were only partly met by the recruitment of women and Irish workers. During the long, post-war Eropean economic boom, which was fuelled by reconstruction and American investment, immigration then began to further increase, leading to the creation of substantial immigrant communities in and around London. This, of course, led to frictions with the white working class, which culminated in the riots of the 1950s, in which white gangs such as the Teddy Boys clashed with black immigrant families. Far right groups, unions and the left would all exploit these conflicts. "Pressure" and "Babylon", made in the late 1970s, were themselves released in the wake of a second wave of Nottingham riots.Unlike most films in its wave, "Babylon" has a certain aesthetic punch (traces of "Saturday Night Fever"). The film is packed with smooth Reggae tunes and seems to take place in an everlasting night, with eye popping lights and fluorescent colours languishing behind a blanket of perpetual cigarette smoke. It's a moody, easy going film, captures well the London club scene of the 1970s, the brutalist hell of concrete-London, and offers a rare glimpse into the lives of an oft neglected community (black, West Indian South Londoners). On the flip-side, the film's writing is obvious and too direct, a trait typical of even classic neorealist works; what you see is what you get.Uniquely, the film eschews Jamaican and West Indian gangland culture in favour for focusing on the implicit radicalism of reggae. Reggae always was protest music, its fire the fire of the mobs. It didn't quite last, though. Protest music declined in the early 1980s, with the deaths of Marley, Lennon and the slow collapse of punk. Reggae then essentially became stoner and sex music, as roots reggae transformed into dance-hall.Before this, reggae was a force. The best reggae had the proselytising fury of Dylan, to which groups like Burning Spear, The Abyssinians or dub-poet Linton Johnson inserted their own Rastafarian or political beliefs. This "spiritual" dimension gave the genre a Utopian, almost philosophical tinge; the desire for change "through" music. Indeed, albums were oft given provocative titles like "Confrontation" and "Uprising", lyrics were openly agitprop ("Come we go chant down Babyon one mo' time!") and even album art would feature dread-locked warrior-heroes (the Rasta's dreadlocks were oft likened to the manes of the lion of Judah) slaying monstrous "Babylon Dragons". "Babylon" itself ends with a singer chanting "we can't take no more of that!", a protest which is inter-cut with shots of police officers kicking down doors (the film was banned because censors feared that it would incite riots). There's a simplicity to the film's politics - things boil down to a very simple, noir existentialism ("The city's not right and we want out!") - but also a sense of raw, truthful anger.Horace Ove's "Pressure" is an even more interesting snapshot, thanks largely to its low budget, which necessitated the casting of many non actors. Trinidadian born Ove (pronounced "O-vay") was heavily influenced by Italian neorealists, and used heavy improvisation and cinema-verite techniques to convey life in 1970s West London. Like "Babylon" the focus is on young, black West Indians, most of whom are second generation migrants and all of whom struggle with issues of cultural identity, institutional racism and cultural preservation. The film's central character is a kid called Tony who is radicalised by his brother, a black activist. Much of the film deals with the problems of employment, alienation, white power structures, inextricable class/race linkages, and the assimilation or mutation of cultural values (the immigrant's changing taste in food, music, culture, beliefs etc). Some of the film's more daring moments align Christianity itself with racism, in which, for example, men of power use "black" as a metaphor for sin and tout "white" as being synonymous with holiness. Like many neorealist works, much of the film consists of "stolen footage", many of those appearing on screen not realising they are on camera or attending staged rallies. Like "Babylon", indeed like most neorealist works, "Pressure" has a certain obviousness about it. These films are best appreciated as time capsules; historical totem poles. In a sense, the mark the birth of Thatcherism. Thatcher, of course, was elected as leader of the Conservative party in 1975, and quickly set about removing certain safeguards for citizens in favour for an emphasis on "individual responsibility" and "private initiative", all the while presiding over the "managed decline" of several segments of society. She was good with code words.8/10
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)