Directed by Frank Rosso Starring: Brinsley Forde, Karl Howman, Trevor Laird, Brian Bovell, Victor Romero Evans Review by Michael Everett
SYNOPSIS:
The trials and tribulations of young black youths in troubled London in the early eighties, focusing on Blue, the front man of a Reggae sound system based in West London.
There are many films that captivate you from the start but sadly run out of steam towards the end, Babylon is the complete opposite as the ending is a mesmerising mixture of final confrontations, unexpected outcomes,accompanied by a perfect (and somewhat eerie) piece of reggae music, that resulted in a rare film finale that left me wanting more. It’s just a shame it finished soon after and I didn’t feel the same throughout the beginning and middle.
Firstly Babylon isn’t a bad film, it’s an above average slice of early eighties cinema, that manages to stand out with realism towards it’s subject, racism, but it’s no “This is England” or “Scum” and it suffers from a few problems that stop it from being a great movie, the main one being the script.
The story about reggae crew Ital Lion, lead by Blue (Brinsley Forde) and their sound clash between rival outfit Jah Shaka is thin and not always on track throughout the film. This is down to the inconsistency the script has, it doesn’t progress the narrative a great deal and everything seems stuck in first gear, until the final ten minutes. It does posses authentic characters though, but just like the script, they are very underdeveloped, mainly the lead character, Blue.
For me he doesn’t stand out as much as he should, after all he is supposed to be the films main attraction, the person who goes through the racist abuse and personal problems, but as the script gives him limited story and emotions, it’s hard to sympathise with him in any shape or form, while his friendship with Ronnie, the only white person in the group, seemed to distant and in my eyes was a missed opportunity to explore the racism even more.
The other problem with Babylon is the raw Jamaican dialogue is has, while I know it would be pointless without, it was at times difficult to follow what they were saying and it somewhat tainted the films powerful scenes.
Other than that Babylon is still a good film, all the acting is competent, with Karl Howman (Brush Strokes) giving us some nice light humour. I didn’t find myself clock watching or becoming bored throughout, and the film does possess a great soundtrack, that had me tapping along nearly all the way through. But it could have been so much better with a decent script, and for me to call it a cult classic, which in many peoples eyes this is, I would have to be addicted at the start, middle, and not just the end.
CREATIVE IDEAS
2009 MOVIE REVIEWS
