BABYLON: REGGAE AND RESISTANCE
The 1970s and 80s were dire decades for British cinema- major production houses were undergoing big budget cuts, filmmakers weren't receiving enough funding, and strong international competition was roaming the markets. All along with the re-elected conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, which wasn't the friendliest towards the arts, British filmmakers found themselves in difficult situations at the start of the 80s- as writer Michael Brookes said “the 1980s began with the bleakest outlook yet seen for British film.”
But as national production companies were cutting back, independent filmmakers took the opportunity to create more than ever, and organizations such as the BFI opened up their doors and trusted new talents. One such film is the cult classic and an icon of British 80s cinema is Babylon (1980).
Set in South London, the film is about a group of young men who run a rising soundsystem that is active and at the heart of the city’s parties. We follow them as they go through it all to win a competition against their rival musical counterpart. A story that at its core is about first-generation Jamaican immigrants and their children as they try to create a life and community while battling the discriminatory ordeals cast around them. Led by protagonist Blue (played by the frontman of the Reggae group Aswad, Brinsley Forde), who works with his crew of 5 to make up Ital Lion soundsystem and along with his white best friend Ronnie, they steal and fix electrical equipment, bribe their way for some exclusive Reggae records from Jamaica, and dance the night away in a garage they have turned into their studio.
The plot kicks off with the dedication that Ital Lion has for winning against their competition, Jah Shakah. The film thematically centers itself around Reggae symbolism in its rawest forms, with Reggae beats playing at every move of the characters and Aswad’s records being the core soundtrack. It is emotionally rich, enjoyable, and still painfully embarks on the difficulties that the Caribbean communities face. It isn't just the music, it is the fashion, language, views, and collective memories of a population that Babylon has built a world around. The hits of Aswad and Jamaican patois dialogue create an audio experience resonating with the Caribbean diaspora of London. Whether the average English speaker understands all of the dialogue is irrelevant, it is the sounds and the way they are uttered that make up the mood. As Hua Hsu wrote in his review for The New Yorker “conveying a message less through language than through the passage of sound waves through bodies.” It is the feels of the sounds which is what makes Babylon sensationally irresistible, not our logical and technical understanding of it.
What might come off as a surprise is that Babylon was directed by Franco Rosso who is of Italian origins, and co-written by him and British screenwriter Martin Stillman. The stunningly gritty and rough visuals of Deptford and Brixton streets were shot by the famous English cinematographer Chris Menges. While none of the head crew were from black or Caribbean roots, during his decade-reigning career director Franco Rosso was always outspoken on growing up as an outsider in London as the son of a low-income immigrant Italian family. He examined his subjects, who like him were othered in their cities, with sensitivity. He understood what it is like to be silenced and marginalized within the spaces you call home.
Babylon is about a diaspora who is othered and constantly discriminated against by the system that invited them over. In many scenes of the film, the protagonist faces racial slurs from his boss, strangers on the streets, and the police who catch him and ruthlessly beat him up. In a touching scene one of the main members of the crew Beefy, who usually tries to maintain his anger by bench pressing at the gym, loses it on an English woman when she shouts at them to go back to their countries. He yells "This is my fucking country, lady, and it's never been fucking lovely. It's always been a fucking tip, for as long as I can remember." These characters are born and/or raised in the UK, they are British, and they were invited to rebuild Britain. Even after its imperial reign, Britain’s society has maintained an exclusive and racist attitude towards its minorities, especially true during Thatcher's England. The title of the film comes from Rastafarian belief which uses the word Babylon to refer to the colonial and racist world that Rasta believers break out from. Britain and its colonial heritage is the Babylon of the story.
Rastafarianism unfolds as a major catalyst of the plot's finale, a lost Blue finds himself in a Rastafarian church where he is invited to pray to Jah. Blue finds himself through the faith that was popularized to be a core element of the Reggae identity and Jamaicans who didn't fit in with the white-mans colonial bible.
When Babylon was screened in 1980 at Cannes, the New York Film Festival refused to release it as it was deemed too controversial and would “incite racial tension” (Vivien Goldman, Time Out). Only in 2019 did it finally get its theatrical release in the US and that is when the film reappeared in our headlines. In 1980 it was written to be true to the minority experience and unfortunately not much has changed, with the film’s plot still relevant today. Reviews soared and an internet following for the film grew bigger. Now the classic is part of the Criterion Collection and BFI’s collection, and it can watched online on BFI Player. Babylon is not a story of making music for the sole love of art, but it is about using sounds and beats to fight the colonialist mindset that has ruled for centuries. It is about Reggae and its use for resistance.