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The DVD is finally coming out - October 13th!

posted 16 years ago by nothingtoseehere
5 replies | jump to latest

Babylon is finally getting an official UK DVD release on October 13th. It has been fully restored and remastered with the process having been overseen by none other than Chris Menges himself. I have worked on this release and I can tell you it looks STUNNING - like a contemporary film, with Chris Menges' inspired photgraphy finally looking like it should. One person that worked on the DVD who hadn't seen heard of the film thought that it was a new release, saying that it had an "excellent attention to period detail"! I urge you to seek out this long overlooked British classic - it's as warm, funny, moving and relevant as ever. A real gem.

[–] sharkattack1978 15 years ago

well worth the wait.

SharkattackUK- "Shoot me again, I ain't dead yet!"

[–] tom_b1986 15 years ago

I recently rented it from LoveFilm. It looks absolutely beautiful, as the OP says, like a contemporary film. The version I got had a featurette about the digital re-mastering process, as well as a 30 minute Q&A from a screening at the BFI with the director, writers and cast. I didn't realise until I saw the Q&A that the writer of Babylon also wrote the screenplay for Quadrophenia - I think you can really see paralleles between the two films in regards to coming-of-age, youth movements, music and alienation etc. It's bizarre that this film has never had the distribution or recognition it deserves.

[–] podwilliams 14 years ago

No need for me to say much now - tom_b1986 said it all! What a joy to see this film restored! The print is, well, beautiful - as tom says. One thing: what's the story with Karl 'Ronnie' Howman? It's a shame he was absent from the, otherwise excellent - and very funny - BFI Q&A. He's referred to as merely 'him' in the audio commentary (ouch!). OK, Howman was obviously a naïve young bloke back then (the commentary, for example, mentions him questioning the idea that police dogs would be sent into a party), but he does a fine job in the role. And I'm sure he'd prefer to be remembered for this than those bloody ads for 'Flash'! Still, if it could talk, his wallet might have something to say about that.

Anyway, I showed this film a to few (mostly white) people of my age (40), and they were gobsmacked. That the police - and the Met in particular - were, for British black communities, an occupying force in waiting, and in actuality, by the 1980s, is lost on many people today. A copy of this film, together with Keith Tompson's book Under Seige*, are among the best ways to put people straight on that.

All that aside, this film stands on its own merits as a classic rites of passage/coming of age tale. And is it just me, or is the golden age of British reggae criminally neglected? You'd think Aswad and Dennis Bovell, not to mention Black Uhuru and Steel Pulse, were just figments of our imaginations.

Great film, and yet another reminder that many of the best British films slip under the radar for far too long.

*http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5P9A1R1ggakC&pg=PR1&dq=Keit h+under+siege&ei=dPJ6S8S2DqXIlASKitjLBA&cd=1#v=onepage&q=& amp;f=false

The lion and the calf shall lie down together, but the calf won't get much sleep.

[–] Krustallos 13 years ago

Black Uhuru were Jamaican.

Apart from that, good points.

I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.

[–] podwilliams 13 years ago

LOL! Why I included BU, I don't know - probably because they came up alot in conversation with friends, when we were talking about 70s/80s reggae. I used to have the Red album. Must pick it up on CD.

The lion and the calf shall lie down together, but the calf won't get much sleep.