Critics reviews

["Babylon"] makes plain that its themes of disaffection and racial discord in south London are still relevant nearly four decades later... The drama is notable for its cast of mostly young Black musicians and its refusal to shy away from troublesome territory.

Babylon's cultural specificity is what gives it power, putting it as much in a tradition of British alienated youth movies like Brighton Rock and Quadrophenia (not coincidentally written by Babylon scriptwriter Martin Stellman). Its clear-eyed call to reject racism and hatred may be made in England, but its message is undeniably universal.

Babylon has too much to say about keeping your head up when everyone wants to grind your face into the pavement — and to say it with so much heart — to be left in the rubbish bin of history.

The plotline’s swift descent into chaos from which neither side can return could so easily serve as a present-day metaphor for Britain’s Brexit mayhem or aspects of Donald Trump’s White House. Babylon has stood the test of time precisely because those problems never went away, just changed their clothes and started dancing to a different beat.

Despite Rosso’s perceptive direction and the cinematography of Chris Menges (The Mission, The Killing Fields, Comfort and Joy…), it is the original soundtrack by Dennis Bovell, more than any other element, that creates the storyline’s intention and tone.

A raw, propulsive and authentically music-driven glimpse of South London black culture in the pressurized hot zone of Thatcherite England... Assertive and ebullient, “Babylon” is as alive as a movie can be to the everyday mesh of liberating art, humorous camaraderie and hazardous political reality. It also feels like a corrective now in this time of “Green Book”-tinted nostalgia.

With its vivid cinematography, incredible soundtrack, and powerful message, ["Babylon"] became a cult flick for Jamaicans and reggae heads around the world. It has become an icon of its time and a cinematic classic, influencing generations of artists.

"Babylon" is a hidden gem... Pulsating with lively music and righteous anger, in a world that remains far too resistant to multiculturalism, it provides an uncomfortably vivid reminder that still we have not come far enough.

Although Babylon shows what it's like to be young, black and working class in Britain, the final product turns dramatised documentary into a breathless helter-skelter... Although the script runs out of steam by the end, the sharp use of location, the meticulous detailing of black culture, the uniformly excellent performances and stimulating soundtrack command attention.

The emotional frustrations at the heart of the film build slowly, in tight, forced smiles and resigned sighs, on the edges of scenes where kids are just horsing around and making do.

[It’s] a British movie about disaffected British people (disaffected British men), and, as such, seems just as seminal an entry in the English “angry young man” sweepstakes as the plays, novels and movies about alienation made in the 1960s.

["Babylon"] is one of the best [films] about the cultural tensions enflamed by Margaret Thatcher’s reign of terror. We talk glibly now about notions of “everyday racism” to cite examples of insidious bigotry, yet Babylon captures an early iteration of this problem, where racism is a routine, like eating breakfast or going to work.