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(Credits: Far Out \/ Markus Spiske \/ Thea Hdc \/ Jeff Kingma)<\/p>\n
Sun 22 March 2026 15:45, UK <\/p>\n
Hollywood has long promoted movies that affirm the status quo, the last thing it wants is for people to take inspiration from a film<\/a> to go against convention and what\u2019s considered correct in hegemonic society, so, what happens when a film emerges that poses a real threat to the way things are \u2013 authorities simply try to make the movie as hard to see as possible.<\/p>\n This was the case for the British cult classic Babylon, a revolutionary moment in film history that depicted an authentic experience of working-class Black British life, set against the backdrop of Thatcher\u2019s tyrannical reign \u2013 the movie, directed by Franco Rosso, immersed audiences in sound system culture, with lead actor Brinsley Forde playing a young reggae DJ, and living in Brixton, he finds community in other music lovers, yet he battles fierce opposition from racist individuals and even the National Front.\u00a0<\/p>\n Babylon is an incredible film, and it was truly groundbreaking for its depiction of Black British culture. Few films had traversed such ground before \u2013 and this was years before Spike Lee\u2019s era-defining Do The Right Thing<\/a>, too. American cinema hadn\u2019t even caught up with depicting the experiences of Black youth culture at this point; Rosso was a true trailblazer. With a dub and reggae soundtrack, Babylon is a genuinely authentic encapsulation of class and racial struggle, with an unflinching lens honing in on the brutality often experienced by many Black people. <\/p>\n There\u2019s violence and retaliation at play, but unsurprisingly, this caused censors to wince. This was a film with the potential to encourage young viewers to act on inequality and racial abuse, and to inspire radical change \u2013 of course, that wasn\u2019t going to go down with those who believed cinema should restore order, not disrupt it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reflecting on the film, Forde spoke to Vice about the movie\u2019s American ban \u2013 with the film finally getting its US release in 2019, 39 years after it was made \u2013\u00a0and he didn\u2019t shy away from highlighting how uncomfortable the film made many audiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn one of the Q&As, when talking about the subject of why it was banned in the West, a woman said, \u2018I think it\u2019s the stabbing scene.\u2019 Now I\u2019m here wondering what that\u2019s supposed to mean. There are a ton of movies that feature far more violence. But she then says, \u2018the underdog,\u2019 and it made sense. America turned their backs on it, and England gave it an X rating, because the idea of the underdog fighting back is too much for some to handle,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s what makes great art, though \u2013 when a movie challenges social norms and inequality, encouraging viewers to take action and to stand up for themselves and their rights, it becomes something more than just a piece of filmmaking, but a weapon, a tool for inspiring real change in the world, and that\u2019s the most important thing about creating and consuming art.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a different thought process. Could this film incite riots? Could this group inspire others to go against the establishment? Maybe, and that\u2019s what it was. As we\u2019ve moved through the years, we\u2019ve seen banned content for what it was. They thought differently and freed our minds from what we\u2019ve normalised. In the 1980s, there was a great fear of what film could do alone to incite people,\u201d Forde continued. <\/p>\n
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