Australia's Best Movie Magazine

Film reviews

Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

search the site

Enter search term:

newsletter

Enter your email address below to receive the weekly Filmink newsletter

Enter search term:

Fire In Babylon (Film)

by Dov Kornits | September 15, 2011 13:19 | Edited September 15, 2011 13:27

An unmissible doco for cricket lovers, this offers compelling insight into how the West Indies triumphed over their colonial masters and became unbeatable foes.

The West Indies cricket team of the ‘80s is legendary for their invincibility, their bruising bowling attack and master blaster Viv Richards. This engrossing documentary offers great insight as to how this ragtag talented bunch of sportsmen went from entertaining also-rans known as calypso cricketers to unbeatable foes for traditionally powerful cricketing nations such as Australia and England.

 

Fire In Babylon pins the West Indian team's transformation on a number of factors; the appointment of level-headed Clive Lloyd as captain, and the racial climate of the time which forged the team to prove to the world that an all-black team could compete with their colonisers Britain and the intimidating Australians. Later on, the Kerry Packer one day cricket revolution took the team to the next level.

 

This well-researched doco judiciously uses calypso, rap and reggae music to break up the talking heads and archival footage (the clip featuring South African accented England captain Tony Greig is gold), and the result is an invigorating document of a quickly shifting time for sport and the world in general. Filled with legendary cricketers it may not offer that much for the regular punter, but for the cricket lover it's unmissable.