War in Babylon

[meregreen]

Haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else, but for cricket fans of a certain age this looks unmissable.

There's a special screening at Brixton Ritzy this Thursday night, followed by a Q&A with Sir Viv. I think it's sold out, but they're screening it simultaneously via satellite to a number of cinemas around the country.

[Guest]

War in Babylon

Michael Holding's seen it five times, apparently, so it must be good. But if I was Michael Holding, I would too.

[mafu]

War in Babylon

I saw this last night

Viv didnt turn up for the Q&A but colin croft, gordon greenidge and jeff thomson did. that was all a bit rubbish though.

The film is alright, not quite brilliant. It finds a fairly good balance between talking heads - primarily croft, richards, holding, greenidge, roberts, lloyd etc discussing the genesis of that team and the social and political issues - and a certain amount of fast bowling porn: stumps flying all over and people being hit in the head, chest, legs and bollocks and everywhere inbetween.

It could have done with slowing down a bit and letting some things speak for themselves a bit more. And some of the footage is patchy, either not great quality or they were relying on stills - which wouldnt be so bad but they were cut together so fast you couldnt really start to appreciate them properly (and there were some great looking photos in there). That said it's a decent enough intro to that era, or a trip down memory lane for those who were there i expect.

[Satchmo Distel]

War in Babylon

I fear that it panders to stereotypes instead of debunking them. Presenting the fast bowlers as some kind of post-colonial avengers simply mirrors the ways that the hostile media portrayed them. Sure, the bowlers were aggressive and they wanted to stick it to The Man, but there is far more to their skill and genius than this simply those aspects, and this film does not do justice to that.

[E10 Rifle]

War in Babylon

Yeah, someone like Malcolm Marshall always struck me as an obviously and highly intelligent bowler. I was a bit in awe of that side of his game, as a kid.

But I'm well up for seeing this. Would any OTFers be up for a meet-up for a midweek matinee screening? (The only hours I seem to have free at the moment)

[ursus arctos]

War in Babylon

Marshall was almost certainly the most analytical bowler of his generation, which makes his loss all the more tragic.

[E10 Rifle]

War in Babylon

I remember him having a column in the Daily Mirror which, as far as I can recall, had almost none of the usual "we've got a great set of lads here" platitudes, but lots of insightful stuff instead about strengths and weaknesses of various batsmen and of various plans he had.

[Benjm]

War in Babylon

...is on BBC4 at 10pm tonight.

Looking forward to this.