My review as written in October 1980 after viewing in a Manhattan screening room:
Just as Italian directors revitalized the moribund American Western genre in the 1960s with a new approach, Jamaican directors have brought back the U. S.-invented blaxploitation film, but with political overtones. In his feature debut, director Lennie Little-White has an intriguing "Children of Babylon", but lets the medium get in the way of his message.
Shot in 1979 and released in 1980 on the island of Jamaica, and in a current (1980) test run in Brooklyn, "Babylon" portrays various archetypal characters to represent Jamaica today. Little-White likens the island to a "plantation" of ante bellum South days and points out the emptiness of the decadent "Babylonian" lifestyles and world views of his protagonists.
Penny (played by model Tobi) is a beautiful Marxist graduate student whose thesis concerns the mating habits of working class women. She falls in love with Rick (Don Parchment), a handsome artist who picks her up hitchhiking, and Luke (Bob Andy), a young plantation farmer who's into the Rastafarian faith. Dorcas (Leonie Forbes), the mute domestic at the home where they're all staying, is also sexually involved with Luke. The absentee owner of the plantation and Rick's patroness Laura (Elizabeth de Lisser), an older white Jamaican woman, is also Rick's bedmate.
Little-White mixes and matches this bunch in numerous softcore sex scenes, but eschews he violence which was a staple of domestic blaxploitation product. The overlong film errs chiefly in its highly romantic approach, stressing the beauties of the Jamaican countryside and shamelessly spotlighting Tobi in lyrial shots better suited to a Playboy or Players magazine layout than a serious feature film. Result is that audiences (especially in the U. S.) may identify with the attractive, hedonistic lifestyle shown in the picture and find the verbal criticisms of it either laughable or irrelevant.
Largely inexperienced cast is okay in terms of presence and physical appearance but unconvincing in dramatic scenes. Reggae-oriented musical score is quite pleasant, and the blowup from 16mm to 35mm is good.
Shot in 1979 and released in 1980 on the island of Jamaica, and in a current (1980) test run in Brooklyn, "Babylon" portrays various archetypal characters to represent Jamaica today. Little-White likens the island to a "plantation" of ante bellum South days and points out the emptiness of the decadent "Babylonian" lifestyles and world views of his protagonists.
Penny (played by model Tobi) is a beautiful Marxist graduate student whose thesis concerns the mating habits of working class women. She falls in love with Rick (Don Parchment), a handsome artist who picks her up hitchhiking, and Luke (Bob Andy), a young plantation farmer who's into the Rastafarian faith. Dorcas (Leonie Forbes), the mute domestic at the home where they're all staying, is also sexually involved with Luke. The absentee owner of the plantation and Rick's patroness Laura (Elizabeth de Lisser), an older white Jamaican woman, is also Rick's bedmate.
Little-White mixes and matches this bunch in numerous softcore sex scenes, but eschews he violence which was a staple of domestic blaxploitation product. The overlong film errs chiefly in its highly romantic approach, stressing the beauties of the Jamaican countryside and shamelessly spotlighting Tobi in lyrial shots better suited to a Playboy or Players magazine layout than a serious feature film. Result is that audiences (especially in the U. S.) may identify with the attractive, hedonistic lifestyle shown in the picture and find the verbal criticisms of it either laughable or irrelevant.
Largely inexperienced cast is okay in terms of presence and physical appearance but unconvincing in dramatic scenes. Reggae-oriented musical score is quite pleasant, and the blowup from 16mm to 35mm is good.