IMDb user comments for
The Plague (2006)

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8 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
A triumph and a failure, 11 August 2007

Author: joe3_98 from United Kingdom

The plague is a slice of life film about a group of youths in a London council estate. The use of underground music, improv, some non actors and authentic locations lend the film a real energy. Greater yet they leave the audience feeling as if they have really experienced the estate, as if they have physically visited it.

In interviews the director (Gregg Hall) has said he grew up in a similar estate like that from the film. This really comes across here. A man in the trenches view.

And to be honest this is what the film does best, as a portrait it works well.

But as a film it's a bit of a failure.

At times the acting slips. Lines are delivered poorly. Bodies become wooden. It's only here and there but it's distracting enough. The micro budget means one has to take or leave the production values - but at time shots are just plain soft and out of focus which is nothing but sloppy.

The radio DJ who seems to over see things is lifted straight from Do the right thing. In do the right thing Lee uses the character to expertly control the tone of the film. Gregg hall uses his character to preach at us. Is there anything worse than a preachy film? The director's visual style leaves us wanting. Jump cuts are the tell tale sign of a young, just out of art school director and they rear their ugly head here. Someone's drinking. Someone's doing drugs. Someone's angry – let's throw in a jump cut to show their disorientation. It's all a bit tired.

Moreover a large majority of the long takes fail. Scene's are sucked of any real bite by the unblinking camera. We all remember the intensity the long take brought in 'that scene' in secret and lies but it has the reverse effect here.

The visuals fail down to the very basics, such as framing and blocking are often very poor.

The big event ending of the film is terrible. A plot that has been almost non present suddenly pops up again for us to be 'shocked' by violence and death. Why writers/directors can never shun a clichéd ending is beyond me. Especially when we consider this film was 100% independent.

This film is a classic kitchen sink realism job. Ugly. Predictable. Nonetheless it works as a slice of life piece. Variety have said the film 'recalls the early, no-budget work of Brit director Shane Meadows' and that's the problem. This film could be compared to any realist Brit director. One formulaic film after another – just like Hollywood.

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Not too bad, I suppose, 18 December 2007

Author: davideo-2 from Birmingham,England

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

The story behind The Plague is a bit more interesting than the actual story itself, so here it is. Young film-maker Greg Hall, like many others before him, approached the Film Council to fund his debut feature and was promptly refused. Undettered, he went to all his close family and friends and managed to scrub together a mere £3,500 and his film saw the light of day after all. That's an inspiring story of hope and surviving against all odds in itself, which is more than is coming to the characters in the film.

There's no real plot here, the film just follows these four multicultural mates around as they amble their lives away on a tough South London housing estate, 'getting high and getting by.' But when the police start arresting and questioning them about their involvement in a fraud scam run by a mate of an Asian member of the group, everything threatens to fall apart. This approach has worked before, most notably in Trainspotting, but it's still dodgy to base a film around people just doing what they do rather than giving them a clear plot line to follow. It's about 15 minutes longer than normal films of this type and background, too. It's not overlong, just a bit unusual.

The characters are a bit more likable than I thought they'd be, still not the kind of people I'd like to know, but certainly not the scummy toerags I thought they'd be.

A film more heavy on image than story, then, but one you'll probably find yourself drawn into anyway, all rounded up on the end credits with Skinnyman's nice anthem Council Estate of Mind, which manages to explain more than the film actually does. ***

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1 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Gritty and convincing but the narrative arch seems like an afterthought and doesn't really do much other than give the film some way of ending, 14 October 2007
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

In and around the council estates of London a multicultural group of friends hang around and get about their business the best way they can. Alex, Tom, Matt and Ravi all do drugs and move small quantities as well as being involved in various other illegal activity. With Matt's mum away for the weekend, the plan is to throw a party at his house, with plenty of drugs and hip hop for their friends. However a run-in with some white thugs in the afternoon and the activities of Ravi's mate Kalig threaten to disrupt the day-to-day existence of the group.

There are many interesting tales behind the making of this film and it is not fair to talk about it in any way without considering at very least how it was made. Writer and director Hall came up with the film as a reflection of the life he was living. The application for money to make the film was rejected by the Film Council and so the film was made for a budget of less than £4k, most of it borrowed from family and friends. Filming without official permissions in the most part the film used a small crew and inexperienced actors to make this. It premiered on the internet but it did win an award from Mike Leigh that has brought it more of an audience (although not much). It did help that the BBC showed it (and several other very low budget films) as part of its summer of British films recently.

The low budget does show but I mean that in the nicest possible way. The DV footage gets us close to the action and feel like it is realistic but it just isn't that pretty looking. The production standards I can understand and I had no problem with it but I did have a issue with the plotting. I like films that are close to reality and natural but for me you have to try and work a plot into that rather than having them as two separate threads of the same film, which is what it seemed had happened here. So on one hand we gets plenty of interesting "hanging around and stuff happens" scenes but then on the other we have the main plot about the police closing in on the group over fraud and theft, leading to a significant impact at the end. The actual plot doesn't flow that well and indeed is poorly delivered at the end but the naturalistic scenes are engaging in their rough and ready realism. Fortunately the closest I have ever gotten to the world of this film was living in Witton in Birmingham and hanging around with people from Ladywood but from my limited experience it all rings true and a lot is recognisable for what it is.

The acting is also rough and ready and it seems to depend on the scene. The difference is quite obvious at times. Scenes where the focus is naturalism then the cast get to just be themselves and adlib well. However when they are handed scenes required to fit into the narrative, some of them become a bit more clunky and wooden. Hall's direction is good and I will be interested to see anything he does after this on the basis of the potential (and drive) that he has shown here.

Overall then a film of strengths and weaknesses – some of which are both at the same time. Specifically the film is best in its naturalistic and rough depiction of life on London's housing estates but the narrative arch seems like an afterthought and much more could have been made of it and the film would have been significantly better for it.

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