Friday 27 May 2011

Fire in Babylon


So I got round to seeing this earlier in the week. It's worth watching. If you know all about the cricket of the time (I've read countless books about it, what with being a gimp) it won't teach you much, if anything, that's new. The film tries to portray the West Indian dominance of the 1980s as a response to a growing sense of national, and black identity.

It starts with the team's disastrous tour to Australia at the end of the 1970s, during which they were not only smashed, but racially abused by the crowd. From this disaster, a strong, brutally efficient team was born. Every subsequent series is placed in a political context - the Brixton riots, Grieg's 'grovel' comment, Apartheid...all of it, the film attempts to argue, was grist to this incredible team's mill.

The problem is, it's not an entirely convincing argument. Viv Richards, certainly, had a political sensibility. And no doubt, these men were proud to represent their nation - not unlike any other team. But were Andy Roberts and Derrick Murray anything more than good cricketers? They give little impression in their interviews that politics had any part to play in their performances. How bothered was Colin Croft - who went on a rebel tour to South Africa - about black power, as opposed to his career? It's too often left to various experts and non-experts to draw the connections. More to the point, if this dominance was a politically-motivated phenomenon, then what was responsible for Australia's record in the 90s and 00s? Was it a strike for Antipodean respect on the world stage?

What saves the film isn't its rather muddled premise: it's the footage of the cricket itself. Even to any non-cricketers the sheer athleticism of Michael Holding's gliding approach, beautifully captured in slow-motion, is a stunning sight. Likewise the brutality of the game - the enduring sight is of batsmen, none of them wearing helmets, being seriously hurt by some vicious deliveries. The audience gasped throughout. How no one died is a mystery.


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