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The controversial Play for Today, A Hole in Babylon built powerfully on
director Horace Ové's earlier Pressure (1975), in both subject matter and style.
Ové continued his exploration of racism and the fight-back of the second
generation of black youth, and further developed his highly experimental style
of story-telling. Here, he employed a pioneering form of drama-documentary,
involving multiple dramatic flashbacks interspersed with archive footage.
A Hole in Babylon dramatises the botched 1975 Spaghetti House Siege in
Knightsbridge. Middle-aged petty criminal Frank Davies, accompanied by two young
men, Wesley Dick and Anthony Monroe, prepare to rob the restaurant. The younger
men want out but Frank keeps them focused. As the three cross the point of no
return, things immediately go wrong. The police are called and the siege is on.
What began as a means to an end is now repackaged as a political and
revolutionary act. Frank Davis assumes command of the quickly improvised Black
Liberation Army.
As police negotiations begin, Ové winds back in a series of flashbacks, and
flashbacks within flashbacks, to explain how we got here. He intersperses the
back stories of the three characters with developments at the siege, without
once losing the immediacy of the moment. First, Frank, recently released from
Prison, is haunted by mental problems; Wesley, a poet, stuck in a dead-end job,
is wishing for paid community work; Anthony, a middle-class medical student
drop-out, is dreaming of going to Nigeria's Ibadan University to escape
'Babylon's education'.
Ové sensitively captures the way the unfolding siege provides the opportunity
for a different kind of glory as black liberators. This grandiose scheming is
intercut with real news archive from the time, which shows the reverse - the
siege descending into farce and defeat. Ové's dignified treatment of the
pressures facing the men led to widespread outrage. The BBC refused to sell on
rights to US broadcasters, stating, "we are not going to sell a film... about a
group of black hooligans."
But Ové's film is more subtle than this. Despite the racist provocations
which provide motivation, 'Black Revolution' is shown to be ultimately just
another hustle for Frank, the supreme opportunist. For the younger men, having
reluctantly come this far, the glory of martyrdom appears a good way of
advancing the cause. Frank's views nevertheless prevail, despite the disgust of
the youngsters and his own personal humiliation.
Onyekachi Wambu
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1. The robbery (3:19)
