Very Cool!!!

terrible... so disappointed.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Churchill once said, of his memoirs of WW2. "This is not history, this is my case"The same can be said for Fire in Babylon - it is brilliant, moving and a must watch for anyone who loves the game of cricket. But it is one side's story.Some of these examples have already been covered by previous reviewers, but I'll add my take :The West Indies were one all with India in '76, when they caught them on an unsafe pitch and basically bowled bodyline. The Indians are no cowards. They held their own in a hostile environment.The traditional bogan VB-fueled abuse at the MCG is not particularly racial. Botham's paternity has been questioned on many occasions, as has Hadlee's supposed inter-species sexual predilictions. To act offended and then half an hour later say "if you cannot stand the heat - get out" is a bit hypocritical. Alvin Kalicharran was not mentioned. No-one would know that he was WI's best batsman in the mid 70s, and captained them when the rest went off to make money on the Packer circus.Which leads to -> there was a bit of Black-Asian tension in the WI in the 70s, and a feeling that some good Asian West Indians were being marginalised by the new regime. Some of those Asians joined the rebel team to South Africa. Maybe they felt "seriously embodied" with their struggling brothers and sisters in Uganda.For the sake of fairness, Tony Greig's grovelling crawl back to the pavilion could have been mentioned - he did publicly admit what an idiot he'd been. He made his amends by helping sign up the West Indies up to WSC thereby getting them the pay they deserved. Went on to become good friends with Michael Holding.It's a great story, but more Disney than Documentary.

Steven Riley's documentary starts with highlights of some fierce fast bowling and batsmen crumpling to the ground. Those violent but fulgurant images straightaway set the enthralling tone for the entire 80 minutes. This documentary tells us the true story of a social-rebellion by a cricket team. Riley very deftly manages to showcase the transformation of the West Indies Test Cricket Team from entertaining but lacking substance " calypso cricketers" to become vehement combatants.Documentary starts with the turbulent 60s and early 70s with racism in the world at its zenith and the West Indies Cricket struggling even to make a palpable mark in International Cricket. They don't have a leader in their team who can unite all the Caribbean players from different islands under one flag of West Indies. Not much time has passed since their liberation from the British colonial rule and the remnants from the colonial rule are still visible in all the islands of Caribbean. Citizens of all the Caribbean islands are still oppressed and they all need something to hold on to, something they can be proud of, something they can all boast without ignominy as being purely Caribbean. Enters, one of the best captains of Test Cricket History "Clive Llyod", who after the disastrous 1975 tour of Australia resolves to embrace the merciless tactics of their vitriol-hurling adversaries (Australians) for their own realization and thus starts one of the greatest transformations ever in sports history.The narration takes us through the formative years of West Indies test Cricket strengthening themselves as a veritable world power. From the calamitous Australian tour of 1975 to renowned "Blackwash" england tour of 1984, it shows all the political and the social ups and downs of West Indies cricket and its impact on the Caribbean society.Riley, while showing us all the political & racism related facets of those years and their impact on West Indies cricket, astutely manages to keep the prime focus on the strengths of West Indies Cricket. Documentary deftly and instructively tell us the about the unsubduable Viv Richards as their batting lynchpin, ferocious Pace Quartet as their bowling arsenal & Clive Llyod as their inspiring leader. Random musical numbers infuse a kind of Caribbean vitality to the documentary. The part describing the nicknames & strengths of the Fearsome Foursome "Roberts, Garner, Holding and Marshall" was simply awe-inspiring. These 80 minutes germinated a serious respect for Sir Vivian Richards in me not only as a batsman but also as a human being. Only down side with the documentary is Riley's exaggerated depiction of apartheid and racism in some shots.In a nutshell, this is the story of one of the greatest test teams ever, a team which wanted to beat their former masters in their own game and if you are a big fan of the game of cricket, you sure can't afford to miss this one.My Rating: 8/10, Not to be missed.P.S: Personally, I think " Whispering Death" is one of the coolest nicknames in sports history.

Unlike cricket, it's a film of two halves. The first covers the parlous, parochial state of West Indian cricket early in the 1970s and its determination to better itself. The second half describes the impact, political involvement and legacy. It's a stirring film, made up of period footage narrated by the sportsmen in interview and overlaid with a reggae-heavy soundtrack (as well as performances from West Indian musician-balladeers recording the exploits and character of the protagonists).I liked the film very much, not least as I was absorbed by cricket in the 1980s myself. As a document it achieves a fair balance, not least in the latter stages which deal with differences in the team itself as some decide to play in South Africa in defiance of sanctions. In the second half I feel it loses the same focus with which the first blazes along, just like the titular fire. I'd have liked to hear more about the impact in Britain at the time of the Brixton riots (1981) and of the structure and capability of the West Indian cricket board. I also found the editing a little contrived, with recourse to footage of batsmen taking balls to the body used increasingly arbitrarily to spike the drama.There are irresistible moments though - when Michael Holding is shown taking his run-up, for example, with the voice-over identifying the indelibly African character of motion as the next funk track kicks in. It's great fun and really sells the greats of that marvellous period. 5/10

It is a good watch for a cricket fan especially. But being a documentary, using wrong facts is enough to put off a lot of people who are able to catch the inaccuracy. And this documentary does it on more than one occasion.In one of the matches in the 1976 series between WI and India, several Indian batsman were injured and had to retire hurt! Stevan Riley uses this fact and presents that Indians were demolished in the series by a fearsome WI team (when in fact the series was 2-1 in favor of WI and India had won one of the matches on back of a record 4th inning chase of 404 that was broken only in 2003 says a lot).A more glaring inaccuracy: Stevan uses the video footage of a 1981 incident to depict that Indians could not face WI in 1975-76 series and walked off the field declaring their innings. The video footage is of an incident in Australia when Sunil Gavaskar threw tantrums on being given out lbw (possibly incorrectly) against Lillee and was walking off with his partner in disgust!For a documentary to depict inaccurate facts is big turn off! It would have been OK if it was some 'masala' movie but definitely not for a documentary which claims to document some true incidents.