Jubilee - Criterion Collection [1978] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Amazon.co.uk Review

Derek Jarman's Jubilee combines a safety-pin and barbed-wire vision of 1977 London in ruins (all burning prams and castrated policemen), a meditation on English mysticism guided by a time-travelling Queen Elizabeth I (the immensely regal Jenny Runacre) and a wild 'n' crazy account of the rampages of a gang of personality punk psychos, to become the closest a British film could come to the John Waters of Pink Flamingos. But there are surprisingly lyrical stretches (the only songs sung all the way through are "Jerusalem" and "My Love is Like a Red Red Rose") and, though future pop stars Toyah Wilcox and Adam Ant are embarrassingly amateurish as rebel street angels, some of the one-note maniacal performances--especially Lex Luther look-alike Orlando as mad media tycoon Borgia Ginz--are relishable. Among the people you've forgotten are in it are Ian Charleson of Chariots of Fire, celebrity shop assistant Jordan (as narrator Amyl Nitrate), Richard O'Brien and Little Nell of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Lindsay Kemp Dance Troupe and Adolf Hitler of World War II. Arguably the only Derek Jarman movie you might consider watching for pleasure, this is still not exactly the 1970s nostalgia fodder you might expect: even as the haircuts and music have receded into cultural history, the movie's acid-look vision of the worst of England remains horribly sound. The soundtrack features Adam and the Ants ("Deutscher Girls"), Wayne County and the Electric Chairs ("Paranoia Paradise"), Chelsea ("Right to Work"), Suzi Pinns (a thrash punk "Rule Britannia" best appreciated by those with the aural range of a fox terrier), Siouxie and the Banshees ("Love in a Void"), Amilcar ("Wargasm in Pornotopia"), the Slits and Brian Eno ("Slow Water", "Dover Beach"). In the 21st Century, the creative team are either dead or doing pantomime--which is so appropriate that irony doesn't even come into it. --Kim Newman

Customer Reviews:

Shockingly Poor.......2007-10-09

Jubilee is a very bad film. It is virtually without plot, and the quality of acting is beyond reproach. The writer clearly had a chip on his shoulder and, rather than conferring his opinions through the use of storytelling and metaphor, there are an endless number of lengthy, pretentious soliloquies with not much else going on. Oh, except for a few bare breasts and pointless violence - neither of which further the story in any fashion.

If you enjoyed The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle - you will not enjoy this.

Haunting .......2006-07-07

Don't watch this expecting an exposition of punk, or a linear movie with a happy ending.
Jubilee catalogues the dying of a country's soul. That may sound dramatic, but it is an artist's distopian vision of the future - or 'no future'- as one reviewer has deftly pointed out, two years before Thatcher got into power. Yet it goes beyond the political; it's about the brutalisation of people, the breaking down of civilisation. Jarman's classical art background comes through in all his work and this is no exception. It's not an easy film to watch, not simply because of the extreme nature of some of the scenes, but because it's message is both intellegent and sad. The soundtrack is a mixture of punk and sublime Eno.
It could also be, for some, a nostalgic look at a post-war England/Britain that has since disappeared - teapots, horn rimmed NHS specs and HP Sauce greasy spoon cafes. 1977 was grim -thank god for Derek Jarman and artists like him, whose mirror will reflect into the 21st century. Watch this film as art with something to say. Don't expect to come out smiling.
"she wouldn't even carry a gun."

Real punk style.......2005-09-19

I saw this film (what I could stand) because I was curious about Toyah Willcox as an actor. I had to go to the end credits to find out which character she was. I was expecting the beautiful woman from the cover of her "Minx" album. Instead, from 1977 I got a sort of chubby teenager playing "Mad", a punk girl with a carot crewcut. Not interesting.

It is a very ambitious movie, and perhaps it should earn points for that. But it is just so poorly conceived. Poorly film, poor sound, attrocious acting, bad timing.

You may like it if you like punk sensibility and garage band production values.

1977 wasn't Just about Street Parties.......2002-01-11

...'Jubilee' got it's first TV premier in November'85 on Channel 4 back in the days when they use to put a Red triangle in one of the corners of the Screen. Laughable!!
I didn't have a video 17 years ago so I had to sneek down stairs and watch it on my parents TV with the Sound down. Still I can still recall the film years later and being fixated by it.
Even my Film Studies Teacher asked the class whether anyone had watched it and taped it. Radical Days.
In a time of Pretty people and manufactured Films,videos and Muzak; this film dared to shock and boy oh boy did it. The sets,the sex,the clothes,music and the especially the make-up and haircuts. Toyah the pyromaniac with the vivid Red hair and Jordan with her famous twinsets,love of Floris and her asymetrical make-up.
Jenny Runacre's stunning portrayal as Queen Elizabeth I and as the Punk Queen of all she surveys.
Some of the Music is dire but the attention to detail cannot be denied it's almost as if in '77 they had a idea of what fashion would look like in the 80's and 90's. I dare anyone to be that inventive now. The economic and political situation was just perfect; a feeling that Great Britain's best days were behind her; economically stagnant,politically adrift and just two years before Thatcher's brave new world arrived.Oh yes and not forgetting that the Monarch had permitted a few chairs and tables in the street to eat blancmange,jelly and wave the Union Jack.
In an era when people seem to spend most of their precious time on their Mobiles and wondering where the next Ibiza hioliday is coming 'Jubliee' summed up a far and distant country. Slightly done in and worn down. Down but not exactly out.
25 long years later and here we are in 2002.
Will another creative cutting edge Director make a homage with the up and coming.
Kate Winslett in the Jenny Runacre role or maybe Madonna (No maybe not).
Truth is it wouldn't happen we're far too properous to care or dare.
Britain in '02 is different to '77.
The agression wouldn't be genuine and the people too perfect looking. Caste of Hollyoaks I don't think so.
And anyway most of the set disappeared under Docklands re-development and flashy apartments.
The reality is different and any remake would be just pure nostaglia.

Anarchy in the UK.......2001-07-01

Derek Jarman's 1977 film Jubilee, said to be the "first official punk film" is one of the most original and disturbing urban dystopias to emerge from that era of British film-making. Setting itself in a version of late 70s London where anarchy reigns and Judge Dredd-style police are as lawless as the gangs on the street, the film never fails to surprise and Punk rock experts can play a game of spot-the-cameo. Whilst all this takes place, there's also the matter of Queen Elizabeth I, brought forward in time by the angel Arial to gain supreme knowledge...

Violent and twisted, Jubille manages, however, to convince that destruction isn't the only aspect of an anarchic society, and questions the meaning meaning of life, love, history and even the violence itself in a world without balance.

The only extra on the disc is a 40 minute BBC Face-to-Face documentary with Derek Jarman, which, although interesting, does not tackle the subject of this film, which is a shame as some background on the film would have been very interesting. Even so, a curio that belongs in many peoples collections.

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