The Harder They Come – 1972
With a Piece in His Hand He Takes on the Man!

Director
Perry Henzell

Writers
Perry Henzell
Trevor D. Rhone

Producers
Perry Henzell
Jeff Scheftel – 30th Anniversary DVD
Chris Blackwell executive

Cast
Jimmy Cliff – Ivan Martin
Janet Barkley – Elsa
Carl Bradshaw – Jose
Ras Daniel Hartman – Pedro
Basil Keane – Preacher
Bob Charlton – Hilton
Winston Stona – Detective Ray Jones
Lucia White – Mother
Volair Johnson – Pushcart Boy
Beverly Anderson – Housewife
Clover Lewis – Market Woman
Elijah Chambers – Longa
Prince Buster – DJ at Dance
Ed ‘Bum’ Lewis – Photographer
Bobby Loban – Fitz
Joanne Dunn – Barmaid
Adrian Robinson – Editor
Don Topping – DJ
Karl Leslie – Freddie
Sandra Redwood – Girl
Ulla Fraser – Elsa Friend
Carol Lawes – Elsa Friend
Aston ‘Bam’ Winter – Drunk
Toots Hibbert – Himself (uncredited)

A poor Jamaican, a 1970s anti-hero, tries to make it with a hit record but finds that payola rules. His record will only be played if he signs away his rights. He turns to dealing marijuana and runs afoul of the law. As an underground fugitive, he becomes a political hero. An outstanding reggae soundtrack underscores the plot, in particular the lines from the title song: “I’d rather be a free man in my grave than living like a puppet or or a slave.”

Review by Zetes

The Harder They Come (1972)

Decent filmmaking – morally reprehensible story,

For quite a while, I really loved The Harder They Come. The music is fantastic. The cinematography and location shooting are gorgeous. And, most of all, I was simply fascinated by the Jamaican dialect of English exhibited in the film. A word of warning: this film is in English, but it is very difficult to understand, almost impossible at times. The Jamaicans accent their words completely differently, and their speech patterns have an entirely different cadence than ours do.

And I liked the plot a lot for about half or more of the running time. I was genuinely involved with the characters and their stories. Unfortunately, after a certain point, it becomes very morally dubious. Yes, the main character, Ivan (Jimmy Cliff), is not treated too fairly by Preacher. However, it’s hard to root for a hero who stabs a man in the back because he confiscated his bicycle.

It would be different if the audience were not asked to root for Ivan, but we plainly are. He thinks he’d make a great singer, but the producer of his record refuses to let the radio stations play it. After a while, Ivan is forced to make a living by selling ganja – which goes really well, obviously. When a police officer attempts to pull him over for speeding, he ices the copper. Then a bit later he kills three more, and basically goes on a killing spree. All of a sudden, people want desperately to hear his record on the radio. The producer’ll make tons of money, so he lets it have airtime. Instantaneously, Ivan becomes a star and a Robin Hood-esque hero to the supposedly oppressed people of Jamaica.

Well, Robin Hood isn’t the best example – he’s much more O.J.-esque; is there anyone in the world who won’t immediately conjure up the image of a white Bronco during a scene in which a dozen people cheer Ivan on when he’s blasting away at a rival ganja dealer? This is really dispicable, and it becomes even moreso when, during Ivan’s final stand-off, the director, Brecht-style, cuts to the movie’s Jamaican audience clapping and laughing as he kills a couple of more police officers. 6/10.