The Harder They Come (1972) User Reviews

They shot Pedro's wife...

[jay4stein79-1 · 8/10 · 22 October 2005]

Like most "important" films, "The Harder They Come" is a flawed masterpiece whose inextricable link to a specific time and place and heavy-handed thematics are both its greatest strengths and its greatest weaknesses.

The film follows Ivan Martin, almost quite literally, as he transforms himself from a country bumpkin into an urban outlaw cum reggae star. There are precious few frames missing the amazing visage of Jimmy Cliff, but that is no shortcoming, despite the singer's lack of acting experience. He lends an immediacy to Ivan, and a impish charm, that completely wins us over, as it does almost everyone he meets in the film. The characterization of Ivan isn't particularly deep, but it does not need to be. With a few broad strokes, we understand this man.

As an anthropological exploration of early 1970s Kingston, the film also works particularly well. The squalor and desolation we see, though perhaps exaggerated, is not forced or factitious. You could not make this poverty up.

That said, this film is not timeless. It is tied so much to that specific time--the popularity of the radio DJs, the burgeoning reggae scene, the anti-authoritarian themes--that the film does seem a little quaint.

Nor is the outlaw as folk-hero tale anything new to American audiences. The film makes no pretense that it should seem unique, though, as it clearly draws our attention to its debt to the Hollywood western.

Nevertheless, the film is an incredible success. The acting, especially by Jimmy Cliff, is exuberant as are the sights that unfold before the audience. And this energy is of course paralleled by an amazing score. If you cannot appreciate the joy and sweat that has gone into this music, your ears are closed. Look to the scenes of Ivan recording his hit song--and the other scenes of artists recording their works--and you will find something sublime that no amount of acting could create. Its immediate and visceral and on its own is enough to recommend this film.

I have a friend who has studied filmwriting in school and dislikes this movie immensely because, he claims, the movie lacks the techniques one usually finds in well written and well made films. Though I understand his point of view, I think it is too much skewed by mechanics. A film can have an aura and atmosphere that can overcome any number of technical faults. I believe this is one of those films.

DVD version has been hacked up

[atunik · 6/10 · 6 April 2010]

I saw this movie in the theater, shortly after its release. This is still a good movie with a great seminal reggae soundtrack, but the original revolutionary message of the movie has been hacked out and distorted, and the hero has been turned into an unsympathetic criminal. Scenes are missing and some altered, and the feeling of the film has gone from Robin Hood (protector of the poor and driven to violence by severe oppression) to Bonnie and Clyde (natural born criminals with no regard for human life). It has also been sanitized of some drug-positive content (note that there is a religious sanctity to marijuana in Jamaica, and this alteration is therefore especially offensive - how would you feel if a movie tangentially about Catholicism substituted milk for wine in the Eucharist, or refused to show the ritual at all?).

I am appalled.

best soundtrack ever

[nitedrive73 · 7/10 · 6 August 2006]

I was born the year after this movie came out,but I clearly remember the soundtrack as my mother had it in her record collection.It has followed me through almost 30 years now,and I still love it.Said to be based on a true story this movie is about a young man called Ivanhoe(Jimmy Cliff;who also performs several great,classic songs) who arrives in Kingston by bus after his grandma's death,with nothing but high hopes of being discovered by a producer and to record an album,some mangoes for his mother and few personal belongings.After trying and failing to convince him to return to the countryside,his mother rather desperately sends him to a preacher who she hopes can help him to stay away from criminal activities,find a decent job and lead a good Christian life,but he has other plans. However,the corruption in the record industry is just as bad as anywhere else and upsetting the wrong people is never good for a career...this is basically a tragic movie of hopes that become tainted by harsh circumstances,but the wonderful music somehow makes sure you never lose hope for the characters.

I must add I have never seen it with subs,so it wasn't always easy to understand(especially since English isn't my first language),but it was worth the extra effort.Jamaican Patois must be the coolest accent in the world.A true diamond in the rough from the early seventies,with brilliant singer Jimmy Cliff in the leading role as an extra bonus.

THE reggae movie!

[Schlockmeister · 1 November 2000]

I had heard about this film long before I ever saw it. I had heard that it was banned in it's home country of Jamaica due to it's possibility of inciting youths to "hooliganism". I had also heard it had great music and so I picked up the movie soundtrack on LP and enjoyed every song on it. It took video for me to finally see this movie years later and I enjoyed it very much. The movie puts you right in the middle of unfamiliar territory from the start, a busload of Jamaican country people coming into town, with their heavy accents, this is one of the few English movies to have been given english subtitles. From this setting you are taken into the life and ambitions of Ivan Martin, a man willing to stop at nothing to achieve success as a reggae star. He makes it, but there is a high cost. Great music, great performances, including a rare look at Prince Buster DJing a party. If you are a reggae fan, particularly early ska, rocksteady and pre-Bob Marley, this is a movie for you.

You Can See It If You Really Want

[boblipton · 7/10 · 14 December 2019]

Jimmy Cliff comes to the city with dreams of becoming a recording star. It's a tough racket and he sells the rights to his first record for $20 -- Jamaican dollars. He falls into the ganja trade. When the authorities, at the urging of the United States, bears down, and Cliff withholds the protection money he's been paying. When the higher-ups bear down, he goes on a spree, and the notoriety puts his record on the hit parade.

It's a very good movie, except for a lot of ancillary issues. It was the first movie for Cliff, for the director, and for a Jamaican movie in the patois. It also has a fine musical score, including some hits by Cliff and his band, including the title song and "You Can Get It If You Really Want." It played internationally, and did very well; its view of Jamaica and Jamaicans remains unique to this day.

Original treatment of an old old story...

[Lejink · 7/10 · 19 August 2007]

Eminently watchable rags to well, rags story of the country boy coming to the big city to try to make his name as a singer and getting caught up in drugs, extortion and ultimately violence as his dreams end in a tragic shoot-out that's one part "Butch Cassidy" to one part "Bonnie & Clyde". Of course what makes this erstwhile hackneyed B-Movie Hollywood tale come alive is the transposition to Jamaica, the naturalistic direction and acting styles, and last but not least the superb reggae soundtrack with Cliff himself contributing many of the key songs. It's not too often in a movie of this type that the singer's "Hear my song" plea actually is in support of a terrific song ("Dreamgirls" mediocre soundtrack immediately comes to mind) but here when the record production team and session players praise up the title track, you know they're not kidding. The rest of his songs are great too, all attesting to some kind of human struggle, even the more languid "Sitting in Limbo" and of course the self - explanatory "You can get it if you really want". Yes the story gets a bit lost with characters of varying importance drifting in and out along the way but the sheer honest exuberance of the direction (hand - held camera shots to the fore) and obviously inexperienced acting troupe deliver a convincing movie experience. What a shame that Cliff's own star got eclipsed with the rise of Bob Marley - here he shows his considerable singing, song-writing and acting skills and as I say I'm sorry he failed to kick on in any of these fields after this triumph. By the way, it helps to have the sub-titles on if you're not au-fait with West Indian patois.

A deep film about poverty, ambition, ego, and community

[joehopfield · 10/10 · 29 May 2004]

Though the low budget of this film is obvious, it is an amazing story, nonetheless so because it's based on a true one! It's also sometimes quite beautifully filmed.

What seems like it will be a simple country-boy-makes-good-in-the-city fairytale turns into a darker story of ego, searing poverty, class warfare, and a lust for fame. At first we're drawn to the Ivan, then gradually repulsed.

The compelling plot is built on a fantastic set of characters that weave a chillingly accurate portrayal of Jamaica in the late 60's -- a tapestry of desperately poor but infinitely resilient people.

To those IMDb reviewers who thought the story immoral - would you say the same thing about Bonnie & Clyde, Scarface, or Cagney's Public Enemy? This movie examines the effect of despair, desperation, and ambition. It's not a fairytale -- grow up.

Public Enemy

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 20 May 2008]

Jamaica's first feature film certainly left its successor with something to live up to even though, by more advanced standards, it's pretty raw film-making that lacks focus at times. Where the film does score is in giving the viewer an insight into a side of life that is hardly ever glimpsed – the crime-ridden slums of the impoverished island's cities and the tyrannical power of music producers over the country's music industry.

Jimmy Cliff plays Ivan Martin, a country boy fleeced of his belongings within hours of arriving in the city to advise his mother of the death of her sister. Martin has dreams of becoming a reggae star, but can't find anyone to record his song and quickly finds himself depending on a local preacher who treats him harshly. This treatment gets worse when the preacher discovers Ivan is carrying on an affair with a girl he has possibly been grooming for himself. Ironically, thanks to the Machiavellian deceit of a big-shot record producer, Ivan finds himself sucked into a life of crime just as his music finally begins to take off.

This film plays like a Warner gangster film transplanted to the Caribbean and infused with copious amounts of ganja. This being the 70s, it isn't Cagney or Bogart that Ivan models himself on but Franco Nero's incarnation of seminal spaghetti western anti-hero, Django. Probably the cutest moment of the film comes during its climax as director Perry Henzell intersperses shots of Ivan's come-uppance with the earlier shots of the cinema audience laughing and cheering at the carnage unleashed by Django and his gatling. The difference is, Ivan's guns are empty, and he is almost entirely bereft of principles or redeeming features. Somewhere during the course of the film he turns from victim to victimiser and yet Henzell expects the audience to retain its sympathy for him as he embarks on a cop-killing spree as bloodthirsty as it is pointless. Unfortunately, he and co-writer Trevor D. Rhone aren't skilled enough to pull it off.

The soundtrack, as others have noted, is superlative, even though the tunes are not always played at optimum moments (what's Many Rivers to Cross doing there at some relatively insignificant moment to which it bears no relevance?). Gritty seems to be the word most other viewers choose to describe this flick, and it certainly has echoes of the meanest of the early 70s blaxploitation films. Had its production values and locale been more appropriate it may even have become the same kind of talismanic film that De Palma's Scarface became to urban gangster of the 90s.

Real, raw and a part of my life forever.

[divergent-thinking · 10/10 · 22 November 2005]

This film is a perfect example of the Jamican city struggle, this film is a real depiction of Jamaican people. Technically it is poorly shot and edited, but if you can look past these issues you will have a greater understanding of Jamaican people, the struggles faced and a realization of how the ghettos developed. I lived in Kingston Jamaica in the 80s as a youth, through innocents I loved every part of Jamaica the music, food, people, beaches and weather but not the history or politics which a later learned more about. Jamaica has developed a society through mislead innocents of the youth, selfish politicians who cared for money and power created what Jamaica is today. Imagine coming in from the country as so many did in the 60's & 70's and learning the only work you could find was selling drugs or robbing, Oh no you wouldn't do that? but when a human being begins to starve they will do almost anything to survive it is instinct. This movie is about exactly that survivalist instinct and tendencies.

I can see clearly now

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 6 November 2016]

The Harder They Come is a seminal gangster film from Jamaica. It is not a very good film, being low budget with amateurish acting. Even some of the songs are recycled throughout the film.

Ska legend Jimmy Cliff plays Ivan Martin, a young singer from the country who comes to Kingston to make a name for himself. In his first day in town he is robbed, he loses his bike and he realises to survive he better toughen up fast.

He gets his bike back, he is punished by the police and he takes on the unscrupulous music mogul who exploits the artists he signs up (rather common in Jamaica at the time.)

Before long Ivan becomes an outlaw and his record becomes a big hit but the police are on to him.

The story is banal in places but the film has an infectious energy, it has attracted a cult following and is regarded for popularising reggae music to the world.

Look out for a cameo by another Ska legend Prince Buster who plays a club DJ. Ironically both Prince Buster and Jimmy Cliff became Muslim converts.

Good music but weak plot and performances

[grantss · 5/10 · 12 May 2016]

Good music but weak plot and performances.

Jamaica. A young man from the country, Ivanhoe "Ivan" Martin (played by Jimmy Cliff) heads into the city after his grandmother dies. He tries to get work, with little success, but his dream is to become a music star. He gets a single recorded but, though the song is popular, he doesn't get much out of it - the record company has the upper hand. In desperation he turns to crime.

A reasonably historic film in that this was the first feature film produced in Jamaica. The movie also introduced reggae music to a wider audience.

On that note, the music in the movie is great, and gives the movie a great vibe.

However, the rest of the movie leaves much to be desired. Plot is pretty basic. It started off struggling to find a focus, but then when it does, it is pretty unoriginal, predictable and one- dimensional.

No real character depth. You don't really feel that engaged with the character of Ivan. What little engagement you had goes out the window once he starts shooting people.

Jimmy Cliff is okay in the lead role but the remaining cast are pretty wooden. Some quite cringeworthy acting at times.

awesome, timeless film

[rrrina · 10/10 · 10 June 2004]

amazing film. i'd seen it in the movies when it first came out. this is the film that really introduced me to reggae music. for a film that was obviously made on a limited budget, it has everything. it touches every emotion and teaches many life lessons with a beautiful backdrop of real and raw Jamaican life. the plot is basically a poor boy who dreams of becoming famous through his music - regardless of the price. to me it represents the epitome of human nature. i think it also typifies the music industry worldwide and the frustrations and obstacles artists must overcome. i've recently purchased the film on DVD and now, years later, it's just as awesome as the first time i saw it!

THE HARDER THEY COME (Perry Henzell, 1972) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 18 December 2006]

I had first intended to watch this when the Criterion DVD went out-of-print but I only managed to get to it now that the director has passed away! I'm not one of Blaxpioitation's biggest fans - even less so of Reggae music - but this is surely among the best I've seen; unfortunately, the heavy Jamaican accents make the dialogue unintelligible at times (even if I was watching the film with the benefit of Italian subtitles)!

Though the plot offers nothing new - a young man moves from the country to the city hoping to make it as a singing performer but, seeing how he's being exploited by his manager, resorts to crime in order to make a fast buck with the inevitable tragic outcome - the vividness of the ethnic culture and setting make it seem fresh and exciting (thanks in large part, too, to the great soundtrack, providing thought-provoking lyrics amidst unusual rhythms); sure, it's rough and raw film-making, but the end result is frequently disarming and exhilarating.

That said, the characters aren't very likable (including our hero played by Reggae star Jimmy Cliff, who also composed the songs) and the film ends up being somewhat overstretched for its purpose; the finale, though, with Cliff facing-off with the militia single-handedly (inspired by a screening of DJANGO [1966] he saw in a local cinema shortly after his arrival in town) is worth waiting for. Along the road, Cliff also gets involved with a preacher and his female ward; as a matter of fact, the all-black church sequences here reminded me of GANJA AND HESS (1973) - incidentally, "ganja" (street slang for dope) turns out to be a major plot point in this film's own latter stages.

Unfortunately, it seems that the version I watched is slightly trimmed as the IMDb lists scenes and shots (notably full-frontal nudity during a beating Cliff receives at the hands of the police) which aren't present here! By the way, the film's original soundtrack was voted No. 8 among the All-Time Top 20 Soundtrack Albums in an authoritative 1995 poll.

The Harder They Come

[jboothmillard · 5/10 · 2 October 2014]

I found this Jamaican film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I had no idea of anything about it, but I recognised the name of the leading actor, the singer of the 1993 version of "I Can See Clearly Now", I was hoping it would be worthy of the book placement. Basically poor Jamaican man Ivanhoe 'Ivan' Martin (Jimmy Cliff) is searching for a job, after the death of his grandmother he leaves his rural home to live in Kingston with his impoverished mother, and there he meets Jose (Carl Bradshaw). Excited by urban life Ivan at first fails to find work, but he finally gets a job working for a record producer running errands, but the bicycle he is using belongs to someone else, they argue over this and Ivan ends up slashing his throat, as punishment for his crime he is whipped. Ivan sparks the interest of the record producer with a song he writes and performs, "The Harder They Come", he does not make much money from it, and the influence the producer has in the music industry means he is condemned to earn small income, Ivan dreams of stardom, but to make the money he wants he is given an opportunity by Jose to deal marijuana. Some time later Ivan has issues with the pay and the conditions of the job, Jose therefore informs the police about his actions, on one trip to deliver the drugs a policeman tries to stop him, in panic Ivan shoots the officer, then after a night with a woman in a hotel room he is surrounded by more police, and he shoots his way out, killing three officers in the process. Now on the run, Ivan shoots and wounds the woman he slept with, he then pursues and tries to shoot Jose, who manages to escape, the police catchup to Ivan when he returns the countryside, following another shootout and escape he hides out with a drug dealer friends, the police warn the dealers that pressure will remain on them unless they give Ivan up. Meanwhile "The Harder They Come" is re-released and rapidly becomes a hit because of his notoriety, with requests and replays on the radio stations, and with his newfound fame he gets himself photographed holding two guns in gangster poses, these are sent to the press, and he steals a flash car to drive around in. A drug dealer friend suggests to Ivan he should escape to Cuba, he attempts to board a speeding ship leaving port by swimming to it, but unable to grab the ladder on the side he heads back ashore and rests under the shade of trees, the next morning however police are aware he is close by, following a final shootout of policemen with rifles and Ivan with revolvers it ends abruptly with him shot several times and dropping to the ground, and a woman's torso gyrating to his song playing. Also starring Basil Keane as Preacher, Janet Bartley as Elsa, Winston Stona as Detective Ray Jones, Bobby Charlton as Hilton the record company manager, Ras Daniel Hartman as Pedro and Adrian Robinson as Newspaper editor. It is absolutely fair enough that Cliff became a huge star following this cult hit film, the documentary like capturing of the exotic and dark side of Kingston is interesting to watch, I agree that repetitive killing of police officers is perhaps silly, and the blaxploitation is obvious, but it is indeed the soundtrack that makes this film entertaining enough, with memorable songs by Cliff, including "You Can Get It If You Really Want", "Many Rivers to Cross" and of course the title song, it is advisable to have subtitles on because it has such strong Jamaican accents, not a bad crime drama. Worth watching!

Cult viewing

[bob the moo · 4 August 2002]

Ivan is a country boy in Jamaica who comes to see his Grandmother and `make it big' by recording a record. However when he finds himself exploited by a record producer he turns to drug running to make money. When he kills a cop who is in on the trade he goes on the run and finds fame as an outlaw standing up against `the man'.

I first saw this in a cinema in 1995 and it was fully subtitled, I watched it again last night and it had no subtitles. It was slightly hard to follow some of the very thick dialogue so I suggest if you have the choice that you go for the subtitles unless patwa is a very familiar dialect to you.

The plot takes swipes at the exploitative music business but also the nature of celebrity and the problems of drugs. However at it's heart it's a reggae gangster movie that is gritty and enjoyable. The story is involving but really it's the detail of the setting that carries the film. The camera allows a great sense of place and really captures the mood and place well, using crowd shots and wandering shots to music. Really the best scenes are all natural as music plays in the fore ground.

The music is one of the strongest aspects to the film – where the gangster element is sprawling and relaxed, the music allows us to accept this whole chilled out vibe as just part of the film. The cast also helps greatly by being very realistic without much effort, not trying to make the accent easier is a brave move if you want to sell the film! Cliff is easily believable and very watchable, likewise almost all the cast are great – many not being actors.

Overall the plot may wander in the way only a Jamaican can! But the music and the vibe more than make this a cult film that is well worth watching whether with subtitles or not!

Unique crime drama set to a soundtrack of Jamaican tunes

[Red-Barracuda · 7/10 · 16 January 2017]

This is rightfully regarded as a cult classic. It's a pretty unique movie on account of its setting. In fact, the geographical backdrop is one of the very best things about this one. It takes a raw look at life in poverty in Jamaica, with its story of a would-be singer who arrives in Kingston from the countryside. He soon gets involved in criminal behaviour after being ripped off by the local record company boss and becomes a folk hero off the back of these activities plus the popularity of his record 'The Harder They Come'.

Jimmy Cliff stars in this one as the central character Ivan and he is excellent in the role. Particularly impressive given that he isn't a trained actor at all. There is a real authenticity to his performance. In fact all the characters here have a gritty realness to them, with the Jamaican setting on the whole presented in a nuts and bolts no nonsense manner that gives the film a highly authentic feel. It's this very unglamorised, truthful presentation that gives this film its edge for me. Additionally, this was the film that seriously increased the popularity of reggae out-with Jamaica. Aside from the superb title song there is 'You Can Really Get It If You Want It' as well as a handful of others by various other stars of the genre. The story is pretty simple but this straightforward narrative is used as a means of saying a lot of truthful things. The result is a highly distinctive genre film, with great flavour.

NB: despite being English language, this one will require English subtitles for most people on account of the very heavy Jamaican patois used by many of the characters.

Music & Violence

[SameirAli · 7/10 · 28 February 2017]

Musician Jimmy Cliff plays the lead role. He is coming to the new town. He is in search of a job. Food-less and homeless, he wanders around in search of a job. Finally, he comes to a preacher. He takes up the job as a mechanic. He meets a young girl there and falls in love.

The movie is a cult entertainer. There are so many mistakes of beauty. Music and violence leads the movie a entertaining. The language may be little hard for normal audience, in that case better to watch with sub titles.

"You Can Get It If You Really Want..." this should be in your minds after watching the film.

#KiduMovie

"Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail in shanty town"

[anton-6 · 9/10 · 5 August 2002]

I have always listened very much to all kind of Reggae(also ska and rocksteady) and the record "The harder they come" is one of the best record's ever. So I had really looked forward to see this film. First off all I must say that the songs are fantastic in this film with songs like for example: "Rivers of babylon", "Many rivers to cross", "Sitting here in limbo" and of course the title song.

Jimmy Cliff stars as Ivan, a country boy who comes to the big city looking for fame through music but is forced to become a "rude boy" and it will have big consequences. The film maybe is not a masterpiece but the music is and I thought it was so very funny to watch a film from Jamaica.

This is also one of the biggest cult classics ever and it is very entertaining. The ending is pretty amazing. The acting by the great singer Jimmy Cliff is actually good, and the rest of the unknown cast is also good. This film is a MUST-SEE! My rating would be a 8 or a 9/10

Decent filmmaking - morally reprehensible story

[zetes · 6/10 · 21 September 2002]

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.

Ahead of its time

[DAW-8 · 9/10 · 22 June 2001]

It has been said of many films, but this one was indeed "ahead of its time". It is a love story, social commentary, political manifesto and comedy all rolled-in-one. You can't help but like Jimmy Cliff's character. He's trying to cut a record, romance a preacher's daughter, and "get what's his" all at the same time.

This film is especially important in the history of Black film, I would say, since the character of Ivan is clearly portrayed as a complex character. Even the cinematography conveys the idea that "black is beautiful" (remember the (semi-)nude scene in the lake? Can't say enough good things about it. See it, you won't be sorry!

I get it...and also I don't get it

[TheCorniestLemur · 6/10 · 12 October 2021]

This improved quite a lot after I realised subtitles were an option for me on my university's website about 25 minutes in.

Don't worry, I rewound it back to the beginning, because I had no idea what was going on up to that point because of the really thick Jamaican accents, but honestly, if you're going to watch this through..."dubious means" without subtitles, you probably might as well not bother.

Anyway, it's a pretty mixed bag to me, with points where it's really well directed, and alternatively points (well, one point in particular) that honestly reminded me of a Neil Breen film with how amateurish it looked. There's points where the acting is really great, and points where it sucks, sometimes from the same actor (take this with a grain of salt though, I have a hard time judging acting when they're speaking with foreign accents or languages), and the story has it's moments, but all in all it comes off to me as pretty generic.

It kind of puts me in mind of Black Panther, where I can certainly understand why it's loved by black people, because in some ways this was that generation's Black Panther, i.e a film with a cast of almost entirely black people that made some pretty big waves both because and in spite of that, and I get why that makes it a special film. It's just that, like Black Panther, it doesn't do all that much for me, and yeah, that likely is because of me being white, so I can't experience the same happiness at being seen on screen this much, because that's just the norm for me.

It's still a little better than Black Panther if you ask me though, because at least it's not so bloody formulaic, but nevertheless it's a fairly cut and dry crime thriller that just so happens to have a really good soundtrack and be a big turning point for representation, neither of which make it particularly interesting to me personally, but I get why it has its place in cult film history for sure.

I wonder how many people were brought here just by the title though...heh heh, "come".

Harder They Come

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 6 March 2023]

Reggae singer Jimmy Cliff plays Ivanhoe Martin, who was based on the real-life Jamaican criminal Rhyging, who may not have been a musician or a drug dealer but was the "original rude boy" and a folk hero in that country. Cliff said, "Rhygin was very much on the side of the people; he was a kind of Robin Hood, I guess you could call him."

Director Perry Henzell believed that this movie was a success in Jamaica because people there had never seen themselves on the screen nor heard their native dialect, which may be English but still needs subtitles.

Cliff's character moves to the big city, where he's wowed by a screening of Django and just wants to make music, like the song which gives this movie its name. But the record producer he records it for controls the world of Jamaica's music and even if it is a hit, he'll probably never see the money. After falling into a life of crime, he becomes the kind of Hollywood gangster of his young dreams, sending photos to the press holding machine guns like some kind of Jamaican Dillinger. He's doomed to die in the streets, riddled with bullets, but he's going to grab every moment of glory that he can before the inevitable strikes him down.

New Line released this in February 1973 in the U. S. but it took over a year before midnight showings started building an audience. The soundtrack would introduce reggae to American listeners while Ivan was referenced in The Clash's "Guns of Brixton" with the lyrics, "You see he feels like Ivan, born under the Brixton sun. His game is called surviving, at the end of The Harder They Come."

The best Jamaican movie ever made.....

[raoul-guariguata · 10/10 · 22 September 2006]

I'm a great reggae and dancehall fan and travelled Jamaica, where I had the chance to watch most movies ever filmed in Jamaica(which aren't too many!)by Jamaicans. Well, if you compare Dancehall Queen, Third World Cop, Rudeboy, Shottas, Rockers - this is the best of them and the best Jamaican movie ever. Based on a true story, a country boy, Ivanhoe, looks for fortune in the city and ends up as the most wanted criminal in Kingston. Jimmy Cliff is superb in his role as a bad boy and the motives for him becoming criminal are presented very clearly throughout the movie. He is a talented artist recording many big songs and doesn't see a dime or a penny for his music, so the struggle to survive ends in violence. Well this probably happens nearly every day in the Caribbean if you look at biographies of Max Romeo for example, who never received money at the time for some big songs(except for becoming a gangster).

Features a Great Soundtrack and a really marvellous Jimmy Cliff!!!!

Harder They Fall

[sol- · 6/10 · 19 April 2017]

Unable to find honest work in the city and underpaid by greedy record producers, an aspiring musician from rural Jamaica turns to a life of crime in this drama starring singer Jimmy Cliff. The film features an excellent reggae music soundtrack and Cliff has several strong moments, notably how he mixes bitterness and contempt when reluctantly agreeing to accept $20 for a record that he knows is worth tens times as much. There is also an interesting dynamic in how the record producer would much rather Cliff's song become a smaller hit because it would be easier for him to bask in profits that would otherwise flow to Cliff, but generally speaking, the story here is not especially compelling and Cliff becomes increasingly less sympathetic as the film progresses. Sure, he is a victim of circumstance, falling into a violent lifestyle as a means by which to survive, but knowing this does not make his actions less heinous. The supporting characters are a little lifeless too, especially a preacher's daughter who he becomes infatuated with. There is some magnificent imagery to be had though as he imagines himself basking with her naked in the sea and as the pair of them cycle together by the seaside. Still, this film is mostly of interest for the music and the historical significance of being Jamaica's first film, shining a light on the country kept out of tourist pamphlets.

Great soundtrack, bad film

[Paul_Kersey_Jr · 4/10 · 13 June 2009]

I'm shocked that all the "hated it" ratings are sixes and sevens, still above average. To me, this seems a case of "the emperor has no clothes". I understand this film was produced on a very low budget in the early 70's...Regardless, it became a struggle to sit through and watch. The DVD I saw did have some subtitles, but about 75% of the speech is not subtitled. Some of it is hard to understand. The Jamaican patois was cool to hear, but you struggle not to 'tune out' after awhile. Some of the shots were nice, and the realism was there, even if some of the performances were not great.(Jimmy Cliff did a good job) The plot is not bad, but quite predictable. In the 1:43 film, the highlights are Jimmy Cliff(Ivan) singing for a scene, and a couple of shoot-outs and a fight. Probably 15 minutes or so. The rest is pretty boring. BTW, near the beginning of the film, there are some weird cuts with the Ivan character that seem like a editing mistake, which made me laugh for a bit. One reviewer said this film has been cut so many times, that there are few copies of the original 1972 theatrical version out there. The ending was kind of interesting, showing how the media from a young age influences people, it could also be a general comment on the white man's/colonialism's influence on Jamaica. Other main themes are poverty, corruption, church, ambition... In closing, the soundtrack is definitely worthwhile, the film much less.