The Harder They Come

Rip It Up, Issue 5, 1 October 1977, Page 3

The Harder They Come

Peter Thomson.

the best rock movie in ages

The Harder They Come was here last

year as part of the International Film Festival. In Auckland it was screened once at a mid-afternoon session and then re-screened one night at the Lido. It seemed that if you missed both sessions you were just plain out of luck, having lost the chance to see one of the best rock movies to hit New Zealand. Thankfully, the situation has now been rectified. The film is returning on general release so those of you who weren't fortunate enough to see it before better plan now because all we second-timers will be booking early in case it doesn't last long. The Harder They Come is set in Jamaica and it’s about reggae. Yet this is not to suggest that it's simply a series of film clips showing singers and groups performing. Nor is it one of those sugary musicals with minimal story line involving young lovers laughing and dancing their way through a summer holiday. This movie deals with Jamaican reality: the squalor, the violence, the grass, and the raw energy of life in the slums of Kingston that all go to produce reggae music.

Its protagonist is played, with obvious authentic feeling, by singer Jimmy Cliff. We see his progression from the total naif arriving in the city on a crowded bus, through his initiation to the lifestyle where dope and music are

almost the mainstays, to his increased

rebellion and eventual emergence as a sort of Robin Hood with a gun, a vicious hero who challenges the corrupt establishment as champion of the oppressed poor. Along the way we learn much that is informative as a background to reggae: the economic viciousness of the recording industry where young musicians are paid a flat S2O for their record which may go on to be a highly profitable hit, and the pervasiveness of marijuana in a society where a huge illegal market flourishes with police cooperation.

And then, of course, there's the music lots of it not only by Cliff, but by the Maytals, Desmond Dekker and others. The film sound-track has been around for a while and its a beauty. If, like me, you can’t quite handle many of Marley’s Rastafarian ravings, then this album is the place to start. It's very accessible reggae and sells at a budget price. Look, forget all that Alice Cooper Pink Floyd filmcrud. The Harder They Come is simply the best rock movie in ages. It has all the important ingredients sex,violence, dope, music, and is a rattling good thriller besides What more do you need 7 Go see it. I bet you come out of the cinema humming the title song.