Plot
After Ivanhoe "Ivan" Martin's grandmother dies, he leaves the rural country for the city of Kingston, where he is immediately conned out of all his possessions by a street vendor. Though his mother tells him that city life is hard, she suggests he might find work with a local Christian preacher.
Ivan then meets José, who takes him to see Django , a Spaghetti Western. Excited by urban life, Ivan desperately tries to get a job but is repeatedly turned away. Finally, he turns to the preacher his mother suggested, who offers him only menial jobs under the scrutiny of Longa, an older church worker.
In contrast with his unhappiness about the church jobs, Ivan pursues his romantic interest in the preacher's ward, Elsa. But many of the church members believe the preacher might be raising her to be his own romantic partner, increasing the conflict between him and the preacher.
After building a bicycle from an abandoned frame he finds, he delivers the preacher's recording to Hilton, a prominent record producer, then asks Hilton for a chance to audition. That night, he borrows the key to the church from Elsa so he can practice his secular audition song in the chapel. The preacher discovers the rehearsal, and enraged, fires Ivan then chastises Elsa, jealously accusing her of fornication.
Ivan returns to the church compound the next day to collect the bicycle he built, but Longa claims it as his own. Ivan picks a fight, ultimately slashing Longa brutally with a knife. The police sentence Ivan to a violent whipping, and when he's released, he and Elsa move in together.
Ivan records his song, "The Harder They Come", at Hilton's recording studio. But with Hilton's payola stranglehold on the local music industry, Ivan's only option is to sign Hilton's exploitative $20 contract. However, unbeknownst to Ivan, Hilton decides to play the song only enough to recoup his investment, and not enough to let Ivan become a music superstar.
Meanwhile, Elsa has struggled to find work and, concerned about money, stays home instead of going out to celebrate Ivan's song release. At the club, Ivan runs into José, who offers him a job running marijuana. Ivan complains about the poor pay, concerned that he's being taken advantage of. Not knowing that the drug runners are protected from arrest by José's deal with Detective Jones, a corrupt police official, Ivan purchases a pair of guns for protection.
Ivan learns that a delivery he made was valued at $100,000, and he continues to complain about his meager pay. In response, José and Detective Jones arrange for a policeman to arrest Ivan, but, remembering his earlier whipping, Ivan shoots and kills the officer.
Ivan has a tryst with José's girlfriend, during which the police ambush him. He evades capture by killing three officers. When he returns home, he tells Elsa that, through these crimes, he is finally getting the fame he's always wanted. He then gets his revenge by killing José's girlfriend and making a failed attempt to kill José.
Capitalizing on Ivan's notoriety, Hilton turns Ivan's song into a radio hit. Ivan tries to do the same, taking photos as a two-gun outlaw and sending them to the press.
As Ivan's status rises, the police work harder to catch and kill him. Detective Jones, tasked with capturing Ivan, temporarily shuts down his protection racket to starve the community of their drug money, thereby pressuring the other drug runners to turn Ivan in. He forces the press to not publish Ivan's photos and bans Ivan's song from the radio.
During another shootout, Ivan's shoulder is wounded, and he only narrowly escapes. His closest drug-dealer friend, Pedro, helps him hide out and suggests that he escape to Cuba. But the community grows increasingly desperate without their drug trade money. Elsa, deciding she has no other way to survive, tells the police of Ivan's plans to flee.
Ivan swims out to the ship to Cuba, but not having the strength to climb aboard, he passes out. Waking up on the beach, he is ambushed by a police assault team. The police's approach is intercut with the sounds and images of a movie audience cheering Ivan on as if he is a hero character. He emerges from his hiding area, holding his two guns, and is shot to death.
The film ends with a woman dancing to Ivan's song.
Production
The film stars reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, who plays Ivanhoe Martin, a character based upon a real-life Jamaican criminal of that name, better known as Rhyging, who achieved fame in the 1940s. Prior to filming, the project had a working title of Rhygin. [11] This then changed to Hard Road to Travel before finally being changed to The Harder They Come, prompting Cliff to write the song of the same name. [11] The story very loosely follows the real Martin/Rhyging's life updated to the 1970s, though the historical Rhyging was neither a musician nor drug dealer.
Cliff's previous acting experience had come from school productions. [11] Other major roles in the film were played by Janet Bartley (Elsa), Basil Keane (Preacher), Ras Daniel Hartman (Pedro), Beverly Anderson (Upper St. Andrew Housewife), eventually married to Michael Manley who became the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bob Charlton (Hilton), Volair Johnson (Pushcart Boy), and well known comedians Bim and Bam: Ed "Bim" Lewis (Photographer), and Aston "Bam" Wynter (Drunken Husband). [12] Legendary ska musician Prince Buster (DJ at Dance) makes a cameo in the movie, telling the audience to "sit tight and listen keenly!" [10] Other personalities from the Jamaican music industry, such as Duke Reid, who appears as a police commissioner, Jamaican-Chinese Carlton Lee, portraying himself as a sound engineer, and producer Joe Gibbs, all make brief appearances on screen.
Production began in 1970, but "dragged [for the next two years] due to inadequate funding". [3]
