Enormously successful in Jamaica, the film also reached the international market and has been described as "possibly the most influential of Jamaican films and one of the most important films from the Caribbean".[7]
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's 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.
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.[10] 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.[10] 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.[10] 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).[11] Legendary ska musician Prince Buster (DJ at Dance) makes a cameo in the movie, telling the audience to "sit tight and listen keenly!"[9]
Production began in 1970, but "dragged [for the next two years] due to inadequate funding".[3]
Release
The film was a sensation in Jamaica due to its naturalistic portrayal of black Jamaicans in real locations and its use of Jamaican Patois, the local creole. According to Henzell, "Black people seeing themselves on the screen for the first time created an unbelievable audience reaction".[7]
The film premiered at the Carib Theatre in Kingston, Jamaica, on 5 June 1972,[1] and was then released in February 1973 in New York City by Roger Corman's New World Pictures to little attention. It became more popular when it was played to midnight audiences nationwide the following April.[12] However, the popularity of the movie was limited outside of Jamaica because the local patois spoken by the characters was so thick that it required subtitles, making it possibly "the first English language movie in history to require subtitles in the United States".[13]
The film received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 90% score based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10.[14]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 1/2 stars out of 4, writing that the "movie’s ending is an exercise in plot; its beginning and its music deserve better than that".[15] The staff of Variety magazine wrote that the film "has a sharp and racy rhythm, in keeping with the syncopated music of the isle, plus an underlying social theme in the guise of a familiar tale".[16]
"Sitting Here in Limbo" performed by Jimmy Cliff, composed by Jimmy Cliff
Legacy
Novelization
In 1980, Jamaican-American author Michael Thelwell published a novel based on the film, using the same title. Thelwell inserted many Jamaican proverbs into the novel that were unused in the film.[17]
Digital restoration
In 2006, Prasad Corporationdigitally restored the film, recapturing its original look by cleaning it frame by frame to remove dirt, tears, scratches, and other artifacts.[18]
James Chambers, OM, known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievements in the arts and sciences.
The Harder They Come is the soundtrack album to the film of the same name, released in 1972 in the United Kingdom as Island Records ILPS 9202. It was issued in February 1973 in North America as Mango Records SMAS-7400. It peaked at No. 140 on the Billboard 200. In 2021, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
Desmond Dekker was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Together with his backing group the Aces, he had one of the earliest international reggae hits with "Israelites" (1968). Other hits include "007 " (1967), "It Mek" (1969) and "You Can Get It If You Really Want" (1970).
Joseph Benjamin Higgs was a reggae musician from Jamaica. In the late 1950s and 1960s he was part of the duo Higgs and Wilson together with Roy Wilson. He was a popular artist in Jamaica for four decades and is also known for his work tutoring younger musicians including Bob Marley and the Wailers and Jimmy Cliff.
Leslie Kong was a Jamaican reggae producer.
Frederick Nathaniel "Toots" Hibbert, was a Jamaican singer and songwriter who was the lead vocalist for the reggae and ska band Toots and the Maytals. A reggae pioneer, he performed for six decades and helped establish some of the fundamentals of reggae music. Hibbert's 1968 song "Do the Reggay" is widely credited as the genesis of the genre name reggae. His band's album True Love won a Grammy Award in 2005.
Perry Henzell was a Jamaican director. He directed the first Jamaican feature film, The Harder They Come (1972), co-written by Trevor D. Rhone and starring Jimmy Cliff.
"The Guns of Brixton" is a song by the English punk rock band the Clash, originally released on their 1979 album London Calling. It was written and sung by bassist Paul Simonon, who grew up in Brixton, South London. The song has a strong reggae influence, reflecting the culture of the area and the reggae gangster film The Harder They Come.
"Many Rivers to Cross" is a song written and recorded in 1969 by Jimmy Cliff. It has since been recorded by many musicians, including Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, Joe Cocker, Percy Sledge, Little Milton, Desmond Dekker, UB40, Cher, The Brand New Heavies, Eric Burdon & The Animals, The Walker Brothers, Marcia Hines, Toni Childs, Oleta Adams, Linda Ronstadt, Annie Lennox, Bryan Adams, Chris Pierce, Arthur Lee, Ted Leo, Jimmy Barnes, Lenny Kravitz, and Chitral Somapala. It was also performed in the Caribbean by Alison Hinds of Barbados and Tessanne Chin of Jamaica, Cliff's native nation.
Wayne Jobson, also known as Native Wayne, is a Jamaican record producer of European ancestry. He has worked with such artists as No Doubt, Gregory Isaacs and Toots & the Maytals. He hosts the weekly radio show "Alter Native" every Sunday afternoon on Indie 103.1. He previously hosted a similar radio show, "Reggae Revolution", at Indie's main competitor KROQ-FM. Jobson is also known as a musician. He recorded an album in 1977 produced by Lee 'Scratch' Perry at the Black Ark.
Vincent "Ivanhoe" Martin, known as "Rhyging", was a Jamaican criminal who became a legendary outlaw and folk hero, often regarded as the "original rude boy". He became notorious in 1948 after escaping from prison, going on the run and committing a string of robberies, murders and attempted murders before he was gunned down by police. In subsequent decades his life became mythologised in Jamaican popular culture, culminating in the 1972 cult film The Harder They Come, in which he is portrayed by Jimmy Cliff.
"The Harder They Come" is a reggae song by the Jamaican singer Jimmy Cliff. It was first recorded for the soundtrack of the 1972 movie of the same name, in which it is supposed to have been written by the film's main character, Ivanhoe Martin.
"You Can Get It If You Really Want" is a reggae song written and originally recorded by Jamaican singer songwriter Jimmy Cliff and released as a single in July 1970. Another version, recorded by Jamaican singer Desmond Dekker and released within a few weeks of Cliff's version, became a hit single in a number of markets, reaching number 2 on the UK Singles Chart.
Speed 2: Cruise Control is the soundtrack album for the 1997 film of the same name. It was released by Virgin Records in May 1997, nearly a month before the film's release. Because of the film's Caribbean setting, the soundtrack features a variety of reggae music from artists including Common Sense, Jimmy Cliff, Maxi Priest and Shaggy. UB40, Carlinhos Brown and Tamia also have songs on the soundtrack, and appear in the film as entertainers on the cruise ship.
Ekwueme Michael Thelwell is a Jamaican novelist, essayist, professor and civil rights activist. He was in 1970 founding chairman of the Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Carl Bradshaw OD is a Jamaican actor and film producer who has been described as "Jamaica's most renowned actor" and "arguably Jamaica's premier actor".
Bim and Bam was the stage name of the Jamaican comedy double-act Ed Lewis (1914–1976) and Aston Wynter (1913–1978). They made a name for themselves in Jamaica in the 1930s performing at hotels and clubs, initially adopting the blackface Minstrel show format of the era. They graduated to creating and performing comedy-dramas scripted by Bim (Lewis) for a cast of twelve actors. Bim later married singer and comedian Hyacinth Clover, sister of Ken Boothe. Under the stage-name "Clover" she became a regular member of the troupe. After this they were sometimes billed as "Bim, Bam and Clover".
Ras Daniel Heartman, born Lloyd George Roberts, was a Jamaican artist and religious leader. He is considered to be one of the most recognised artists in the Rastafarian art movement, his drawings were widely distributed around the world as prints and he designed a number of well-known reggae album covers in the 1960s and 1970s.
Despite Jamaica never having a very strong film industry, the island has produced notable films from the 1970s onwards. The most critically acclaimed film is The Harder They Come (1972), by Perry Henzell, which received international acclaim. The Jamaican government and various private citizens have tried to promote the creation of new films by the creation of certain agencies such as the Jamaican Film Commission, and film festivals such as the Reggae Film Festival. The Harder They Come sparked trends that were apparent in following films such as Dancehall Queen and One Love, both directed by Don Letts and Rick Elgood.
"Trapped" is a 1972 song written and recorded by reggae artist Jimmy Cliff and popularized by Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s.
References
General
Bakari, Imruh (20 November 2018). "The Jamaican Gangster Film: Badman, Rude Bwoys, and Dons". In Larke-Walsh, George S. (ed.). A Companion to the Gangster Film. Wiley. ISBN978-1-11-904166-5. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
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