Landmark Jamaican movie “The Harder They Come” (1972) directed by Perry Henzell and starring Jimmy Cliff, Janet Bartley among others.
Ivan Martin (Jimmy Cliff) is a poor Jamaican young kid looking for work somewhere. He is a good singer looking for a break.
He works for some time in a preacher’s place and gets interested in young Elsa (Janet Bartley). Ivan has a good hand with machines and mechanics so he repairs an old disused bicycle and uses it to take Elsa out. He also uses the preacher’s place to practice his music, but is thrown out.
He comes to take back his bicycle but is refused and in a violent scuffle that ensues, Ivan is punished with flogging. And there starts his crime life. In the meanwhile, he records one song with Hilton, the music producer for which he is paid USD 20.
Disappointed and with no money in hand, he takes to drugs and is in the cross fire of the police. One crime leads to another but in the meanwhile his one song becomes a hit number. Jimmy Cliff is a well known reggae singer and this movie exposes the reggae form of music to the world.
The overall production is good but it is the Jamaican English that one finds difficult to follow at times. Jimmy Cliff has done a good role as the bad artiste and Janet Bartley is okay in her small part in the movie. IMDB 5/10