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Published: Jan 1, 2009
Category: Drama
1972. President Nixon was taping the meetings that would cause him to resign. The big movies were “The Godfather” and “Cabaret”. The hot music was Pink Floyd's “Dark Side of the Moon” and a new band called The Eagles.
A very American year. A very white year.
Until a movie and a soundtrack changed everything.
The Harder They Come, the first full-length feature that anyone could remember originating in Jamaica, was released early in 1972. No one noticed. A few months later, it started playing at midnight. A cult formed immediately.
Videos
Movie Trailer
Toots & The Maytals: Sweet and Dandy
Toots & The Maytals: Pressure Drop
Desmond Dekker: You Can Get It If You Really Want
Jimmy Cliff: Many Rivers to Cross
Jimmy Cliff: Rivers of Babylon
Jimmy Cliff: Sitting in Limbo
Scotty: Draw Your Brakes
It wasn't just the soundtrack --- an anthology that's been called “the Sgt. Pepper of reggae”. And it wasn't just the movie --- a myth-busting drama about Jamaica that substituted violence, marijuana, politics and the music business for endless beaches and picturesque waterfalls. It was the package: Jimmy Cliff singing his heart out, Jimmy Cliff putting his heart out in a desperate bid to make some kind of mark on the world. And, finally, it was the politics, for here, at last, was a film that didn't sugarcoat the truth about colonialism and exploitation.
I saw the film at midnight. The plot was simplicity itself --- Jimmy Cliff leaves his home in the hills to come to Kingston, hoping to be a pop singer, only to be thwarted in every possible way. I got it all the first time, but I found myself going again. And again. Whatever I ingested made no difference --- on any combination of ingredients, or none, this was an enormously exciting film, violent as a spaghetti western, clinically angry like Battle of Algiers. Yes, it was filmed on the cheap and looked grainy, but that wasn't a flaw --- this kind of film should look as if were made by insurrectionists who stole the film and then took over a lab to develop it.
In a matter of months, I was hanging out with Toots, the Jamaican Otis Redding and leader of Toots & The Maytals, and pitching a film idea to Bob Marley, and eating fish stew in a smoky backstage dressing room --- I was completely addicted to reggae music's stutter-step, off-beat appeal. Primitive? Not at all. This was and is some of the most sophisticated music on the planet. It just happens to disguise itself as pop music that makes you want to grab a Red Stripe and dance.
There's not a weak cut on the CD, not a dull moment in the movie. Oh, to be 26 again, and discovering this stuff for the first time. Well, no. But this is true: Oh, to be in your home when you watch or hear “The Harder They Come” for the first time.
To buy the soundtrack of “The Harder They Come” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy the DVD of “The Harder They Come” from Amazon.com, click here.