Years before people around the world had ever evenheard ofBob Marleythere wasJimmy Cliff, whose success as a reggae artist laid the foundations for similar artists of Caribbean descent to boom. While it’s hard to undervalue the impact of his music on its own, Jimmy Cliff’s popularity in the early 70s can be widely attributed to his efforts in cinema, specifically his 1973 starring vehicle:Perry Henzell’sThe Harder They Come, released in the United States 50 years ago today.
The film’s international success is a case in which word-of-mouth, particularly from the non-white audience of the era, caused it to catapult to stardom on the midnight movie circuit where cult movies thrive. Not only is it credited for turning Jimmy Cliff into a star and bringing reggae to the masses, but its landmark status also pertains to its representational elements, internationalizing the appeal of Jamaican cinema just asBong-Joon Ho’sParasitedid for Korea in 2019.
What Is ‘The Harder They Come’ About?
The Harder They Comefollows Jimmy Cliff as Ivanhoe ‘Ivan’ Martin, who, in desperate search for work after the death of his grandmother, records an absolute smasher of a hit song only to be swindled out of his royalties by corrupt recording managers, ultimately forcing him into a life of crime. It’s Sergio Corbucci’sDjangomeetsStraight Outta Compton, two references that hold significant meaning with regard to both the film’s adopted style (a Jamaican spaghetti western) and the enduring relevance of its themes (the exploitation of recording artists and link between crime and music).
For Black audiences, the film was a representational milestone, shot on location and spoken entirely in Jamaican Patois, making it one of the few English language films that required subtitles in the United States due to the thickness of the accents. The result was a feeling of authenticity that allowed the film to act as a window into another culture, with one of the most euphoric soundtracks to boot.
‘The Harder They Come’s Soundtrack Is Iconic
Importantly, while Jimmy Cliff is undoubtedly the film’s star, his music is far from the only one promoted in the film’s genre-defining soundtrack. While it wasn’t until 1975 that Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” topped charts and launched him to super stardom, Cliff and Henzell’s selection of tracks for their ground-breaking film additionally featured the likes ofthe Melodians(“Rivers of Babylon”),Desmond Dekker(“007 (Shanty Town)”) andToots & the Maytals(“Pressure Drop”), among others, assisting in the increased popularity of a variety of reggae legends outside of Jamaica. This collective catalog acted as a who’s who of Jamaican legends at the time, resulting in the album’s preservation by the Library of Congress and its placement amongRolling Stonemagazine’s list of the500 greatest albums of all time.
‘The Harder They Come’ Strips Away Spectacle, Highlighting the Music
While there was no telling the significant extent to which the soundtrack became embedded into popular culture, it’s safe to say that Henzell knew how to leverage the music depicted. This is evident in the film’s most iconic scene, where Jimmy Cliff records the entirety of “The Harder They Come” (nearly four minutes) with no interruptions and no additional visual stimulus. Just one man in a recording studio, laying down a banging track, skanking back and forth with a burning cigarette in his hand.
This lack of spectacle and spotlight on the music itself elevated the film from a low-budget neo-Western to a cultural staple, the influence of which can still be felt today. The influential power of cinema is concurrently addressed within the film itself, when early on Ivan goes to see Sergio Corbucci’sDjango. Cutting back-and-forth between a climactic shootout inDjangoto the audience’s massively entertained expressions allows viewers to see the enduring influence that cinema has on the impressionable, forming much of the character work that pushes Ivan into a life of crime after those in power continuously attempt to bring him down.
‘The Harder They Come’ Shows Music as Rebellion
The cinema scene inThe Harder They Comealso serves to illustrate the importance of representation. It’s hard to forgetIce Cube’s iconic line, uttered by his son inStraight Outta Compton: “Our art is a reflection of our reality,” functioning as a staunch justification for the violent themes so heavily apparent in the music of rappers and reggae artists alike.
InThe Harder They Come,Ivan is a vocal dreamer, rebelling against the power of prayer throughout the film that insists that heavenly rewards await all believers in the afterlife. One needs to look no further than the opening lyrics of the title track: “Well they tell me of a pie up in the sky, waiting for me when I die. But between the day you’re born and when you die, they never seem to hear even your cry.” It’s not just catchy, it’s anthemic, urging audiences to resist suffering and demand salvation in the life that they’re living, rather than the one that’s promised.
Through its ground-breaking soundtrack, the film’s storyline championed themes upheld by America’s rampant counterculture movement (sticking it to the man) as well as the hip-hop movement emerging in the same era, affirming music as a method to free one’s self from a life of poverty. Apparent in the rise of hip-hop in the same decade, it wasn’t just the film’s music that struck a chord in the United States, but its story’s themes as well.
Spoilers ahead but, sticking true to the political statements made throughout the film, in spite of conjuring an infectious hit song, things don’t go well for Ivan for the remainder of the runtime. Wherever he goes, betrayal and exploitation always follow, and after receiving a mere $20 for his record, he’s quickly swindled out of any royalties by his corrupt producer and forced into a steady life of crime in the form of marijuana selling. In a stunning final shootout that mirrors theDjangoscene, Ivan, tired of running, takes arms up against the cops on his tail. He knows it’s futile but fights anyway, upon which it meta-textually cuts back-and-forth to a Jamaican audience in a cinema cheering him on.
After his untimely death, a woman’s torso shakes in rhythm to Ivan’s hit song as the credits roll, as if to suggest that through Ivan’s appearances in several forms of media, a new legend is born. Essentially however, unlike inDjango, this time the legend is Jamaican. In the 70s, there was probably no better way to stick it to the man than to build an icon that stood for everything the man wasn’t, proving thatThe Harder They Comedidn’t just become a success for the soundtrack, but vice versa as well.
