Saturday, March 19, 2011

THE HARDER THEY COME (1973, JAMAICA)


My own personal March movie madness. My goal is make 31 posts in 31 days about 31 movies. They all must be non-U. S. films that I haven’t seen before. Why do I make this stipulation? Don’t know exactly, by we all have to have goals, don’t we?

Day nineteen, from the Parliamentary democracy of Jamaica
The Harder They Come (1973)

I went through a period where I listened to reggae during the 80’s (Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and even Eddy Grant). But the influence of reggae on the U.S. started with this film and the music of Jimmy Cliff, among others in this film. I confess to liking the soundtrack probably more than the film itself, though I did find the commentary by the director enlightening on how the people from Jamaica that saw this film initially were so excited about seeing their country depicted in a film for the first time.

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