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| The Guardian - Culture: Film | | | | The Harder They Come review – Jimmy Cliff falls hard in visceral revenge western | | by Peter Bradshaw Aug 3, 2022 | | Fifty years on, this crime drama of a headstrong singer shooting for his chance of success is as raw and energetic as its reggae soundtrack Perry Henzell’s visceral 1972 Jamaican crime drama exists between the two moods of its two most famous tracks: the aspirational lesson of You Can Get It If You Really Want and the disillusioned downfall-premonition of the title song. The desperado here really wants it, really gets it, comes hard and falls hard. It’s a movie with Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde in its DNA, as well as Sergio Corbucci’s spaghetti western Django, which in one scene is shown getting a rowdy screening at a Kingston cinema. Singer Jimmy Cliff plays Ivan, a gawky country boy who comes to the Jamaican capital Kingston yearning to be a famous reggae star, having lived with his grandmother who has just died; he is virtually penniless after handing over to his mother the paltry amount remaining from his grandmother’s estate, having assured her that this surprisingly small sum is due to her having wanted a “big funeral”. Swaggeringly laidback Ivan gets a job in a repair shop on land owned by the local church and soon takes a shine to Elsa (Janet Bartley), the demure young orphan parishioner being kept, or rather groomed, as a virginal “ward” by a hectoring, controlling preacher (Basil Keane) who is creepily planning to marry her. Continue reading... | | | | | |
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