The Harder They Come (1972)

If you weren't into the big game this year, than maybe you were one of the many waiting for the real entertainment of Super Bowl Sunday - the commercials.

This year's batch featured fewer awe-inspiring 30-second clips of entertainment than past Super Bowls, but the one ad that received the most attention was Volkswagen's "Get Happy" spot.

Premiering a few weeks before the big game, the ad features a white man from Minnesota at his office job talking amongst dour co-workers telling them to be happy, accompanied with a faux-Jamaican accent.

What makes the commercial so catchy is the song played in the spot.  The song is a rendition of the Partridge Family theme song "C'mon Get Happy" sung by Jimmy Cliff. For anyone wondering who Jimmy Cliff is and what he has to do with cult film, continue reading.

Cliff is Jamaica's premiere reggae singer, even more popular in is native country than Bob Marley (not anywhere near as successful in America, but nonetheless just as influential), but what Cliff has that Marley doesn't is an acting credit. And this isn't just any acting role - it's the lead role in one of the most important cult films and most important Jamaican films in history: The Harder They Come.





Original Theatrical Poster

 Cliff plays Ivanhoe Martin,  a young man who abandons the countryside of Jamaica to make a name for himself in the big city. Ivan leaves behind a life of rural simplicity, coming to Kingston with what little money he has and dreams of making a hit record.

The movie opens with a song sung by Cliff, "You Can Get It If You Really Want It," the perfect song choice as the credits roll over images of a bus traversing the tight dirt roads of the Jamaican country until they reach the sprawling, crowded asphalt of Kingston.

Ivan learns early on that making it in the big city is harder than he imagines, as he meets a young man who tells him, "If you have money, you can go anywhere you want. But, if you don't have money, you're fucked." Ivan's luggage is promptly stolen by this man, and the last of his funds is given to his mother who needs it more than he does.

With no money in his pocket and no place to rest his bones, Ivan is left to wonder the slums of Jamaica, passing through dilapidated shanty towns and bountiful landfills looking for work, even getting a knife drawn on him when simply looking at fruit at a produce stand.

Ivan gets a job repairing various items in a preacher's shed, which also requires him to take part singing in the church's choir. Ivan catches the eye of a girl in the church who just so happens to be under possession of the preacher. This causes tension between the preacher and Ivan, which results in him losing his job.

So what does a young man with aspirations of big dreams do? Why, cut a record of course. What else would you do when you're down on your luck and need fast cash?

Ivan stops by the recording studio of Mr. Hilton, a man who has a knack for producing hit records in Jamaica. Hilton offers Ivan $20 for the song, but feeling insulted, Ivan believes the song is worth more, so he takes his material to local DJs. While shopping the song around, Ivan learns that Hilton has a monopoly on the music industry in Jamaica, so Ivan is forced to sell his song for cheap.

At the song's release party Ivan is introduced to a Jose, who informs him making money off the Hilton label is impossible and if he wants to make big money, he has the job for him: the ganja trade.

This is where the movie takes a turn. Ivan begins selling marijuana and bringing in money, but when he learns that he only earns a cut of the profits, Ivan views the ganja trade as the same exploitive industry as the music business. Ivan wants more money and buys a gun.

Proving a headache for Jose he has Ivan set-up. The police go looking for Ivan which results in the murder of three cops and a countrywide manhunt ensues, all the while Ivan's record climbs up the record charts. Ivan's character was inspired by Rhyging, a Jamaican outlaw from the 1950's who was aided by locals in eluding escape.

The movie is rife with illusions to the myth of success, much more attuned to that of the American myth where money and fame is the elite status. During the opening minutes of he film, entering Kingston a billboard is shown that reads "Talk With Philip White for A Better Life," which eludes to the entire meaning of the film: a better life.

The film shows the economic and class struggles wrestling within Jamaica society, drawing a line between the poor in the city and the rich in the outskirts of town. Ivan goes looking for work in the outskirts of town, stopping by a white mansion with a perfect manicured landscape and an open gate. A woman tells him that she has no need for him and to close the gate behind him. Ivan cannot even get a job working construction in that he has little to no work experience. The world which Ivan thought was a opportunity for escape, can't even offer him a lousy backbreaking job. So while trying to get into a music career in a city that seems to be full of hopeful musicians, the system forces Ivan into a life of crime.

Ivan's tale is one of fame and fortune that comes sudden and ends just as quickly. It's Get Rich or Die Tryin' years before 50 Cent was a terrible rapper or a media mogul. Ivan lives the dream of coming from nothing, to a music superstar and, eventually, to that of his country's most infamous outlaw. It's the stuff dreams are made of folks. This is the reason The Harder They Come was a massive hit in Jamaica. Thousands of Jamaicans poured into theaters to see the film, not only because it was the country's first film, but because the subject matter resonated closely with how Jamaicans felt in tough economic times.

The clip above does little to strengthen the tourism board's request to discover Jamaica which was in decline during the early 70's, but the scene shows the measures desperate men will go through for their property when they have little left except their pride - and the consequences they're willing to accept.



Motion Picture Soundtrack

The story in America is a little different.

Received poorly during it's initial theatrical run, the film saw new life in the midnight movie circuit once picked up by Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Audiences were  entranced by the subversive, rollicking rhythms of this strange new music coming out of this strange country. In fact, The Harder They Come is credited with the birth of reggae music in America - the soundtrack becoming a mega hit - and the international success even led to Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who mixed the film's soundtrack, to secure an unknown Bob Marley to his new label.

While The Harder They Come presents an authentic and gritty image of the slums and squalor of Jamaican life, it also presents an accurate example of the fine music coming from the little island nation. The film, and the soundtrack, offer some of the biggest acts in reggae at the time, showing extended scenes of Cliff and one of his contemporaries, Toots and the Maytals, performing in studio, offering an invaluable record of important Jamaican groups immersed in their work.