Review: The Harder They Come

1. In general, what did you like and dislike about the film?

I think that the thing a I like the most about the film was that it felt like a unique vision from an underrepresent culture in media (like the Jamaican one). It really felt like nothing that i have seen before, and I think the reason for that is the style that is a mixture between some really amateur moments (notoriously, the fight with knives with that fake blood) and some really good themes plot-wise, that makes the film as a whole an experience that feels genuine. 

In terms of what I didn't like, the plot can feel rushed, specially in the transformation of the main character, who went from an guy with dreams to a murderer too quickly in my opinion. The other thing that bothered me was that even thought the music is great, it can feel repetitive after a while.

2. Who is your favorite character from the film?

I feel like the main character (Ivan Martin, interpreted by Jimmy Cliff) is the best character, mainly because is the most complex. Seeing a person with dreams become an evil guy who is capable of killing people is always interesting in art, but if you see him as a representation of how capitalism takes advantage of you, and if you're not a puppet for them, it's difficult that you can become someone makes the character even more interesting. I also like the "Joker" vibes that are coming from him in the second half of the movie.

3. Would you recommend this film to someone, why/why not?

I' ve already done it, mainly because it's always good to watch movies from different parts of the world, and not staying with the American or European vision, but also, like i said before, it feels like something unique, even in the worst parts, and although someone can disagree and say that it's a bad movie, i feel like at least it's bad in an interesting way, and something interesting is always better than something mediocre. 

4. How does this film contribute to postcolonial identity?

A lot. It's true that the film is really influenced by American films, so someone can argue that there are still marks from colonialism in this movie (even though the "American colonialism" was more indirect than the British one), but I feel like is taking those influences and making them their own combining them with the Jamaican culture, and someone can make the case that that was happening in the time in Jamaica, it was not about erasing the British or American influences, mainly because those were so violently put in and last for so long, that made them imposible to erase, so the solution to reclaim a culture that was lost, it was to combine the origins of that culture and mixing them with the colonial influences, so as a representation of the times, it works really good. The film is also a representation of Jamaica that was not leaded by stereotypes and showed a more real Jamaica than any film before, this serves as a way of showing how the country is, instead of be locked by the "first world" vision, and a claim of the culture for Jamaican people