JAMAICA, WE ARE FAR BETTER THAN WHAT WE ARE DOING TO OURSELVES

Late last month Netflix's new Western opened at select cinemas across America. It was made available as part of its streamed offering on November 3, 2021, and is already proving a treat to lovers of the genre. Titled "The Harder They Fall," the film features a crack All-Black leading cast and is based loosely around characters that actually existed in real life.

The film's title bears a close resemblance to that of the 1973 Jamaican film "The Harder They Come" written and directed by Perry Henzell with some writing contributions from Trevor Rhone (both Jamaicans) which opened that year to a disappointingly small audience in New York City. Over the next couple of months though, the flick began to grow on audiences and eventually gathered steam among the college audiences across most northern USA cities. It would quickly attract cult status and its soundtrack be attached with the responsibility for helping to make the much-needed breakthrough for Jamaican music in the USA markets. The Harder They Come (Trailer)

The Harder They Come would open to Jamaicans at home some months later, and played to sold-out houses for months after. In short, what started out as an inauspicious film grew into a resounding success, notwithstanding the fact that at the time of its making, the film's production was beset by myriads of problems.

In the first place, money was difficult to come by as the people who had the cash was not convinced that the project had any real chance of being successful. A large part of the initial funding came from Chris Blackwell of Island Records who saw the project as a marketing vehicle for moving Jamaican music into overseas markets. The shortage of funds though somewhat hampered the making of the film and as a result, filming was done whenever a little cash became available.

The script I am told, developed over time and when recording artiste Jimmy Cliff (its main star) had to go off on tour, filming stopped.

The production team had only one gun available to them (a starter's pistol) and had to be extremely creative when setting up shooting scenes especially scenes that involved exchanges of gunfire.

Be that as it may, on the wings of "The Harder They Come" rode the aspirations of Jamaicans interested in developing the island's film industry as it represented a continuation of the building of the island's reputation having scored a decade earlier with films like Ian Flemings' Dr. No and Goldfinger, among a few others.

The Harder They Come (as stated earlier) carried a large part of the hopes of Jamaica's music industry. In fact, Rolling Stones magazine rated the soundtrack for the film as one of the greatest ever put together for a movie.

Fifty years later and we have only succeeded in literally shooting ourselves- killing more than 1,300 annually for the last 25 years. Our music industry for all its promise has failed to develop the anticipated critical mass as only a handful of Jamaican recording artistes are keen enough to actually invest their monies in any kind of attempt to create a superstructure upon which the music can be better able to realize its real potential.

Watching Netflix's "The Harder They Fall" this week, took me all the way back to 1973. Call it "the magic of the movies" if you wish...and I so wished it were. For me, it was just great to hear the creations of Barrington Levy, Koffee, and the late Dennis Emmanuel Brown stitching pieces of a big movie together. Better late than never

As a country, we can and MUST do better than the negative image we continue to project across the globe. I believe that we are way better than "conning" and killing each other. I know that we are. Thanks for taking the time to read our blog, please leave your thoughts in the comment section below, we appreciate your feedback. We also invite you to check Sunday Scoops our Jamaican music streaming and commentary program every Sunday from 2-4pm on yaawdmedia.com feel free to share with your friends.