You won't be disappointed!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Previously, Jamaica had appeared on screen as the setting of "Dr. No". But it was in Perry Henzel's reggae-themed film "The Harder They Come" that the Caribbean island really made a splash. The movie is based on the life of Ivanhoe "Rhyging" Martin, a man who moved to Kingston in the 1940s and became a hero to Jamaica's masses through his fights against the police, and eventually got shot dead. Jimmy Cliff brings the role to the screen perfectly, capturing every aspect of day-to-day life on the island, and how Ivan has to turn to illegal activities just to survive. But the best part is without a doubt the music. This celebration of reggae is everything that any Rastafarian could want. "The Harder They Come" is one great movie, mahn! Jimmy Cliff later co-starred in Harold Ramis's innocuously silly "Club Paradise", about an ex-firefighter (Robin Williams) who establishes a resort on a Caribbean island.

I saw this movie in the theater, shortly after its release. This is still a good movie with a great seminal reggae soundtrack, but the original revolutionary message of the movie has been hacked out and distorted, and the hero has been turned into an unsympathetic criminal. Scenes are missing and some altered, and the feeling of the film has gone from Robin Hood (protector of the poor and driven to violence by severe oppression) to Bonnie and Clyde (natural born criminals with no regard for human life). It has also been sanitized of some drug-positive content (note that there is a religious sanctity to marijuana in Jamaica, and this alteration is therefore especially offensive - how would you feel if a movie tangentially about Catholicism substituted milk for wine in the Eucharist, or refused to show the ritual at all?).I am appalled.

Ivanhoe Martin (Jimmy Cliff) lives in Jamaica. He goes to the big city to become a singer. However he gets his song taken (for $200.00) by an unscrupulous record producer and ends up selling marijuana. When he shoots three policeman dead he becomes sort of a hero...and his record starts selling.This was a HUGE cult movie in the 1970s and 80s. At one art cinema in Cambridge Massachusetts it played OVER 10 YEARS as a midnight movie! I tried to see it there back in the 1980s but had to leave after 15 minutes. Quite a few people were smoking pot openly in the theatre (Ah! The 80s!) and the smell was terrible. I finally caught it in the 1990s and I honestly can't see what all the fuss is about. It's not a terrible movies (I'm giving it a 7) but it's no great shakes. It's crudely made with terrible acting, a predictable story and dialogue that's almost impossible to understand (due to the strong Jamaican accents most of the cast has). This film also introduced (I think) reggae to America. The songs are great and Cliff really belts them out. Unfortunately there's only two or three songs and they're repeated again and again and AGAIN! The direction is good for such a low budget movie. So--I didn't hate it but I honestly can't see why people kept seeing this over and over. If it's just for the music they could have bought the album.

I first saw this film as a midnight movie back in the early 1980's. It has all the makings of a perfect late show fare: It's shot on a shoe string budget,in 16mm, with a cast of relative unknowns,with the exception of it's main star, Jimmy Cliff,who to this day remains a pop star in his home country of Jamaca. The plot concerns a young man with dreams of becoming a big pop star in the big city (Kingston,in this case),but gets drawn into the dark side of the bright lights & becomes a criminal on the run. The music is superlative (Reggae anyone?), and actually has an on-screen cameo by Toots & The Maytals,laying down voice tracks in the studio. Depending on how you see this film (with a clear head or whacked out of your skull on Ganga--which is a plus),'The Harder They Come' is one to see. Originally rated 'R' by the MPAA, in it's original release in 1972,this film contains profanity,violence (some of it faily bloody)& brief nudity