Now that we are not just on a rock steady/reggae/dancehall jag, but on a serious The Harder They Come riff, we might as well play the title cut. I first saw The Harder They Come when it was still somewhat new, in Wheeler Auditorium at UC Berkeley.
This video is excellent. Recommended reading to accompany it is Michelle Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven, for the shantytown landscape of the “Dungle” and the character Christopher “De Watchman,” and Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, for these sentences: “That is why the dreams of the colonized are active dreams. I dream I am running, jumping, winning. I dream I cross rivers in one stride.”
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
loving the reggae — thanks for the movie recommendation…i put it in my netflix que…
Thank you for this selection. The film of the ‘harder they come’ is one of my all-time favourites. Just like “Burn!”, which I thank you for making me aware of, I think this film ought to have a place in basic post-colonial studies.
Oh, and the soundtrack is great!
Hi AZG and Absorbant! This film amazes me, too.
‘Just like “Burn!”, which I thank you for making me aware of, I think this film ought to have a place in basic post-colonial studies.’
I think they do have this place – at least in the Caribbean!