The Harder They Come. 1972. Jamaica. Directed by Perry Henzell. Screenplay by Perry Henzell and Trevor D. Rhone. With Jimmy Cliff. DCP courtesy American Genre Film Archive. In Jamaican English and Jamaican Patois. 109 min.
The first feature film made in Jamaica by Jamaicans, The Harder They Come starred Jimmy Cliff as a musician and gangster hero. The movie was released in 1973 to respectable reviews but virtually no box office success. In an interview for Ben Davis’s book Repertory Movie Theaters of New York City, Elgin manager Chuck Zlatkin said “The Harder They Come had a lot of good elements to it. We threw it on a Sunday one-day showing, and the thing went through the roof. And that’s when we turned it into a midnight show that ran forever.” Playing continuously from October 1974 till March 1977, when the theater closed, it was the longest-running midnight movie in the theater’s history. Describing the film’s appeal, Zlatkin said, “It has reggae music. It makes a political statement, it gives a realistic look into another culture. It’s not the Jamaica you see in travel brochures. And it’s basically done like an old James Cagney film.”