The Movie: The Harder They Come (1972)
What Is It?: The
first homegrown Jamaican film introduced midnight movie audiences to the sounds
of reggae and the star power of Jimmy Cliff, who rules the screen and
soundtrack as a singer-turned-gangster. Amazingly, Toots and the Maytals
upstage him just by lip-synching “Sweet and Dandy”. What a fucking great song!
Why Today?: On
this day in 2005, the Theatre Royal
Stratford East first stages a musical version of the film with a script by
original director Perry Henzell.
