Blog 116

Review of The Harder They Come

B. Lorenzo Buckinchere

Jul 26, 2026

It’s the end of the month, and time once again for our monthly review series. Our muse for the month of July is Ivanhoe Martin from The Harder They Come.

But before we begin, here’s a disclaimer.

Disclaimer:

The following review contains spoilers, and is subject to interpretations that may not express the perspectives, or intentions of the creators. Please watch the film in its entirety before reading this, or any other reviews on the topic.

Now without further ado, let’s begin.

Overview:

The Harder They Come is a 1972 Jamaican crime film co-written by Trevor Rhone and Perry Henzell, produced by International Films Management, Ltd.

It is loosely based on the life of 1940s Jamaican criminal, Vincent “Ivanhoe” Martin (better known as Rhyging), and stars legendary reggae singer, Jimmy Cliff.

Plot:

In 1972, Ivanhoe “Ivan” Martin (Jimmy Cliff) was a typical country-come-to-town youth of that era. As soon as he arrived in Kingston, he was tricked by a random hardcart vendor, played by Volier “Maffy” Johnson.

He asked around and soon found out where his mother (played by Lucia White) resided, and went to visit her. He told her that her mother died and sold the house, and gave her what remained of the money.

Right from the jump, her attitude towards him was very neglectful, and she told him he cannot stay with her in Kingston, so he should go back to rural Jamaica. But Ivan was determined to make it big as a singer in Kingston, so his mother gave him the number for a local preacher (played by Basil Keane).

With nowhere else to spend his first night in town, Ivan went to see a show with some of the guys in the tenement yard where his mother had resided. It was a western, and some of the movie patrons were seen jeering and yelling at the screen, “hero no dead till the end.”

Over the next few days, Ivan, who was essentially homeless and sleeping at bus stops, asked around for several odd jobs, but was rejected on every occasion.

Eventually, the preacher gave him a car repair job in a nearby junkyard, and it wasn’t long before Ivan wooed the preacher’s daughter, Elsa (Janet Bartley). But there was trouble.

One of the other men who worked in the junkyard would always disparage Ivan, but he pushed it too far when he stole Ivan’s bicycle.

Ivan used a knife to slice up his co-worker’s face in a fit of rage, showing his first propensity towards violence, at only 30 minutes into the film. The judge sentenced him to be publicly lashed with a tangerine whip, and he was lashed until he ended up peeing on himself.

Then there was a “Mr. BigStuff” type record producer in town named Hilton (Bob Charlton), and Ivan had the opportunity to audition for him when the preacher sent him to deliver a record.

He performed an earlier rendition of the Harder They Come, but he didn’t quite make the cut. So he asked Elsa if she could lend him the key to her father’s church, so he and some friends could practice after dark.

Elsa was rather apprehensive about lending Ivan the keys for fear of betraying her father, but Ivan told her that she was a grown woman, and that she had to choose between him and the preacher.

Elsa ended up lending him the keys, but they were soon caught by the preacher who got upset and threatened to call the police until Ivan’s friend, Jose (Carl Bradshaw), mentioned that they had a key. He went straight to Elsa whose confession was as bold as it was immediate, and he slapped her, which caused her to run away with Ivan.

Ivan perfected his single and it became a hit, but Hilton was only willing to pay him JMD $20 (JMD $1000 in 2026). Knowing his worth, Ivan refused and wanted to branch out as his own producer, but Hilton controlled the market, and no one would buy any records, or play the song on air unless Hilton gave the word. So Ivan was forced to sell his song for a measly $20, which he did, believing the popularity of his first hit would lead to other songs.

He invited Elsa to a party, but she didn’t even have enough to buy food after a long day of job hunting. Ivan lost his patience with her and told her that her father had indoctrinated her into accepting that her slice of the pie was waiting for her in the sky when she died, but he wants his share now on earth.

Then he left and attended the dance without her.

Then there were a couple of drug smugglers on the music scene, and before long, Ivan, the quiet country-come-to-town youth, got caught up in a life of crime. Before he knew it, he was delivering packages to ganja smugglers in private planes.

After one of them got caught in Miami, Ivan read in the newspaper that over $100,000 was seized, and decided he wanted a bigger cut. After a while, he started asking too many questions, which led to him being labeled a “troublemaker,” so they decided to “teach him a lesson.”

Before long the police officer who once turned a blind eye to him riding his bike was suddenly chasing him. Remembering the humiliation from peeing on himself while being publicly whipped, he pulled out a gun and shot the officer off his bike.

Ivan became a fugitive after he gunned down three more police officers during a raid on his home later that night as he copulated with his wife. He soon gained a lot of respect in the community after he chased the double-crossing police informant out of town, firing shots after him while all the locals gathered around him atop a bridge. Some of the locals soon started hiding him from the police.

Jose told him about a plan to smuggle him off to Cuba, but Elsa tipped off the police about the plan, as well as where they’d planned to meet. Both Jose and the police were headed to Ivan’s whereabouts.

Across the Kingston Harbour, over by the Palisadoes, Ivan was laying low, hiding out in the bushes when he spotted his boat. He swam out towards the boat, and they tossed down the ladder and told him to climb. But they soon spotted the police and sailed away, leaving him behind.

He swam back to shore and the police soon docked ashore, and began their guerilla raid on the sandspit. Hiding in the bushes, he spotted them first.

He was armed.

Then they spotted him.

They too were armed.

He engaged in a shootout with the police while the jeering of the audience at the show from his first night in town came back to mind, “hero no dead till the end.”

Outmanned and outgunned by the police, Ivanhoe Martin, the country-come-to-town youth who came hard from the bowels of desolation and desperation to becoming one of the single most notorious criminals of his time, ended up falling hard in the end.

Review:

I feel like Ivan never really had a chance to begin with. Too many forces were against him. From his neglectful mother, to a corrupt record producer, and all the working parts in between, he was destined to turn to a life of crime if he wanted his share on earth.

There is also something to be said about human nature and their innate fear of you doing better than them often leading to betrayal.

In the end, it was his woman who tipped off the police, and if people have not evolved past their base-level drive, then you can expect that they would turn against you when they notice that you are becoming too powerful within your own right, even if it’s not in their lane.

Keeping in mind that this film is well over fifty years old, and considering his time and place, I believed that Ivan would have stood a better chance if he’d lived today, than he did back then.

What, with the advent of AI and VPN? Every nook and cranny of modern Jamaica now has wi-fi. It would then be up to him to figure out the rest.

Trivia:

This crime picture was Jamaica’s very first feature film, and was also a musical. It featured some of Cliff’s most famous songs, including; You can get it if you really want, Many rivers to cross, as well as the titular, The Harder They Come.

It also featured songs by other artists, such as; 007 (Shanty Town) by Desmond Dekker.

The house wife at the beginning who asked her children “who left the gate open” was played by Beverley Anderson-Manley who was then the First Lady of Jamaica.

Manley went on to co-hosting the Breakfast Club with Anthony Abrahams on KLAS FM 89 during the 1990s. They hosted the Breakfast Club each weekday morning at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston because KLAS was in Mandeville.

The radio announcer playing The Harder They Come when it became a hit was none other than legendary broadcaster Don Topping. Topping has enjoyed a lengthy career in broadcast spanning decades. He, along with other radio greats such as Marie Garth, and the late Alan Magnus, is a part of the fabric of the golden years of Jamaican broadcast.

The Cuban smugglers flying planeloads of drugs to Miami must have inspired the late actor Munair Zacca in his portrayal of Sonny T on the hit 1990s Jamaican soap opera, Royal Palm Estate, though R.P.E. itself is loosely based on Children of Babylon (1980) by Lennie Little-White.

The Harder They Come was hosted by Professor Mychal Odom at the San Diego Public Library on February 17, 2026 as part of Black history month.

It was the first time I ever saw it, and it gave me a little slice of home all the way in California. A proud moment indeed.

This coming Thursday on July 30th would have been Jimmy Cliff’s 82nd birthday. Cliff was born James Chambers on July 30, 1944, and died November 24, 2025, aged 81.

Verdict:

This picture was well received at the time of its release, and is every bit as relevant today as it was back in 1972. I give this one a five out of five repaired bicycles, and I’ll see you on the next one.

© 2026 The Buckinchere Publication, SP.

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