NYANSAPO | The Harder They Come

1. In general, what did you like and dislike about the film?

I personally always enjoy me a protagonist that goes away from the stereotype of a classic hero, one characteristic that Ivanhoe has that really is stuck in my mind is his selfishness, which doesn't always has to be a bad thing, the ability of putting yourself and your own good in front of everything and everyone is a hard thing to do. At least I struggle to be selfish a lot of times, even when in some situations is the correct thing to do, so I find some admiration in someone that is capable looking for themselves and their own goals.

Is easy to say that the way Ivan threated his wife is a dislikeable thing from the film, but nevertheless, that only makes him more human, we as humans aren't perfect, most of us don't even come close to being perfect, and also does Ivanhoe. A diversity of traits that are conflicting with each other, some denominated positives and others negatives, make a character feel more real, and I appreciate that.

Also, this movie made Jimmy Cliff one of my favorite reggae musicians, I just can’t help but to listen to his music when I'm not feeling great with myself (which happens pretty often lately haha). It really uplifts my energy and ligthens my mood.


2. Who is your favorite character from the film?

After saying that the protagonist is my favorite part of the film, it would be contradictory from me not to say that Ivanhoe Martin was my favorite character and that's that.

As I already said, Martin possess an uncommon uniqueness in the fact that his harshness and unkindness gets so much time to shine in the film, depicting him as a bad person, even though he is our supposed hero. That is what makes him feel like a real human being, after all, it's supposed to be based on a real story of an actual criminal, so they achieved the goal of making him look and act like a normal person being just like us, making mistakes and having negative perks to his personality and having a "selfish" goal, after all, not all protagonist should look for world peace of some gimmick of the source

3. Would you recommend this film to someone, why/why not?

Off course I would. I even did.

I recall telling one of our classmates, Francisco, how much of a banger this movie was, how special and historic it is and how important it is to understand Jamaica and the "jamaican dream" in an easy way from the perspective of someone that is not a higher power.



4. How does this film contribute to postcolonial identity?

The film shows how the english culture still influences the jamaican one, even when they are supposed to not be their colony anymore. But, something that stands out for me, is that the films establish how a lot of jamaicans were clinging on to reggae music, one of the not so many things that are own of them and not inherited by the british. It was like they saw it as a way of being successful without submitting to the higher culture.