InRO Weekly — Volume 1, Issue 6

mythological black hat, a kind of trauma response which leaves
the charmingly gawky Ivan behind to make way for the legendary
dual-wielding gunman, but also where the film itself transforms
from a neorealist travelogue into a guns-blazing crime thriller.
though he was widely reported on as he shot his way into folk
hero status, photographs of Rhyging are rare, and the few that
exist have deteriorated to the point of indecipherability, his
image largely living on in the cultural imagination.
Before the third-act eruption, The Harder They Come simmers
with rich textures and barely-contained sensuality, perhaps best
exemplified by a sequence during which the religious ecstasy of
a church congregation resembles the more carnal ecstasy of sex
— sweaty churchgoers contort their faces as they shake, twist,
and even tumble over in suggestive elation. Elsa, in the midst of
the wildly gyrating mass, suddenly has blissful sexual fantasies
of herself and Ivan, their naked bodies covered in the wet of a
surrounding ocean. It's a provocative scene, one where lust
seems to trigger something akin to a spiritual vision, and the
sparkle and shine of her daydream lend the images a
paradisiacal quality, the two lovers becoming Adam and Eve-like
figures in the young romantic's mind. But even the film's sexuality
becomes more lurid following Ivan's inciting murder. Far removed
from Elsa's picturesque visions, Ivan's newly-discovered
ruthlessness leads him into a tryst with José's girlfriend — before
engaging the police in a deadly shootout dressed only in his
underwear. In fact, even though he's on the run, his hedonistic
hunger grows so insatiable that he throws caution to the wind,
and instead opts to steal cars, buy fancy clothes, and even pose
for a photoshoot. Pistols in hand, Ivan swaggers in front of the
camera, mimicking Spaghetti Western hard-asses and building
his own myth in the process.
The photoshoot plays an interesting role in the film. For one, it
epitomizes just how brazen Ivan has become, refusing to lay low
and later sending his stylish portraits to newspapers. For
another, it interrogates history, self-invention, and the very
medium of photography itself. Ivan flaunts his elusiveness by,
paradoxically, making himself more visible — he spray-paints "I
WAS HERE BUT I DISAPPEAR" all over Kingston, taunting the police
— mirroring contemporary news reports of Rhyging's criminal
activities, dramatically describing him as a "phantom killer" with
a propensity for disappearing as quickly as he appeared. Even
Cliff's portrayal almost functions as yet another instance of
Rhyging suddenly reemerging after having, in a sense,
"disappeared into the dark," as the Kingston-based Daily Gleaner
so aptly described his seemingly miraculous vanishing act after
committing a murder. The dissemination of images has been an
important element through which history is understood, and
there's a lot of ink to be spilled about how these processes tend
to favor certain groups of people over others — photographs of
Billy the Kid or Jesse James are far better preserved, their moral
character being no less dubious than Rhyging's. As such, The
Harder They Come stands not just as a fiery crime film, but also
as a necessary corrective to a neglected photographic history of
Jamaica.
“[This] callback to the
grindhouse flicks of the ‘70s
offers up the most respectful
portrait of sex workers the
big screen has seen in ages.
The film was a sensation upon its Jamaican release, with
showtimes regularly being overrun by enthusiastic filmgoers
who, in an era of worldwide political upheaval and widespread
anti-government sentiment, were thrilled to see the famous
criminal finally come to life in a way he hadn't been allowed to
before. Even though the impact of its soundtrack has somewhat
overshadowed Henzell's debut, it hasn't lost an iota of its radical
power. Henzell himself has downplayed Rhyging's status as a folk
hero — in a 1988 television interview, he said, "[Rhyging] was just
seen as a guy who created a lot of excitement… He's a character,
and people recognized that" — but his visceral take on the story
nonetheless ensured that the myth will live on for generations to
come. — FRED BARRETT