Review of Harder They Come, The

Introduction

Although many of you probably haven`t heard of it, this film is very highly regarded, and acknowledged by many as a classic. One of the first films ever to come out of Jamaica, and one of the only films to fuse gangsters and reggae music on the big screen.

It is regarded highly enough to be part of the Criterion Collection, but how does the region 2 DVD fare? Let`s find out...

Video

The film was originally framed at 1.66:1, but since the review copy came without a sleeve, I`m not sure what the transfer on the disc is supposed to be. I think it probably is framed at 1.66:1, but whatever the ratio, the most important point is that it is not anamorphic. But if Criterion can`t produce an anamorphic print, what hope do we in region 2 have?

The print looks very soft at times, and there`s quite a bit of dirt visible, and quite a few scratches too. It does look its age, but given its origins this is not surprising. It would have been nice to see more effort going into the video transfer though.

Audio

This is the film credited with bringing reggae music to a wider audience. So given its importance you`d expect an excellent reproduction of the soundtrack on this DVD.

Well, I`m afraid you`d be very wrong. It`s just the original mono track replayed over left and right channels. It has some good moments, but it has some very bad ones, which is criminal when you consider the quality of some of the tracks used in the film. It was crying out for remastering and remixing into DD5.1 - a missed opportunity.

Features

Well, at least you get some extras, although you don`t get the commentary track from our friends at Criterion.

What you do get is a good documentary, which runs for 50 minutes, covers most aspects of the film and features plenty of interview footage. You can watch this on its own, or dip in and out of it during the main feature in a Matrix "white rabbit" style.

There`s also a photo gallery, which is average at best, and an alternate ending to the film.

Conclusion

A very interesting film, but presented on a very average DVD, with the only real redeeming feature being the documentary included with the extra features. It`s a real shame that more wasn`t done with the picture and sound quality, as this disc could have been great value for the many fans of this film.

As it stands, it`s probably only for really ardent fans of this film, and the presentation is unlikely to win many new fans. You might perhaps want to rent it to see the documentary.

Although the Criterion version isn`t up to their usual high standards, I have a sneaky feeling that it`s probably slightly better than the disc we have here, with the region 2 documentary replaced by a commentary track from director Perry Henzell and star Jimmy Cliff.