THE HARDER THEY COME is better known as a soundtrack than a film. Featuring Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker, and Toots and the Maytals, it’s an incredibly influential album and a milestone in introducing reggae to the wider world. However, it’s worth noting that Perry Henzell’s 1972 film is a great achievement in its own right. And it differs from other films with all-time classic soundtracks like SHAFT or SUPERFLY in that the music is a part of the film’s narrative.

The 2006 remastered version, screening at this year’s Cambridge Film Festival, is an inspired fusion of exploitation film, neorealist drama and musical. The casting of singer Jimmy Cliff as the protagonist Ivanhoe Martin is one of the film’s chief strengths; the audience believes in his talent and is invested in his struggle to succeed because it’s all up there on the screen. The film’s centrepiece where he records the titular song is truly electrifying, as we watch him caught up in the creation of the music.

Of course, genre conventions demand the route to the top isn’t smooth. From the film’s opening moments when he gets off the bus from the countryside, Martin has obstacles thrown in his path. He starts as a wide-eyed young man new to the big city, and quickly toughens up as people take advantage of him.

… the film has an interesting amount to say about how we romanticise our criminals …

However, he meets his match in vaguely sinister music industry svengali Hilton (Bob Charlton), who lets Martin record “The Harder They Come” in his studio but only offers twenty dollars in exchange. He’s able to cheat Martin out of his earnings through his stranglehold on the record shops and radio stations of Kingston. In the film’s world, he represents corruption and a rigged system, against which Martin’s turn to crime is a legitimate response.

Beyond its exploitation roots, the film has an interesting amount to say about how we romanticise our criminals. (The plot is based on the life and exploits of real-life Jamaican outlaw Rhyging, moved from the 1940s to the 70s.) Martin has the mixture of notoriety and mass appeal that made the media go wild for John Dillinger or Bonnie and Clyde, and the savviness to exploit his public profile. He poses for photographs in stylish new clothes with a pair of sex-shooters, burnishing his image in the press as his song is played everywhere. There are similarities with US blaxploitation cinema of the time, with crime portrayed as a form of resistance to a corrupt, racist power structure.

And this ties into the other revolutionary aspect of the film; of showing ordinary Jamaicans an image of themselves onscreen. From the working-class urban and rural locations portrayed to the use of patois in the dialogue, Henzell’s film is both reportage and a powerful statement for an inclusive cinema. The current discussion around minority representation in Hollywood behind and in front of the camera show how important this still is.

The film ends on a bleak, downbeat note, which it then immediately undercuts by playing the title song over the end credits. It’s an optimistic tune about perseverance and self-respect. Crime may not pay, but music can make sure you live forever.

THE HARDER THEY COME screens on 12 September at 23.00

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