The Harder They Come

Jimmy Cliff plays Ivanhoe Martin, the original gun-toting, drug-dealing, revenge-extracting, desperately destructive -- and self destructive -- musician/gangster (or gangster/musician). The Harder They Come is a tragic opera, a story of crime and street life in 70s' Kingston, Jamaica. The template for every wannabe -- and otherwise -- gangster/musician (or gangster/musician) since.

While the musical soundtrack is excellent, the audio restoration leaves something to be desired. The ADR is laughably sloppy in places, and the foley & other re-created sounds should have been left alone. Certainly the film didn't have a high budget, but there's so much nostalgia in all the blips, pops, crackles, and electrical hum that make up the rich aural tapestry of the source tape. Damn you, Criterion Collection. Damn you.

Things to watch for: Cliff with perpetually bloodshot eyes, and a couple other things. I'm not a spoiler.

Links:

The Harder They Come [imdb.com]
The Harder They Come (audio CD) [Toronto Public Library]
The Harder They Come (DVD) [Toronto Public Library]

Also:
Midnight Movies - From the Margin to the Mainstream [Wikipedia]

Standing in the Shadows of Motown

One 2-hour documentary and one of my favourite groups finally has a name. The Funk Brothers. As Motown's house band from the early '60s to about 1972, they provided the backing instrumentals to over 240 hits. Astonishingly, the group has been forced to live in relative obscurity until 2002's Standing in the Shadows of Motown. The doc goes through the early days of the label's formation, the day-to-day of Studio A (aka the Snake Pit), and the people & personalities who added the true character of America's greatest pop machine.
The group pretty much disbanded when the Motor City Hit machine sold... er... moved out to sunny Los Angeles.
Say what you will, but after the Funk Brothers were no longer behind the hits, it took Lionel Richie and Rick James to bring the label anywhere near its former glory.

The film feels far too short, and despite bevy of special features (including 'Dinner with the Funk Brothers'), only a Ken Burns length documentary would provide any sliver of justice to their criminally underappreciated and virtually unrecognized career. The horn players are pretty much ignored, with the narrative focus on the rhythm players and Martha Reeves is the only vocalist from the era interviewed.
The best moments are the group playing together once again, specifically the moments in Studio A where they jam, or a great moment when Pistol Allen explains how you can tell which of the three drummers was on the kit for a particular song, just by listening to the drum fills.
A live, "reunion" performance, cut to throughout the film, is hit and miss. If you can put up with Joan Osborne and Ben Harper butchering classic performances for the sake of hearing the Funk Brothers play together once again, the show is electric.
Essential viewing for those interested in American pop music.

Links:
Standing in the Shadows of Motown [Official Site]
Standing in the Shadows of Motown [imdb Site]