Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Paul_Kersey_Jr I'm shocked that all the "hated it" ratings are sixes and sevens, still above average. To me, this seems a case of "the emperor has no clothes". I understand this film was produced on a very low budget in the early 70's...Regardless, it became a struggle to sit through and watch. The DVD I saw did have some subtitles, but about 75% of the speech is not subtitled. Some of it is hard to understand. The Jamaican patois was cool to hear, but you struggle not to 'tune out' after awhile. Some of the shots were nice, and the realism was there, even if some of the performances were not great.(Jimmy Cliff did a good job) The plot is not bad, but quite predictable. In the 1:43 film, the highlights are Jimmy Cliff(Ivan) singing for a scene, and a couple of shoot-outs and a fight. Probably 15 minutes or so. The rest is pretty boring. BTW, near the beginning of the film, there are some weird cuts with the Ivan character that seem like a editing mistake, which made me laugh for a bit. One reviewer said this film has been cut so many times, that there are few copies of the original 1972 theatrical version out there. The ending was kind of interesting, showing how the media from a young age influences people, it could also be a general comment on the white man's/colonialism's influence on Jamaica. Other main themes are poverty, corruption, church, ambition... In closing, the soundtrack is definitely worthwhile, the film much less.

cykolinks The film follows Ivan, a young country boy with dreams of making a reggae song that will change his life. However, soon after arriving in the city he realises that finding a job and getting himself noticed as a singer will not be easy. After making his song, and being taken advantage of by his record company he is forced to deal drugs to survive, despite his growing popularity.Although the acting is all good, and the story is interesting and well laid out, the film suffers slightly from over dramatised action scenes. However, a thoroughly enjoyable portrayal of 70's Jamaica, and (if you enjoy reggae) an incredible soundtrack.

jc-osms Eminently watchable rags to well, rags story of the country boy coming to the big city to try to make his name as a singer and getting caught up in drugs, extortion and ultimately violence as his dreams end in a tragic shoot-out that's one part "Butch Cassidy" to one part "Bonnie & Clyde". Of course what makes this erstwhile hackneyed B-Movie Hollywood tale come alive is the transposition to Jamaica, the naturalistic direction and acting styles, and last but not least the superb reggae soundtrack with Cliff himself contributing many of the key songs. It's not too often in a movie of this type that the singer's "Hear my song" plea actually is in support of a terrific song ("Dreamgirls" mediocre soundtrack immediately comes to mind) but here when the record production team and session players praise up the title track, you know they're not kidding. The rest of his songs are great too, all attesting to some kind of human struggle, even the more languid "Sitting in Limbo" and of course the self - explanatory "You can get it if you really want". Yes the story gets a bit lost with characters of varying importance drifting in and out along the way but the sheer honest exuberance of the direction (hand - held camera shots to the fore) and obviously inexperienced acting troupe deliver a convincing movie experience. What a shame that Cliff's own star got eclipsed with the rise of Bob Marley - here he shows his considerable singing, song-writing and acting skills and as I say I'm sorry he failed to kick on in any of these fields after this triumph. By the way, it helps to have the sub-titles on if you're not au-fait with West Indian patois.

MARIO GAUCI I had first intended to watch this when the Criterion DVD went out-of-print but I only managed to get to it now that the director has passed away! I'm not one of Blaxpioitation's biggest fans - even less so of Reggae music - but this is surely among the best I've seen; unfortunately, the heavy Jamaican accents make the dialogue unintelligible at times (even if I was watching the film with the benefit of Italian subtitles)!Though the plot offers nothing new - a young man moves from the country to the city hoping to make it as a singing performer but, seeing how he's being exploited by his manager, resorts to crime in order to make a fast buck with the inevitable tragic outcome - the vividness of the ethnic culture and setting make it seem fresh and exciting (thanks in large part, too, to the great soundtrack, providing thought-provoking lyrics amidst unusual rhythms); sure, it's rough and raw film-making, but the end result is frequently disarming and exhilarating.That said, the characters aren't very likable (including our hero played by Reggae star Jimmy Cliff, who also composed the songs) and the film ends up being somewhat overstretched for its purpose; the finale, though, with Cliff facing-off with the militia single-handedly (inspired by a screening of DJANGO [1966] he saw in a local cinema shortly after his arrival in town) is worth waiting for. Along the road, Cliff also gets involved with a preacher and his female ward; as a matter of fact, the all-black church sequences here reminded me of GANJA AND HESS (1973) - incidentally, "ganja" (street slang for dope) turns out to be a major plot point in this film's own latter stages.Unfortunately, it seems that the version I watched is slightly trimmed as the IMDb lists scenes and shots (notably full-frontal nudity during a beating Cliff receives at the hands of the police) which aren't present here! By the way, the film's original soundtrack was voted No. 8 among the All-Time Top 20 Soundtrack Albums in an authoritative 1995 poll.