Movie Review: Ghett'a Life (2011)

Welcome back to my blog! This time I wrote a review about the Jamaican movie ''Ghett'a Life'', released in 2011. Hope you like this post!

1. Who was your favorite character from the film? Why?

My favorite character from the film is Dawn Thompson (Derrick's mom). I admire her because she is a very supporting mom. Even though Derrick was risking his life, Dawn motivated her son to pursue his dream of becoming a successful boxer to represent and unify Jamaica. She did not even care about her husband's opinion, she only wanted Derrick to be happy and she almost died for that. Such a brave woman...

2. How do we see the political conflict portrayed in the film?

The political conflict is very easy to perceive in this movie because it is a determining factor in the life of the characters. The story itself explains Jamaica's 70's garrison culture (I guess the movie was set in this decade due to the information of Brian Meek's article), where the city is divided by different political lines and local gangs use violence to manipulate people's way of thinking. In this case Derrick's father was a political campaigner from the People's National Party and Derrick had to train his skills in the boxing gym, which was in a zone dominated by the Jamaican Labour Party. That explains the reason why Derrick's family (and Jamaican society in general) had to face this type of political violence.

3. How are woman portrayed in this film? Is it a little or big advancement compared to ''The Harder They Come''?

In this film woman are portrayed the same way they were in ''The Harder They Come''. The only difference is the screen time. Both movies show women just as human beings that need to be attached to men. In ''The Harder They Come'', Elsa was all the time with Ivan or the preacher. In this film, Dawn is the typical mother in a patriarchal culture and Camella is always taking care of her grandfather.

I do not blame the director or the movie. I understand the film is just showing Jamaican society. Anyways, at least this time we got to see more development of characters, because ''The Harder They Come'' was all about the protagonist...

Do you agree with me? I am very interested in your opinion, leave a comment below!

Movie Review: The Harder They Come (1972)

Hello everyone, welcome to my first blog! I am very excited because this is the first time I am using this platform. 

For my first post, as the title says, I am going to write a review about ''The Harder They Come'', a Jamaican movie from the 70s that I watched in class.

This movie is starred by Jimmy Cliff, a famous reggae singer. This film is about Ivanhoe Martin, a poor Jamaican man who arrived to Kingston to pursue his dreams of being a successful singer. However, he faced a lot of problems that did not let him fulfill his dreams. He managed to create the song ''The Harder They Come'', which was a flop, but lately his song turned into a hit because Ivan became one of the most wanted criminals of the country.

1. In general, what did you like and dislike about the film?

I like the visual aspects of the movie. It has a lot of scenes where it's possible to observe the beauty of Jamaican geography. I was mesmerized with the beautiful landscapes of beaches and highways full of tropical vegetation. Although the movie was visually appealing, I hated the story. It was too negative and raw for me. The movie was full of violent moments and I'm not into this kind of movies, but if you like these movies go ahead and watch it!

2. Who is your favorite character from the film?

This question is a little bit hard for me because Ivan, as the main character, gets most of the screen time of the movie, so I don't have many options to choose. Anyways, I choose Elsa because she is a bad girl. I was really entertained by her rebelliousness against the preacher, who was an extremely controlling man. Sometimes I wish I had the audacity to be a rebel, just like Elsa.

3. Would you recommend this film to someone, why?

Of course! I would recommend this movie to all reggae fans in the world. If Jamaican culture is your thing, you should definitely watch it. This movie is a Jamaican classic and everyone who is interested in Caribbean culture should know about it. This film is full of interesting scenes where you can learn about Jamaican society from the 70s, and also you can enjoy watching the beautiful landscapes of tropical and pristine beaches.

4. How does this film contribute to postcolonial identity?

This film contributes to postcolonial identity principally because it shows the mix of English and Jamaican culture. I realized it as soon as the characters started talking with their unique accent (mostly known as Patois). This dialect got me kind of pissed off because I couldn't understand a thing! But then I got used to it.

You can also see this mix of cultures in some scenes where the characters enjoy cultural products from other countries. For example, there's a lot of Coke advertisements, and in some scenes there were people roller-skating.

In conclusion, ''The Harder They Come'' is an iconic movie that shows a lot of things from Jamaican culture, you have to watch it! It's available on YouTube.