Movie Details
| Title: | Rockers | |
| Director: | Ted Bafaloukos | |
| Year: | 1978 | |
| Genre: | Non-Musical Music Film | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 05.05.24 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 05.05.24 | Internet | I'm like a steppin' razor, don't you watch my size, I'm dangerous, dangerous. This is a late 70s movie shot in Jamaica starring a bunch of reggae artists. There are a couple performances here but it's a narrative film loosely inspired by Bicycle Thieves. The only thing I've seen that I can compare this to is Harder They Fall and I like this better even though I'm sure that other movie laid the ground work for this film. I must admit, even with subtitles on I couldn't follow the patois at all. I think I should've turned them off though because you can still get the gist out of context and it's wall to wall music anyway so me understanding every word out of the actors' mouths is pretty low on the priority list. The subs just distracted my eye. The charm and value of this movie lies largely in capturing the vibe, spirit, and locale of Kingston smack in the middle of roots reggae era. The star of the movie, Horsemouth, is an actual drummer so this is in rarified air of having the star of the movie play drums for real and syncing with what they're supposed to be playing. All his friends are real musicians (they're all in the band that recorded the score!), everything feels documentary-level authentic. The little shops, the sound systems, the rastafarians up in the hills, all of it. My favorite scene is a montage late in the movie as they plan a heist of sorts to get back at the rich guy who stole Horsemouth's bike, Peter Tosh's Steppin Razor plays over each of the main players walking toward the camera with their mafia strut. It's more rough around the edges than the beginning of Reservoir Dogs but no less awesome. I liked this one quite a bit. great music, surprisingly natural performances (for all I know), just as much of that Jamaican culture on display as Harder They Fall, but I'd never heard of this before a month or two ago. There's a fantastic 1080p transfer on internet archive, highly recommend for any fan of roots reggae. |
