Remembering jimmy Cliff’s ground-breaking performance

Taking time-out in remembering Jimmy Cliff’s ground-breaking performance in “the harder they come” Can you believe it's almost fifty years already? Wow!

Which is yours? L or R?

Just want to take some timeout on this “weekend special” slot, in remembering Jimmy Cliff, one of Jamaica’s favorite sons and an icon. The point of focus today is not to be in the man’s music which is well renown, but more on the role he would have played in the movie: The harder they come.

It is almost fifty years ago, Jimmy Cliff burst unto the scenes not only as an actor but playing the staring roll in a ground-breaking performance as Ivan Martin in the Jamaican movie called, “The harder they come.” Directed by Perry Henzell, and co-written with Trevor Rhone.
The film would have become a massive success story, in Jamaica and the Caribbean. The film would have gone on to see some fair amounts of success internationally too, but not nearly as much as was the case in Jamaica and the Caribbean.
This was due to the fact that some audiences found the “real yardie style Jamaican patois somewhat hard to understand which would have also led to the film becoming possibly "the first English language movie in history to require subtitles in the United States"
The film was released in February 1973 in New York City and would have garnered good national success playing to midnight audiences layer on.

If you haven’t seen it yet, here's a clip. Courtesy of youTube.
Or go get it on Amazon or some other such places, just so that you may see and have an idea as to what all the fuss is about.

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Extra, extra. This day in history

Sunday 20th

1997 - Bill Clinton was inaugurated for his second term as president of the United States.

1954 - The National Negro Network was formed on this date. Forty radio stations were charter members of the network.

1953 - "Studio One" became the first television show to be transmitted from the United States to Canada.

1929 - The movie "In Old Arizona" was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors.

1841 - The island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain. It returned to Chinese control in July 1997.



Saturday 19th

2013 - In Scottsdale, AZ, the original Batmobile for the TV series "Batman" sold at auction for $4.6 million. It was the first of six Batmobiles produced for the show.

1966 - Indira Gandhi was elected prime minister of India.

1957 - Philadelphia comedian, Ernie Kovacs, did a half-hour TV show without saying a single word of dialogue.

1907 - The first film reviews appeared in "Variety" magazine.

1883 - Thomas Edison's first village electric lighting system using overhead wires began operation in Roselle, NJ.

1793 - King Louis XVI was tried by the French Convention, found guilty of treason and sentenced to the guillotine.

Note: Come tomorrow I will be kicking off a new series, don,t miss it.

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