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<H1>One more river to cross for filmmaker</H1><CITE class=byline></CITE><CITE class=author></CITE><DIV class=pub-date>December 07, 2006</DIV><DIV></DIV><H4>OBITUARY
Perry Henzell
Filmmaker. Born Annotto Bay, Jamaica, March 7, 1936. Died St Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica, November 30, aged 70.</H4><P class=encompass>PERRY Henzell was considered the father of Jamaican cinema. He was best known for his hugely successful 1972 film The Harder They Come, which he co-wrote, directed and produced. It introduced the world to reggae music and turned the singer Jimmy Cliff into an international star with the title song, as well as the classic songs One More River to Cross and You Can Get It if You Really Want.
The soundtrack, which included 007 (Shantytown) by Desmond Dekker and Rivers of Babylon by the Melodians, was partly edited by Island Records's Chris Blackwell and is often listed among the top 100 soundtracks.
The film tells the story of Ivan, an innocent youth from the backwoods of Jamaica who moves to the bright lights of the capital, Kingston, to seek fame as a star of an emerging form of music, reggae, but runs into a murky world of poverty, ganja, guns, betrayal by rapacious music producers and, finally, crime and despair.
It was based on the true story of Ivanhoe "Rhygin" Martin, a pistol-toting outlaw from the market town of Linstead who terrorised the well-to-do, black and white alike, in West Kingston in the 1940s but was seen by many poor blacks as something of a Robin Hood figure because of his daring and his help for struggling families.
The movie caused riots when it first ran in the Jamaican capital. Henzell recalled how thousands of people broke down fences and burst through the doors of the Carib cinema to get in to early showings. Seeing the financial potential, he said, he waited until three people were crammed into each seat before running the projector.
The film was a hit in the US and later in other parts of the world.
Audiences went wild when Jimmy Cliff, alias Ivan, sang: "I'd rather be a free man in my grave/than living as a puppet or a slave,/so as sure as the sun will shine/I'm gonna get my share of what's mine."
As Henzell pointed out, Jamaicans, indeed West Indians, had never seen themselves portrayed on screen as they were at the time, rather than as servants or slaves. His film celebrated the island's raw culture at a time when it was seen as the land of sunshine and beaches portrayed in the calypso songs of Harry Belafonte.
When the film came out, Bob Marley had never been outside Jamaica, and his genius might have lingered unnoticed for years had the world not been shocked into awareness of reggae music, Rasta men, Jamaican drugs and gang violence by Henzell's vision.
The film gave Blackwell a launching pad for Marley, who quickly set out on a tour of North America, his first step towards international success. Both the film and its soundtrack also were a profound influence on the British punk group the Clash, notably in the song Guns of Brixton (on their album London Calling): "You see, he feels like Ivan,born under the Brixton sun, his game is called survivin'."
With his wild white hair and beard, Henzell was a celebrity in Jamaica. In later years he became a somewhat reclusive writer at Runaway Bay on the island's north coast, while his wife, Sally, and son, Jason, ran the famous Jake's Place on Treasure Beach on the south coast.
His first novel, Power Game, appeared in 1982; a second, Cane, was published in 2002.
On the day of his death from cancer, Henzell had been scheduled to travel to the resort town of Negril to attend the local premiere of No Place Like Home, a sequel to The Harder They Come.
The sequel, whose release had been delayed for more than 30 years by lack of finance and lost reels, featured a young Grace Jones in sequences shot in the 1970s and had already been received
Perry Henzell
Filmmaker. Born Annotto Bay, Jamaica, March 7, 1936. Died St Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica, November 30, aged 70.</H4><P class=encompass>PERRY Henzell was considered the father of Jamaican cinema. He was best known for his hugely successful 1972 film The Harder They Come, which he co-wrote, directed and produced. It introduced the world to reggae music and turned the singer Jimmy Cliff into an international star with the title song, as well as the classic songs One More River to Cross and You Can Get It if You Really Want.
The soundtrack, which included 007 (Shantytown) by Desmond Dekker and Rivers of Babylon by the Melodians, was partly edited by Island Records's Chris Blackwell and is often listed among the top 100 soundtracks.
The film tells the story of Ivan, an innocent youth from the backwoods of Jamaica who moves to the bright lights of the capital, Kingston, to seek fame as a star of an emerging form of music, reggae, but runs into a murky world of poverty, ganja, guns, betrayal by rapacious music producers and, finally, crime and despair.
It was based on the true story of Ivanhoe "Rhygin" Martin, a pistol-toting outlaw from the market town of Linstead who terrorised the well-to-do, black and white alike, in West Kingston in the 1940s but was seen by many poor blacks as something of a Robin Hood figure because of his daring and his help for struggling families.
The movie caused riots when it first ran in the Jamaican capital. Henzell recalled how thousands of people broke down fences and burst through the doors of the Carib cinema to get in to early showings. Seeing the financial potential, he said, he waited until three people were crammed into each seat before running the projector.
The film was a hit in the US and later in other parts of the world.
Audiences went wild when Jimmy Cliff, alias Ivan, sang: "I'd rather be a free man in my grave/than living as a puppet or a slave,/so as sure as the sun will shine/I'm gonna get my share of what's mine."
As Henzell pointed out, Jamaicans, indeed West Indians, had never seen themselves portrayed on screen as they were at the time, rather than as servants or slaves. His film celebrated the island's raw culture at a time when it was seen as the land of sunshine and beaches portrayed in the calypso songs of Harry Belafonte.
When the film came out, Bob Marley had never been outside Jamaica, and his genius might have lingered unnoticed for years had the world not been shocked into awareness of reggae music, Rasta men, Jamaican drugs and gang violence by Henzell's vision.
The film gave Blackwell a launching pad for Marley, who quickly set out on a tour of North America, his first step towards international success. Both the film and its soundtrack also were a profound influence on the British punk group the Clash, notably in the song Guns of Brixton (on their album London Calling): "You see, he feels like Ivan,born under the Brixton sun, his game is called survivin'."
With his wild white hair and beard, Henzell was a celebrity in Jamaica. In later years he became a somewhat reclusive writer at Runaway Bay on the island's north coast, while his wife, Sally, and son, Jason, ran the famous Jake's Place on Treasure Beach on the south coast.
His first novel, Power Game, appeared in 1982; a second, Cane, was published in 2002.
On the day of his death from cancer, Henzell had been scheduled to travel to the resort town of Negril to attend the local premiere of No Place Like Home, a sequel to The Harder They Come.
The sequel, whose release had been delayed for more than 30 years by lack of finance and lost reels, featured a young Grace Jones in sequences shot in the 1970s and had already been received
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