"I had a choice when I set out to make THE HARDER THEY COME in 1972 – to make a film for Jamaicans or to make a film for the rest of the world. I chose to make a film for Jamaica.
When no distributor would pick it up, I went to 43 different countries over six years to sell THE HARDER THEY COME. I carried the film cans to theatre owners all over the world, sometimes being paid in kind, sometimes never being paid at all. Many times I was told to forget I had ever made this movie and move on.
Over thirty years later, we have a new digitally remastered 35mm print, a format which didn’t exist when the film was made, a stage musical based on the film broke box office records in London last year and the soundtrack is listed as one of the best soundtracks of all time. Jamaican culture and music continue to excite the imagination of the rest of the world; I think I made the right choice."
