Absolutely brilliant

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Blistering performances.

Yes, it's low budget, and it shows at times.However, the story is beautiful, the soundtrack is great. Most poor reviews seem to center around a dislike for the main character and who he becomes. As you watch the movie try to put yourself in the position where you are being exploited by everyone. Drug dealers, music 'moguls', priests, police. I cannot begin to imagine what it would have been like to like in extreme poverty in Kingston Jamaica, but I believe Jimmy Cliff and the Director capture it well in a compelling story. Some have dubbed this a blaxploitation film but it goes further than that, it's more about class lines than race colors, at least in my opinion.You well want a clean version to watch, and subtitles as well make it easier to follow along.

I saw this movie in the theater, shortly after its release. This is still a good movie with a great seminal reggae soundtrack, but the original revolutionary message of the movie has been hacked out and distorted, and the hero has been turned into an unsympathetic criminal. Scenes are missing and some altered, and the feeling of the film has gone from Robin Hood (protector of the poor and driven to violence by severe oppression) to Bonnie and Clyde (natural born criminals with no regard for human life). It has also been sanitized of some drug-positive content (note that there is a religious sanctity to marijuana in Jamaica, and this alteration is therefore especially offensive - how would you feel if a movie tangentially about Catholicism substituted milk for wine in the Eucharist, or refused to show the ritual at all?).I am appalled.

In September 1948, outlaw Ivanhoe 'Rhygin' Martin, entered Jamaican folklore after dying in a hail of bullets during a shootout with police in Lime Cay. 25 years later, reggae star Jimmy Cliff appropriated the rude boy's name and legend for his lead role in Jamaica's first feature film, a rough 'n' ready expose of homegrown corruption, class war and poverty. And homegrown. (Had this film been rendered in smellovision they'd have had to stretcher out entire audiences in stunned but happy droves.) A much-loved cult item since release, it also boasts one of the greatest soundtracks in the business, featuring the Maytals, Desmond Decker and, naturally, Jimmy Cliff.

I'm shocked that all the "hated it" ratings are sixes and sevens, still above average. To me, this seems a case of "the emperor has no clothes". I understand this film was produced on a very low budget in the early 70's...Regardless, it became a struggle to sit through and watch. The DVD I saw did have some subtitles, but about 75% of the speech is not subtitled. Some of it is hard to understand. The Jamaican patois was cool to hear, but you struggle not to 'tune out' after awhile. Some of the shots were nice, and the realism was there, even if some of the performances were not great.(Jimmy Cliff did a good job) The plot is not bad, but quite predictable. In the 1:43 film, the highlights are Jimmy Cliff(Ivan) singing for a scene, and a couple of shoot-outs and a fight. Probably 15 minutes or so. The rest is pretty boring. BTW, near the beginning of the film, there are some weird cuts with the Ivan character that seem like a editing mistake, which made me laugh for a bit. One reviewer said this film has been cut so many times, that there are few copies of the original 1972 theatrical version out there. The ending was kind of interesting, showing how the media from a young age influences people, it could also be a general comment on the white man's/colonialism's influence on Jamaica. Other main themes are poverty, corruption, church, ambition... In closing, the soundtrack is definitely worthwhile, the film much less.