So... Alright - Kimmy Three Ways

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

Geoff discusses the three films of reggae great, Jimmy Cliff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So a few So a few episodes ago, I did a brief eulogy of Scott and Reggae great Jimmy Cliff, who unfortunately died a couple weeks ago now. And in the process of that and reading about his life, I was reminded that he was in a film. He starred in a film called The Harder, they come, which had the distinction, I believe, of being the first ever film to come out of Jamaica. And kind of a cult classic, certainly in the punk rock community. I had been around

it my entire life. I tried to watch it a few times. I'd never made it all the way through. I always only had access to very bad VHS transfers of the film and was never quite able to get through it. But during the eulogy and being reminded of it, I decided to sit down and watch it all the way through. I also discovered in that eulogy, reading about his life, that he was in two other films, film from my childhood that I barely remember called Club Paradise, starring Robin Williams, and a Steven Segal film called Mark for Death that I remember loving as a kid and having no idea Jimmy Cliff was in, delighted to find that he had three films for me to enjoy. I set out to watch them over the next couple days, and I did. Today's episode comprises my review of those

three films. Let's start with the 1972 cult classic, the harder they come. I mentioned it earlier. It is a 1972 Jamaican crime drama starring Jimmy Cliff. It's probably most

famous for its soundtrack. It helped introduce the world to reggae. Movie didn't do particularly well. It was a low-budget film, shot in a shoestring budget, slowly over months and months. I think it was shot in fits and spurts. They'd run out of money. They'd have to accumulate more and then they'd go back at it, starring, as I said, Jimmy Cliff. He played the

role of a guy named Ivanhoe Martin. It was loosely based on a guy named Ivanhoe Martin from the 1940s who became a cult hero in Jamaica, although the real Ivanhoe Martin didn't sing or deal in drugs at all. So it's, like I said, very loosely based on this folk hero from Jamaica who I couldn't find a lot of information about, unfortunately. It's also interesting because it tells the story of this young Jamaican man who, lives out in the country with his grandmother, she dies, her property is sold, and he essentially has to move to Kingston to make a living, where he sets about trying to launch a music career. Very similar to Jimmy Cliff's origin story. I talked about it, like I said, in the ULIG I did a few

weeks ago, but he grew up in a very small country town in Jamaica, and then with his father, when he was 14, moved to Kingston to try to make it as a musician and then eventually did became possibly the second most famous musician to ever come out of Jamaica behind Bob Marley. Right around the time that this movie came out, he moves to London, gets a major label contract, and his career really takes off, right? The film eluded me my entire life, but in 2006 they remastered it, did a frame-by-frame touch-up, and it looks and sounds beautiful now. I highly recommend you watch it, especially if you've seen an old shitty version like I tried to do back in the day.

It's, first off, awesome to see Jamaica. in the 1970s. So fascinating, and I was instantly transported to a book I read called A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, who is a fantastic author. By the way, this is the only book I've ever read of his, but I bought a few others that I've been meaning to sit down and read. And if you ever get a chance to read a brief history of seven killings, it's a fictionalized story around 1970s, Kingston, and the rise of Bob Marley. And I don't want to say anything else to spoil it other than it is just, it's fascinating and beautiful and thrilling and incredibly well-written and atmospheric, and you will be transported

to 1970s Jamaica when you read it, and it is a fucking ride to take. The second thing that I kept being confronted with is just how charismatic Jimmy Cliff is. Oh, my God. He was clearly perfect for the role because it mirrored his own life in a lot of ways. but also he just, it's a shame that he didn't act more. And I know that I'm going to review two other movies that he did later in life. But I really, I kind of wish that he had, I don't know, been more interested in it or had more opportunity to do it.

I wouldn't want to take away from any of the music that he did. But I thought he was just dripping Ivanhoe in this movie. And I loved every second he was on screen. I thought he was so perfect for the role. And you can tell he really made it his own. I don't want to go too deep into the film because I don't want to spoil it for you if you want to watch it. Essentially, Ivan moves to Kingston after his grandmother dies.

I mentioned that earlier. He immediately gets all his shit stolen by a street vendor. Goes to find his mother, who's just been living in Kingston for a while. They don't seem to have the best relationship. She doesn't seem terribly excited to see him. She won't let him stay with her. She tells him to go back to the country. And he's like, I got nowhere to go.

Grandma sold the land. What am I supposed to do? I'm stuck here. And she's like, well, in that case, you can't stay here, but go see this preacher. Maybe he'll find work for you. And then it's just a story about Ivanhoe trying to find his way in the city and carve out a niche for himself. He works for this preacher, falls in love with his ward, a woman named Elsa. There's some really disturbing, grooming, potential grooming stuff going on there between the preacher and Elsa that I guess Ivan gets in the way of.

They fall in love. He tries to start a music career. He is immediately, there's just like music executive who kind of runs the scene in Jamaica. He immediately runs a foul of this dude. The dude only wants to give him $20 for the rights to his song, the harder they come. Ivanhoe is not into that. So he decides to self-publish, has a lot of doors shut in his face, finds out that this guy is essentially stopping him from being successful. No one will work with him because they're scared of this guy.

Eventually, the preacher finds out that he's making secular music and that he suspects that he and Elsa have this thing. he fires him and Ivan ends up kind of resorting to crime. I'm jumping around the movie here a little bit. But at some point he goes back, this is a formative moment in the film. He goes back to get his bicycle over from the preacher's house where he's been living, the bicycle that he fixed up. And one of the guys won't let him have it and says it's his now and tries to fight him for it. And Ivan snaps and slices the dude up, just cuts him the fuck up, gets arrested. But instead of going to jail, they just essentially cane him in public. And he then eventually agrees to take the $20 so that he can get some kind of money and get his music out there. But then what

he doesn't know is the guy behind the scenes is only allowing the song to get successful enough for him to recoup his money. But he didn't like Ivan's attitude. And so he doesn't want the music to be successful beyond that. So he just keeps getting taken advantage of. He is, ends up in the drug trade, selling marijuana, becoming a drug dealer to make money and once again sees himself being taken advantage of. He realizes that the drugs that he's moving and selling for a couple hundred bucks here, a couple hundred bucks there, are being sold down the line for like a hundred grand. And he realizes what's a couple thousand dollars to him is actually like a hundred grand for somebody up the line. So he's once again unsatisfied of being taken

advantage of it. He starts to push against the drug dealers who he's working for, who are working for the cops. The whole thing turns on him. He becomes wanted. He ends up shooting some cops and becomes sort of a cult icon who's on the run. His music blows up. And he becomes this this like Bonnie and Clyde style figure. There's a basically a nationwide manhunt for him. His other drug dealer buddies are helping him hide out, but they shut the drug trade down. all the drug dealers start to starve. I am spoiling a lot of the movie here, but I'm not spoiling everything.

And it ends with a giant confrontation on a beach that is very reminiscent and similar to a moment he watched in a film when he saw his first movie. It was Django at the theater in Kingston. And it doesn't end well. I'll say that. Crime very rarely pays in the end.

The movie didn't do well. theatrical, ended up being a midnight release and as such started to build a cult following and over time became a huge cult classic. But it took it many, many years. And I think being referenced in songs and other pop culture and media probably helped a lot too. Like even the clash and guns of Brixton, they have a line. You see, he feels like Ivan born under the Brixton son. His game is called Surviving at the end of the Harder They Come. Fucking awesome, awesome line from an awesome song. The next film he is in is the

1986 comedy directed by Harold Ramos that stars Robin Williams, Twiggy, Peter O'Toole and him, Jimmy Cliff. It is called Club Paradise. It is set in a fictional Caribbean Banana Republic and it follows a bunch of vacationers

as they attempt to create a luxury resort out of a seedy nightclub and then how the local bad guys push back, essentially. It stars As mentioned, Robin Williams, Twiggy, Peter O'Toole, Jimmy Cliff is great in it. It also has Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty plays probably the funniest role in the fucking film. Rick Moranis is in it, just a ton of people you will recognize.

And it's all about this guy, Jack, Robin Williams, who's a Chicago firefighter who gets injured on the job, and he takes his disability payout and retires to this small Caribbean island. I think it's called St. Nicholas. And once he's there, he falls in love with the local color. you know, there's this old British governor played by Pedro O'Toole and Jimmy Cliff, who plays a character named Ernest Reed, who's a financially troubled

reggae musician, and they decide to start Club Paradise, which they mark it as like a club med type resort. They even make, there's a whole thing where they make these brochures that are just Twiggy and Robin Williams dressed up as different people over and over again enjoying the beach. Trick a bunch of people

to come down to have a vacation here, which is how we end up with, the most ridiculous characters, I think Eugene Levy and Rick Morandis have ever played. A couple of dudes that are just trying to get laid and smoke pot, and they're reprehensible nerds. And the film is mostly just about their misadventures while the much richer resort down the road is trying to run them out of business so they can buy their land and expand their empire. Like I said, it's full, chock full of character actors you will love and recognize, including Brian Doyle Murray, who you've seen in everything on Earth. But it's probably most recognizable from Caddyshack or Groundhog Day.

Oh, you know what? He was also the boss, Frank Shirley. He was the boss who wouldn't give out the bonuses in Christmas vacation, who gets kidnapped by Cousin Eddie at the end of the film. that guy was born to play a bad I think I was born to play a kind of pseudo bad guy I guess

I think also I noticed Harry Shear was one of the writers on this film believe it or not it has it has some a lot of 80s sophomoric humor a lot of the humor

hasn't aged well so if you're gonna watch this film go into it with that expectation there's gonna be a lot of stuff that hits differently in 2025 than it did in 1986

for sure but it's not like the most problematic film in the world or anything it's uh you know it's just of its time the best moment in the entire film the line of the entire film has got to be it's got to be eugene levy and one of the other vacation guests they're out in the jungle lost and some of the other vacationers decide to go cliff diving and eugene levy and

these ladies are watching this hunky dude go cliff diving and you can tell that the lady's impressed and Eugene Levy hits on her with the best line I think I've heard in all year probably which is he says I could have done that same dive myself if I didn't have this diarrhea which just comes out of nowhere

he hasn't complained about diarrhea at any point in the movie up to that point it's just so out of left field and so fucking funny and obviously she's not into it anyway hijinks ensue misadventures all over the map, they eventually are able to win and save their new Club Paradise Resort, and

it is a very forgettable but also enjoyable little moment in time. It's not a great film, it's an okay film, but it's fun to watch, and it's wild to see Eugene Levy and Rick Moranis be that young. Just crazy. I realize throughout this entire review, I haven't talked much about Jimmy Cliff, who was the reason I watched the film in the first place. He's good in it. He plays a much softer version of Ivanhoe, honestly. Like, the back half of the film is him giving up on being a reggae musician to become a revolutionary and, you know, overthrow the government. But in a very soft 80s comedy kind of way.

Definitely fun to watch just to see a moment in time. and I think a pretty forgotten about film in the grand scheme of things. The third film, oh boy, the third film I watched. I had seen before and remembered seeing it before. It was a big film to me when I was a kid. Stephen Seagall's 1990 marked for death. I should add ahead of time that Jimmy Cliff is barely in this film. He's in it in one nightclub scene where he's performing live.

But it's worth it just to watch that scene. I watched it a few times, actually. For a couple reasons. We'll get into. Mark for Death star Stephen Seagall as a retired DEA agent out to hunt down and take out a Jamaican drug posse that has targeted his family. It really just bad luck that they targeted his family and him.

And so he's one of those movies where he doesn't want anything to do with it and doesn't want anything to do with it. His buddy, Keith David, is like, he's a coach. And he's like, they're destroying the community. and he's like, not my problem, I retired. Being a DEA agent told, if it taught me anything, it's that you can't do shit about it and you might as well just ignore it. And then, of course, it's impossible to ignore when it lands on his doorstep and they start

shooting up his family. The first thing that surprised me about this film, which, to set some historical precedent, when I was a kid in the early 80s getting into stuff, you were either into Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone. That's not right. You were into both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. They were the two action stars, two sides of the same coin, right? In the late 80s, early 90s, they were replaced by Jean-Claude Van Dam and Stephen Seagall.

They became the two new action stars. And it would be like, you know, kickboxer, above the law, bloodsport, out for justice. It was just one after another. And as a kid, we feasted. Mark for Death was the third in, I was into Stephen Seagal for five movies, his first five movies. I believe they, I'm going off memory here, but I believe they were above the law, hard to kill, marked for death, out for justice,

then he did under siege. After that, I fell off of Stephen Segal. And then Stephen Segal got in the way of Stephen Seagall and the rest is history. However, he was on some sort of an ascension at that point. And that's the thing that's crazy to me about Mark for Death when I go back and watch it now is knowing where Stephen Seagall is now,

and the kind of films he makes now, you forget that he made real movies. Mart for Death is a real fucking movie. The first thing that hits me when I see Mark for Death, by the way, the first thing that happens in that film is Stephen Seagall runs down a very young Danny Trejo and beats him up

and throws him in the trunk of a car. And you're like, is that Danny? It is. Danny fucking Trejo. Wild. But you're almost immediately taken back by how real this fucking film is. Like, this is a real film with a real budget with real actors in it, left and right,

even though Steven Seagall is the star and he is, man, I gotta say, I don't want to go all over the map here, but I don't know how I was so, when I was a kid, I thought Steven Seagal was such a good actor. And coming back and watching it now, it is amazing how bad he was.

Even back then, there are some atrocious moments in this film. There are also some awesome moments in this film. Do not get me wrong. he has some awesome moments in this film but holy shit i can't believe i didn't see how bad he was at acting even back then when i was well shit i guess i was 13 when this movie came out probably so maybe that's why i didn't see it maybe 14 anyway i went and i looked it up the film made 46 million dollars domestically and then 12 million internationally

which i think was probably pretty good back then i don't know what the budget was it's not here, but for 1990, $46 million in the U.S. is probably, that's probably pretty decent. Get you and your crew to the big shows with Go Transit. Go connects to all the main concert venues like TD Coliseum in Hamilton and Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto. And Go makes it affordable with special e-ticket fares. A one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel across the network on any weekend day or holiday for just $10. And a weekday group pass offers the same weekday travel flexibility from $30 for two people and up to $60 for five. Buy yours at go-transit.com slash tickets.

Looking at my notes for this film, I think instead of doing a narrative-style review, I'm just going to give impressions because this film is a mess. It's all over the map, but there's so much to talk about. His opening monologue is something that has to be seen and heard to be fully appreciated. It is atrocious in a lot of ways. This movie takes place in Chicago, much like Club Paradise started. Interesting.

Maybe not. Two very different Chicago's, I think. I can't, once again, I cannot believe I didn't see how bad he was when I was a kid. But I guess at that age, all you care about is people getting clotheslined and kicked, right?

He has an awesome car. Well, you know what? Actually, let's look and see what. There are some good vehicles in Mark for Death. Marked Ford. death cars. Somebody in the email turned me on to IMCDB.org.

It's how they were able to find out that information on the cool Jeep from Revenge of the Ninja that I so desperately want. He has a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1 that he drives through most of the film. That's fucking awesome and way cooler than the movie or him. And at some point he switches out for a 1981 Dodge Ram Charger

that is oh god I would do just about anything to have a vehicle like that old blazer grand wagoneer

old bronco this ram charger old scout oh my god man I had no idea when I was growing up in the 80s that I would be

spending the rest of my life daydreaming about having those cars that were everywhere growing up just everywhere another thing that I noticed

about the film is that he hits people constantly. Obviously, he hits bad guys, but he hits people. He just slaps people saying hello, slaps him on the back, slaps him on the face, hits kids to say. And like, it's just a part of his language. The way he communicates is with slapping people, just fucking constantly. And you get the impression watching it that that's probably what he was like in real life at the time, too. I don't know. Maybe it was just some really good acting by him, but he just seems like the kind of guy that just wants to hit people 24 hours a day. It's how he, it's just like,

it's how he says hello. At some point, he wears a quilted sweatsuit that has to be seen to be believed. His outfits are wild in this film. I think I have notes about that later. Let's see. There's a shootout at a bar that it is the moment that he decides to get involved in the whole thing. Like, he's trying to ignore it, like I said earlier, but he gets sucked in. There's a wall in this bar that he runs by.

It's only on screen for like maybe three seconds. And it's covered in old football cards from like the 70s and 80s. I would love to know where that bar was or where that wall was just so I could get a better look at those football cards. I tried over and over again to pause and fast forward and rewind to be able to see it. And I just could never get a clear picture, unfortunately. There's a moment when he's tussling with a mob guy. I think his name is Jimmy Fingers. And Jimmy Fingers screams, I'm a made man.

And then Stephen Sagan shoots him. And then he delivers this line, God, made man, which is very big. very funny, very unintentionally funny. He has another great line where he goes into the car after fighting two dudes, and Keith David goes, so, what happened? And he says, one thought he was invincible, the other thought he could fly. And Keith David goes, so? And it's delivered so well

because he's looking straight ahead, and he just like whips over to the right, spice the lens, and says, they were both wrong. It's just hilariously atrocious and it has to be seen to be believed yet again. There's some pretty good chase scenes, I got to admit. They have a classic, classic car chase scene where they drive on the sidewalk through people

trying to eat lunch. Tables and chairs are flying and food and stuff. It's pretty glorious 80s car chase scene fair. He wears, talking about his clothes again, he wears the most ill-fitting clothes I think I've ever seen a person where he must have really odd proportions, like really long arms or a long torso or short something because everything he wears is so oddly fit and it's all puffy and it all pools in the weirdest ways. And it is incredibly distracting. I notice that every time, and there are about 40 scenes in this movie that center in on his face delivering intense

lines and his face and eyes are lit in such a consistent and particular way in every scene no matter where he is in the film, daytime, nighttime, inside, outside, that it must be some sort of a note by him. I want my eye. I want to be shot this way because it's like every time you see it, you're like, oh, lit his eyes in that same fucking way.

And what is the deal with that? He also falls into traps so fucking slowly and easily in this film. It's embarrassing. It is honestly embarrassing. If I were him, I would have cut, maybe he didn't have any opportunity to do that he wasn't the director so he may not have had the opportunity to have some sort of edit on it but it's almost as if they're cut in a way to

make it look embarrassing to him like how does this guy consistently keep falling in to these traps there is one there's a car chase trap which actually is interesting because there's a scene where he's in an outfit and he's doing something and then it cuts to him driving a car in a suit like he's going to the opera he gets caught in this trap that you can see coming from fucking 30 miles away but somehow he doesn't

then he escapes it miraculously and then the next scene he's back in the original close again that he was in in the previous scene and I wonder if maybe they must have cut a scene for time or for some other reason

that explains why he was in the suit and was headed someplace different or maybe that scene was originally supposed to take place somewhere else in the film and it was the only place they could cram it in. But it is nonsense and jarring to go from talking to the science lady in his cheetah jacket to then driving through a neighborhood inexplicably in a suit and a vest with no tie by the way but the top button buttoned because once again his fashion is all over the fucking map. And suddenly he after

he survives this inexplicable trap in this different outfit, he's back in the cheetah jacket again buying guns. Makes no sense. There's a weapon building montage that is reminiscent of the A-team that you will absolutely enjoy if that's your speed. Eventually they go to shoot in Jamaica because once again this is a fucking real film with the real budget. They have outdoor shot. I don't know if they shot in Chicago.

They might have shot in Vancouver. I don't know where they were shooting externals in the 80s, but there are complicated shots with dozens upon dozens of extras and helicopters and ambulances and police cars and they are shutting down streets to shoot this. they go to Jamaica and they shoot in Jamaica and it was wild to see Jamaica in 1990 after just seeing Jamaica in 1972.

They dress Keith David in like a civilian outfit to go to Jamaica. That is one of the most hilarious things I've seen. If you are a Keith David fan, you've got to see him in his fucking vacation Jamaica dude outfit. And then at an hour and eight minutes, Jimmy Cliff finally shows up to the film.

There you go to a nightclub. Jimmy Cliff is singing a song and then something really awesome happens. It's a song called John Crow. I'd never heard it before. I think it was recorded for this movie. It's on the soundtrack, which by the way, this movie has a soundtrack. I looked it up. It's a pretty good

fucking soundtrack, believe it or not. It's awesome to see Jimmy Cliff and he sings this song, John Crow. And as I'm listening to it, I realize he references the bad guy in the movie, in the song at a pivotal point in the movie about the bad guy. I think the bad guy's name is screw face and he's pretty scary.

He's got these crazy eyes and he's this like he's like this crazy Jamaican drug dealer who's really intense and scary and he sings a line I swear to God he says screw face you know that your time has come the lyrics say still oh yes

you know your time has come but I swear to you if you listen to it he says screw face you know that your time has come. and that blew me away because I was like, is that motherfucker singing about the bad guy in the film? In the film? I had to stop the movie. I rewounded it.

I watched it like four times. I was like, oh, surely it's not in the recorded version. That's just because it's in the film. So then I went to Spotify and I listened to the actual album version. And even though online and on Spotify, it lists the lyrics as still, oh yes, you know your time has come. I swear I hear him say screwface, you know your time has come. please listen to that if you get a chance

and let me know if I'm losing my fucking mind here because I think that's a really cool detail if it's true and I'm not making it up in my head. Also, I think that's the best part of the movie. Jimmy Cliff singing John Crow for like, I don't know, a minute and a half in the film is definitely the best part of the film

and I watched it a bunch. It ends in the way most 80s action films do which is in a raid on a drug mansion 80s style which is very cool. It's actually a pretty hilarious assault because they sneak in by being extremely visible. It's impossible to believe

that the people of the mansion don't see them sneaking around in the bushes and on the rooftops. But it's the 80s, so you're meant to believe it. Once again, he proves to be the easiest person on earth to capture.

He walks so willingly and blindly into a trap. He has no perception. His character fails every perception role he ever takes. It is, you could say, oh, well, he's doing it on purpose because he's such a badass. He's playing, they're playing into his hands by him playing into their hands. But it's not the case.

That's not written that way. He's just oblivious to the world around him. He does get a really good, I got to say, the best moment of the film for him, he delivers a fuck you that's really strong in the final fight scene. he also at one point there's a I don't want to spoil there's a there's a twist at the end

and I don't want to spoil it but there is a moment when he cuts a bad guy's head off and I have no idea what emotion he's trying to convey after he does it

I watched it probably ten times just trying to pinpoint what he must be thinking in his head or what he thinks he's acting as he cuts this bad guy's it's so befuddling and confusing and I would yeah I don't know I'd love to hear what you think he's trying to say anyway there's a there's a surprise I won't spoil a little bit more fighting you think the movie's over it's not over and then the good guys win and Stephen Segal rides off

into the sunset headed towards his next film out for justice which is even bigger and more successful than March for Death and at the probably right around the apex of this dude's career. Crazy to see him acting alongside people like Keith David when you look up his I-N-B films now and see the kind of stuff he's making. As I said, Jimmy Cliff is barely in March for Death, but he is definitely the best part of March for Death. And I know I picked him during his eulogy as the song of the episode, but he's got to be the song of the episode today. It's going to be that John Crow reggae song that I had never heard before, and I already put on my playlist because I'm into it. I can't recommend you watch all three of these films as good

films. I can recommend the harder they come as a good film. I can recommend the other two as fun, bad films if you're interested. Jimmy Cliff, as I said, appeared in a few other things here and there, but nothing as big as those three films. I wish he had a larger body of visual work, but we'll take what we can get. He's great in all three of them. They're worth watching just for him. And that'll do it for the three films of Jimmy Cliff. The harder they come, Club Paradise, and Mark for Death. Three very, very different films. Thank you for listening to another episode of So All Right. Thank you for listening to my wife's podcast, Clutch My Pearls. Thank you for listening to the Regulation podcast, which is how I make a living.

And thank you for the last year of support. I love you dearly. And I'll see you right here next week for another episode of So All Right. All right. This is the end of the show.