Rockers (1972)

[Drunk Monk]

This is leaving Criterion so I figured I’d revisit it. Forgot what a gem this is.

Yeah, that I&I stuff gets really weird.  The patois gets most trippy and dense in Rockers -- featuring the laid-back and deceptively appealing Horsemouth.

 

The patois is super thick and the subtitles, while they omit a lot, are needed. 

Amazing cast of roots rock reggae performers. Allegedly this began as a documentary and somewhere in the process, a story emerged. Ras gets bike. Ras loses bike. Ras recovers bike and exacts a Robin Hoodesque revenge. The story meanders - it’s not the focus. The focus is that amazing soundtrack and the postcardesque capture of 70s Jamaica. The clothes, the shanty town architecture of yard, the skanking, the kootchie & ganja, and the music. That music. It’s more like a roots reggae album that you watch. This catches the sound that I so love. 

Burning spear’s a capella take on JAH no dead is such a treasure. 

I didn’t notice before (maybe I did and just forgot) but there’s a scene where Horsemouth appears to be packing some white nunchuks. 

This remains one of my fav reggae films.

[Drunk Monk]

Rewatched on hoopla just because I felt the urge to touch base with this again. My previous review stands. 

I need to use the word ‘vex’ more often.

[thatguy]

I always thought "sore vexed" was the best Shakespearean phrase ever...

--tg

---

The inter webs say that it is from the King James Bible and not Shakespeare... what ev

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

There’s a theory that Shakespeare was actually a team of writers who also wrote the KJ bible.
It’s vexxing.

[King Bob]

The title song is one of Bunny Wailer's best. I recently picked up an album of his hits so I could get it - I've been looking for the Rockers soundtrack but haven't seen a copy in years. Never seen the film. That Spear performance is on a compilation of his that I've got.

I think "sore" might have been used Elizabethan times to mean "very." The KJ Bible also uses the phrase "sore afraid" when the angel appears to the shepherds. I have a fondness for the language of the KJ translation. It's powerful and has some great cadences.

[Drunk Monk]

You’ve never seen Rockers? You should rectify that. It’s free on free Hoopla. It doesn’t quite hold together as a story, and the patois is so thick that even the subtitles bail at points, but the music is bashment and the snapshot of JA trenchtown, the dancehall fashion and the peek into some of the historic studios is worth the watch for any reggae aficionado.

And I totally agree about KJ. It’s my go-to translation because it just sings and the version I read cover to cover in grad school. Although I do enjoy those websites that offer multiple versions and will cherry pick those for the most appropriate phrasing in the odd moments when I cite the good book in my writing.