The first Reggae musical to rival the legendary The Harder They Come, Rockers is set in the same Jamaican and Rastafarian context Its hero. Horsemouth. lives lackadaisically in Kingston and works as a drummer, if he works at all When he tries to supplement his income by selling records, the rate of pay is abysmal He zips around on his motorcycle drops in on wife and kids. Like him. the movie roams from religious hermit's retreat to nightclub restaurant outdoor disco to river baptism.

Rockers is another Jamaican movie with the sparkle of The Harder They Come, which it manages to resemble not imitate. In fact. Rockers is in many respects the better of the two...

Rockers is heavily didactic about the tenets of Rastafarianism (worship of the Almighty in the person of Haile Selassie) but it's also lighthearted. offering much the same dichotomy reggae music does Horsemouth has a number of comic scenes with the woman he doesn't exactly live with: she has several of his children, and all of his remarkable wardrobe, so he's forced to come home sometimes, but doesn't do it happily He has such confidence in his children that he's sure they'll grow up just fine without him. he assures their mother. Meanwhile, he ambles through a culture that is keenly, vividly etched during the course of the story. The feeling Rockers has for Jamaican culture which would seem to run deep is all the more remarkable in view of the fact that the director. Theodoros Bafaloukos. is Greek.

Janet Maslm New York Times