Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

HENZELL

PERRY HENZELL, whose low-budget urban film The Harder They Come became an international blockbuster in 1972, died yesterday after a long battle with cancer.

The writer/director died at his son's home in Round Hill, St. Elizabeth. He was 70 years old. Jason, Mr. Henzell's son, said his father passed away peacefully, with his wife Sally at his side.

"My father fought cancer for the past seven years and it went into remission five times but it came back in an aggressive way," Jason Henzell told The Gleaner. "We are happy he left in a peaceful way and suffered no more pain."

Mr. Henzell died one day before his film, No Place Like Home, was to be shown at the Flashpoint Film Festival which opens today in Negril, Westmoreland. Although he wrote several other screenplays, Perry Henzell is synonymous with The Harder They Come, the sensational drama that made a superstar out of reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, who played the lead role of Ivan.

Perry, a former advertising executive, based the film on the exploits of Ivanhoe 'Rhygin' Martin, a Linstead drifter who terrorised sections of west Kingston during the 1940s.

With the emerging reggae beat as a backdrop, The Harder They Come helped introduce reggae and Jamaican pop culture to an international audience. It made a major impact overseas where it played to small theatres in North America and Europe, and won Best New Cinema at the 1973 Venice Film Festival.

Reacting to news of Henzell's death, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said he "made a sterling contribution to the development of the arts in Jamaica."

Void in creative industry

"Jamaica has lost a very talented son and his death has created a void throughout the creative industries in Jamaica," the Prime Minister said in a statement.

Opposition Leader Bruce Golding said: "His life of service and dedication to country, is one that we must seek to embrace and emulate. He has left for all of us, a rich legacy through his life and work."

Lennie Little-White, principal at Mediamix Limited, said Mr. Henzell's work as a filmmaker transcended The Harder They Come.

"Perry was to Jamaican film what Rex Nettleford is to dance and Miss Lou was to poetry," Mr. Little-White told The Gleaner. "The Harder They Come was just one of his milestones. When he formed Vista Films, that became the training ground for people who became pantheons in Jamaican film," Mr. Little-White added.

Mr. Henzell was born in Jamaica to an Antiguan father and Trinidadian mother. His father was overseer at the Caymanas Estates in St. Catherine for several years.

He is also survived by two daughters, Justine and Toni-Ann, and four grandchildren.

A thanksgiving service for the life of Perry Henzell will be held December 8 at the family's home in Runaway Bay.

See related story in Entertainment section.