Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Storm Saulter (centre), director of the movie Better Mus Come, speaks to patrons at the Flash Point Film Festival 2008 at Fort Charles on Saturday, June 7. - photos by Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

Before the name of the film comes up, the stage is set for the time period and source of conflict in the Storm Saulter-directed Better Mus' Come. A rousing speech by the People's National Party (PNP) leader (played by Roger Guenveur Smith) is disrupted by a gang of thugs, the distinctive orange banner of the 'socialists' going up in flames from a firebomb.

(The PNP boss is not named, but Smith's light-coloured skin, toting of the famed rod of correction and distinctive speech makes it clear that it is Michael Manley).

So it is the '70s in Jamaica, the tussle is between supposedly communism and deliverance from that evil and the main characters are JLP-affiliated Skulls gang leader Ricky (Sheldon Shepherd), Flames (Ricardo Orgill), Shortman (Evraldo Creary) and Ricky's love Kamala (Nicole Grey).

What is delightful about Better Mus' Come is that while there is a lot of violence (the leader of the PNP gang opposed to the Skulls, Dogheart, is one very chilly fellow), the flat crack of gunshots and silent swipe of knives is part of Ricky's struggles with who he is. He simply thinks too much for a cardboard cut-out of a thug, writing poetry, which Kamala later discovers, and when Flames tells him that he has changed since he went to prison it rings true.

And a vision of himself with dreadlocks, which Ricky gets at a Nyahbinghi, to which he is invited by his son's teacher (played by poet Sage), where he is told that you cannot fight the righteous battle with weapons of war, shows his yearning for a life without the 'tools'.

Extensive thought

It is obvious that extensive thought was put into making Better Mus' Come correct for the time period, including clothing and motor vehicles, and it works well, the Skulls going on an uptown 'mission' in a battered Mini.

The dialogue, as the film moves towards its end at the Green Bay killings of 1978, is good, although there are some slips into standard English. One of the more outstanding is when Shortman tells Ricky, who is intent on generating income outside of political patronage, through a block-making venture, that "yu a tink in years. Dem yute a tink in days".

And when Dogheart waves an open knife in front of Shortman, caught off his turf as he goes to look a job on a construction site and claims he is a singer, and commands 'so sing' in a gentle voice it is menacing.

Better Mus' Come does not stay solely in the shanties and gullies, the exodus of Jamaicans, who could afford it, ahead of what they thought was communism, is shown as Kamala's employees make an abrupt exit from the country.

Final shooting

The security forces play a significant role in Better Mus' Come, not only in the crime suppression in the budding garrisons but naturally in the final shooting at the Green Bay army range. Christopher McFarlane is good as an intense soldier, integral to the trap that led to the massacre.

One of the few incongruities comes in the language, which occasionally slips out of the downtown tongue, and when the Skulls hit some 'uptowners' coming out of a disco the church sign on the building shows briefly.

However, the glitches (the director explained after the very successful screening that the movie is not at the final product stage) do not detract from a well-told story of Jamaica at its politically fractious worse, where one man balances leading a gang and being a good father.

Cast members of 'Better Mus' Come'. From left the teacher (Sage), Ricky (Sheldon Shepherd), Shortman (Evraldo Creary) and Flames (Ricardo Orgill) pose after the premiere at the Flash Point Film Festival 2008 at Fort Charles on Saturday June 7, 2008