1978’s Rockers follows a musician and his friends & bandmates tries to get by selling records off his bike, until it gets stolen. Now on 4k UHD & Blu-Ray via MVD Rewind.
The Film
Rockers is an important touchstone of Jamaican culture and music on film. While most of the behind-the-camera crew were White folks from around the world, the film represents a fictionalized-for-story-needs slice of life of Kingston of the late 1970s, of Rasta and Reggae people living their lives and going about business. Led by Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, it crafts a picture brimming with verisimilitude as he encounters a slew of characters, makes music, and guides us into Ted Bafaloukos’s 1978 film. Rockers is a film brimming with raw reality.
Rockers began as a documentary. But as director and writer Ted Bafaloukos started to form the story and talk to those involved, it was realized that the best way to showcase this world properly would be transitioning into a narrative. A sort of lighter The Harder They Come, with touches of Vittorio De Sica’s Italian neo-realist classic The Bicycle Thief and touches of Robin Hood myths. The story, as it were, Horsemouth cajoles his way into buying a motorbike to collect and sell records and goods across Kingston, from the slums he lives in to nicer areas. The bike is stolen, along with other goods, by a local gangster. In the act of finding and getting it back, plays with bands, hangs out, and the community gets goods returned. The base of the haves and the have-nots creates a universality, with the layer of shining a light into the late 70s Rasta world.
It’s a bit threadbare, but that’s alright. Almost everyone in the film, at least the core crew, plays versions of themselves. In a great touch of verisimilitude, Bafaloukos gathered stories from the cast, wrote up scenes, and they acted out their own stories. Housemouth’s actual wife and kids play his wife and kids in their house, for example. Even with plot running around, there’s an easy sense of hangout: watching people do their thing, just with the molding, tightening, and editing to make it flow better for film. This plot occasionally stops for bangin’ musical numbers by the cast, and they are wonderful. Bafaloukos gathered a verifiable crew of fantastic musicians to bring it to life, such as Peter Tosh, Jacob Miller, and Burning Spear; all featured throughout to give insight into their circles.
It’s utterly fascinating. One of the great things about film, whether a documentary or narrative (or a mixture here, really), is transporting the viewer into lives and situations we’d never be able to see. I appreciate the transition of life to film, keeping it real with the language. Jamaican patois, the specific dialect of this area, is kept as it is, not simplified or cleaned up for the viewer. Turn the subtitles on for it comes fast and hard, and garbled to the untrained neophyte like myself. This is just the nature of the film and the life presented, no dig on anything in the filmmaking. Throughout, he lets the film and its people speak for themselves, metaphorically and literally, avoiding fancy camera work and set-ups, although so many of the shots are truly gorgeous. Outside of a few times of folks directly speaking to the camera, it could be an edit of a handful of sneakily hidden cameras.
Ted Bafaloukos writes and directs an unobtrusive slice of life for Horusemouth and his friends. Rockers is a wonderful film: unique and absolutely catching with its true-to-life feel, since it was. It has great music, fascinating “characters” and situations, a true gem of a film.
The Package
MVD presents Rockers on 4k UHD as part of their MVD Rewind collection. The two discs: one 4k UHD and one Blu-ray fit on the other side of a black 4k embossed case. Fitting to the rewind label, the disc art replicates portions of VHS tapes. Inside is also a poster of the 4k artwork. The sleeve is reversible with new artwork for the 4k cover on one side and the original poster on the other. It has an o-ring slipcover with the new art.
MVD is also offering a single-disc Blu-ray edition with the original art highlighted.
It has two spine numbers: #5 for the 4k MVD releases and #68 for overall Rewind numbering.
The Presentation
The 4k is restored from the 35mm for this presentation. It looks great, working through a film bustling with detail (although it loses some in some of the busier or wider shots), vibrancy, life, and energy. With that documentary feel, it has an appreciated depth and lived-in grain.
The sound is in 5.1 or 2.0. Occasionally, the background sound drowns out dialogue, especially if music is playing while someone is talking; this is most often during lines directly to the camera. Subtitles are available in English (and pretty much required).
The Features
All features are on the Blu-Ray; the 4k UHD disc is film only. While MVD released Rockers in 2009, that edition was barebones; these features have ported from releases from other distributions in the 17 years since, except for the documentary new to this release.
Jah No Dead: The Making of Rockers
A very full, and sometimes exhaustive, documentary detailing everything that went into making the movie, catching up with the surviving cast and crew. In 2 hours, it covers everything. It’s mostly talking heads via internet video conferences with some clips and behind-the-scenes footage. It’s fascinating hearing how the film transformed, and shifted, and really was a huge group effort on both sides to tell the truth and craft something special. (2 hours)
Archival interviews
Writer/Director Ted Bafaloukos (23m) and producer Patrick Hulsey (6m) each have a chat, highlighting the fun and trouble in making the film, their careers, and the legacy.
Selected Scene Commentary
A Picture-in-picture as Bafaloukos speaks specifically about a couple of scenes. Nice insight. (16m)
Note: On the first pressing of the release, this is noted as a full-length commentary. The error will be fixed for future printings.
The disc also contains two music videos over clips of the film, a poster gallery, a trailer, and a radio spot.
FINAL THOUGHTS
1978’s Rockers is a unique film, highlighting the life and music of reggae as it starts to take the world. With a true, lived-in method, Ted Bafaloukos’s film is a hidden gem, busting with fantastic music. The MVD disc, based around a comprehensive documentary, builds a solid backing of features to supplement.