However, as he tries to get a job, he is constantly disappointed. The Western influence on Jamaica seems to have taken over everything. Those Jamaicans that do have talent are suppressed by ‘Mr. Hilton’, the half-white man in charge of the soundtracks released. The Western influence ensures that the Americans will benefit from the work of the Jamaicans. Ivan himself produces a record, which Mr. Hilton only offers $20 for, even if the record may be a hit. Ivan has no choice but to accept.
Indeed, there are constant symbols of the Western influence in Jamaica, right from the very beginning of the film. As the bus with Ivan in it drives through Jamaica, it goes past several bill boards, advertising Western goods. When Ivan listens to his radio, there are adverts recommending objects such as hair cream, which would be useless for Jamaicans, and symbolising the fact that the Westerners are trying to make the Jamaicans want to be more like them, or at least buy their products.
The only job Ivan is able to get is in the drug trade, which ironically enough is controlled by the police of Kingston. However, even this is really controlled by Westerners, as the plane that Ivan gives the ‘product’ to is later found to have been heading for America, along with two others. As in the record companies, the Jamaican workers only earn a paltry amount, while Ivan learns of the huge amounts earned in Miami by reading a newspaper article on the capture of the plane.
Ivan is then betrayed by his boss for trying to earn more money, and the result is Ivan shooting a police officer. Ivan is attacked by more police, so he kills them and goes ‘on the run’. This finally brings him fame and fortune, which delights him, but the only way he could become famous was to rebel against the ‘western onslaught’. He becomes the hero of the poor, ridding them of the oppressive drugs leader José, to the point where they even ask for his autograph. The corrupt police even try to suppress this, banning any pictures of Ivan in newspapers and ordering Hilton to stop playing Ivan’s record, so that even this achievement comes to nothing for Ivan.
However, it is inevitable that Ivan is cornered. He is on a beach, surrounded by armed police. There are flashbacks to when he was watching a film, where the hero survives impossible odds, and Ivan believes that he will survive the same way, armed with two empty pistols. Ivan believes that “the hero can’t die until the last reel”, but this only comes from the Western films of cowboys (which is shown in the film as flashbacks to Ivan watching in the Rialto). It’s as if the Western culture has ‘brainwashed’ natives with its influence over the native culture, and Ivan is promptly shot dead, symbolising that any resistance to the ‘Western onslaught’ is crushed in the end.
Ironically, the song, ‘You can get it if you really want,” is played in the last few seconds of the film. Ivan wanted fame and wealth, but his dreams were crushed by the influence of Western civilisation, and he ended up with nothing, so, clearly, you can’t “get it if you really want.”
This is a great film, nonetheless, and will certainly help all you Lower Fifth formers out there to get excellent grades – if you really want!
