Third World Cop
Jamaica 1999
Reviewed by Peter Curran
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Kingston, Jamaica, the present. Two childhood friends are reunited: Capone has become a successful police officer while Ratty is the right-hand man of a local gangster engaged in gun running. As the police attempt to capture the criminals, the two former friends agonise over their personal loyalty to each other.
Capone fails to persuade his friend to disengage from crime; Ratty's friendship with a cop makes him, in the gang's view, a police informant. After going on the run, he agrees to give evidence against his boss One Hand. Having secured immunity from prosecution and a new identity, he and Capone set out for the trial. Capone's corrupt rival in the police force sets up an ambush on behalf of One Hand, and in the confusion Ratty attempts to escape with the trial evidence, only to be shot dead by Capone.
Review
The childhood friends/adult adversaries scenario might seem laughably clichéd in any other setting, but in the townships of Jamaica it has the same timeless ring as those biblical declamations that featured heavily on early reggae records, where good and evil were distinct and unsubtle enemies. Like the seminal Caribbean bad-boy tale The Harder They Come (1972), Third World Cop is resolutely local in language and setting so you can tune into to its idiosyncratic pleasures even though you've seen virtually the same stock characters in crime movies since the 40s.
Successful detective Capone is transferred back to his old Kingston neighbourhood and enjoys moving through familiar hang-outs all the more because he got out of them. He can wear a spotless white t-shirt, while his poor lawless contemporaries are layered in designer-label sportswear. The initial encounter between cop and oldest friend Ratty is a Leone-style stand-off on a dusty football pitch. They speak with the guarded sarcasm of police and villain - the words of a mock antagonism that suddenly becomes real at the close of the movie - but then they drop the act, dissolving into laughter and easy banter.
This work comes from the same production team that made Dancehall Queen and shares that earlier film's easygoing immediacy. Naturalistic settings - bars, street corners, alleyways - are just a backcloth to the full-frame faces of the characters as they declare their intentions, a departure from the kind of films usually shot in Jamaica which rely so heavily on tourist-attracting countryside shots. Cinematographer Richard Lannaman comes from an advertising background and his luminously lit shots make the most of the great looking cast.
Even the rheumy-eyed gangster One Hand, toting around a vast stock of jewellery on his body, affects an air of sophistication and menace as he plays Ratty off against his other aspirant crime deputies. At the same time, debut director Chris Browne lingers on the attractive features of his hero Capone, scrambling to uncover the gun runner's plans. One senses Browne was reluctant to depend on a creaking old thriller plot to keep the audience interested and opted instead to make the film a showcase for his easy-on-the-eye leading man.
The inevitability of the plot - the double-cross, ambush and final betrayal all announce themselves noisily before entering - seems quaint rather than exasperating. The execution of these set-piece moments and the editor's fast cutting tighten the sense of excitement, particularly when the gang set out to kill Ratty as a suspected police informer. The pace is coaxed along by a rolling percussive score produced by reggae veterans Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. As an exploration of how friendship is ultimately sacrificed for selfish ends, the film only partially succeeds, but it does deliver a handsome, atmospheric portrait of life behind the dancehall.
Credits
- Director
- Chris Browne
- Producer
- Carolyn Pfeiffer Bradshaw
- Screenplay
- Suzanne Fenn
- Chris Browne
- Chris Salewicz
- Director of Photography
- Richard Lannaman
- Editor
- Suzanne Fenn
- Production Designer
- Richard Lannaman
- Music
- Wally Badarou
- Sly
- Robbie
- ©Palm Pictures, LLC
- Production Companies
- Palm Pictures presents in association with Hawk's Nest Productions
- Executive Producers
- Chris Blackwell
- Dan Genetti
- Line Producer
- Natalie Thompson
- Associate Producer
- Carl Bradshaw
- Production Associate
- Suzette Newman
- Production Co-ordinator
- Gayatri Persad
- Location Manager
- Alrick Burke
- 2nd Unit Director
- Suzanne Fenn
- Assistant Directors
- Kwesi Dickson
- Benjamin F. Stanigar
- Script Supervisor
- Scott M. Da Silva
- Casting
- Sheila Lowe Graham
- Suzanne Fenn
- Sharon Burke
- Camera Operator
- Jeremy C. Rogers
- Special Effects Co-ordinator
- Dwight Ramsay
- Art Director
- David Borely
- Set Decorator
- Raquel Anita Parke
- Costume Designer
- Michelle Haynes
- Wardrobe Supervisor
- Roxroy J.D. Dinham
- Hair/Make-up Supervisor
- Carol Reid
- Special Effects Make-up
- Cecile Burrowes
- Titles
- Title House
- Music Supervisors
- Maxine Stowe
- Sly Dunbar
- Robbie Shakespeare
- Music Co-ordinator
- Christy Barber
- Soundtrack
- "Zen Concrete" by L. Dunbar, R. Shakespeare, L. Willis, performed by Sly & Robbie; "Man, a Bad Man" by J. Fyffe, H. Browne, performed by Lady G; "Bad Man Story" by A. Bradford, R. Browne, performed by Buccaneeer; "Dungle Boogie" by M. Davis, L. Dunbar, R. Shakespeare, R. Bell, C. Smith, R. Mickens, D. Boyce, R. Westfield, D. Thomas, G. Brown, S. Marsden, L. Willis, performed by Beenie Man; "Papers" by C. Morris, C. Campbell, L. Allen, H. Morris Jr, L. Dunbar, L. Willis, S. Marsden, performed by Innocent Crew; "Scare Dem Train" by C. Anderson, A. Reid, D. Stewart, O. Brian, P. Jackson, L. Dunbar, S. Marsden, R. Shakespeare, performed by Scare Dem Crew featuring Shereen; "Mambo Jambo" by C. Morris, C. Campbell, L. Allen, H. Morris Jr, L. Dunbar,
- performed by Innocent Crew; "Drilling for Oil" by L. Dunbar, R. Shakespeare, L. Willis, performed by Sly & Robbie; "Fake Name" by G. Williams, M. Wolfe, J. Ford, S. Marsden, performed by Tanto Metro featuring Mega Banton; "Soft Core Surge" by L. Dunbar, R. Shakespeare, L. Willis, H. Bernstein, performed by Sly & Robbie; "Call the Police" by I. Kamoze, performed by The Marley Brothers; "Police and Thieves" by J. Murvin, L. Perry, performed by Luciano; "We Run Tings" by L. May, M. May, G. Harris, L. Dunbar, R. Shakespeare, performed by Red Dragon
- Sound Design
- Mike Draghi
- Sound Mixer
- Don McGregor
- Re-recording Mixer
- Mike Draghi
- Supervising Sound Editors
- Debby Van Poucke
- John Davies
- Dialogue Supervisor
- Jeff Mar
- Dialogue Editor
- Gary Friedman
- Sound Effects Editors
- David Rovin
- Steve Cartwright
- ADR
- Supervisor:
- Jeff Mar
- Recordists:
- Brian Geer
- Maxim Carl
- Foley
- Artists:
- Bob Rutledge
- Les Arenson
- Armourer
- Calvin McKenzie
- Animal Trainer
- Helmut Lechner
- Cast
- Paul Campbell
- Capone
- Mark Danvers
- Ratty
- Carl Bradshaw
- One Hand
- Winston Bell
- Floyd
- Audrey Reid
- Rita
- Lenford Salmon
- Not Nice
- Desmond 'Ninja Man' Ballentine
- deportee
- O'Neil 'Elephant Man' Bryan
- Tek-9
- Andrew 'Nittie Kutchie' Reid
- Crime
- Devon 'Angel Doolas' Douglas
- Razor
- Winsome Wilson
- Carla
- Ronald 'Too Small' Small
- bodyguard
- John Jones
- Superintendent Lewis
- Kathy Owen
- TV announcer
- Natalie Thompson
- Port Antonio superintendent
- Lillian Foster
- Mama
- Clive Anderson
- Jacko
- Lloyd Reckord
- reverend
- Robbie Shakespeare
- Don next door
- Onandi Lowe
- pool player
- Buccaneer
- MC
- Donovan 'Boom Dandymite' Stewart
- Patrick 'Harry Toddler' Jackson
- Christopher 'Hawkeye' Smith
- crew in car
- Junior Frazer
- Owen Williams
- detectives
- Glen Campbell
- security guard
- Joslyn 'Captain Barkey' Hamilton
- Philip ''Cutty Ranks' Thomas
- police
- Amelia Sewell
- woman
- Andre Thompson
- Red Stripe vendor
- Daniel Ellis
- marble kid
- Winston Rowe
- Spoonhead
- Dean Khouri
- stall vendor
- Desmond Castello
- Skinny
- Ricardo Barrett
- teen with finger
- Alton 'Fancy Cat' Hardware
- annoying man
- Simon Hemmings
- man on TV
- Omarr Fogo
- youth on TV
- Tesah Linton
- Natasha Budhai
- Angela Hunigan
- go-go dancers
- Glenville Murphy
- drunk man
- Janice 'Lady G' Fyffe
- entertainer
- Calvin Mitchell
- accused
- Howard 'Muggy' Williams
- crying convict
- Champ
- dog
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Optimum Releasing
- 8,850 feet
- 98 minutes 20 seconds
- Dolby
- In Colour