Dickie Jobson

(On Cable TV, February 2021) Some movies are more about atmosphere than plot, and that certainly applies to Countryman, a rather ordinary early-1980s action/adventure film that distinguishes itself by sole virtue of being made and set in Jamaica. Reggae music prominently features on the soundtrack, as a Jamaican action hero rescues an American woman and manages to overturn a plot by a dangerous colonel. Much of the film is a standard succession of low-octane chases and shootouts, but it’s proudly set in Jamaica with Rastafarian lingo (subtitles are suggested) and attitudes to match. The hero is unusually humanist by action movie standards, eschewing violence in an attempt to reinforce Bob Marley’s message of peace, love and understanding. It’s quite an unusual mixture, and I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing a modernized update and the same attitude toward action films. The technical production values are very, very rough, but the soundtrack is amazing and the attitude is almost unlike anything else. Writer-director Dickie Jobson’s Countryman may be a curio, but it’s an interesting curio.