Film Review: The Harder They Fall
by Christine Riney

Seeing a film and then heading directly to its press conference is a great way to experience the real-life actors coming alive after watching them on-screen. Luckily everything aligned and I managed this for THE HARDER THEY FALL.

The film is everything an old fashion Western should be - gunslinging, horse riding, outlaws looking to make their mark, or taking revenge. The focus of the film is vengeance for a particularly vicious act. As a young boy, Nat Love (Jonathon Major), witnesses the killing of his parents by a savage outlaw, Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), and his gang.

When Rufus escapes prison with the help of his associates, Cherokee (LaKeith Stanfield) and “Treacherous” Trudy (Regina King), the flame of revenge is reigniting in Nat. Getting his old posse together, including his ex-love Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz) and Sheriff Bass Reeves (Delroy Lindo) he intends to enact what has been denied to him to date: vengeance.

Like many Westerns, real people from the days of the Wild West are used to build the characters, although with some creative license. For example, Stagecoach Mary was not an outlaw but a hard-drinking, gun-toting, fierce, black woman, who among other things, spent eight years delivering the mail as a Star Route Carrier. There was also a vicious Wild West gang led by Rufus Buck, made up of teenagers who were black, Native American, or mixed-race as was Rufus himself.

This film gives space to stories so often left out of the history books – those of the African American/mixed-race figures of that time. This is also a Western where the women equal the men both for the positive and also the negative. There is not one subservient female figure to be found, a breath of fresh air in so many ways.

So, on to the press conference. Yes, I was very excited as I knew I was about to be in the same room as Idris Elba and Regina King, not to mention, Jonathon Majors, and the director Jeymes Samuel, better known by his musician name, The Bullitts. And yes, mask-wearing, social distancing but in the same room, did I say that…!

The most entertaining and clearly in charge of the show was Samuel, London-born musician and now debut filmmaker. He and “Ris,” as he calls Elba, grew up together in London, both fans of Bonanza and all the Westerns of that time. Samuels said he was often disappointed by the portrayal of people of color and women. “The scope they showed those stories through was very narrow,” he said. “They didn’t really leave a way either side for any other interpretation. Women were always subservient. And if you were a person of color, you were less than human.” It is hardly surprising that his first film is a Western with his friend, incorporating the neglected characters of that time. He spoke about why he did the film with Netflix - gave him more flexibility in development - what happened when the impossible happened and Elba caught COVID - they all held their breath - and how he wooed Regina Smith - over FaceTime by calling her a “Black Queen” even though she wasn’t a fan of Westerns. To finish a great film off you need a great original soundtrack. And, as you would expect from a musician, he delivered. Samuel wrote most of the songs himself, with Jay-Z doing the producing and you will even hear his brother Seal plus other well-curated artists on the album.

Watch it but beware it has graphic shootouts!