Movie Review - The Harder They Fall (2021)

In my review for Bull (2020), I pointed out the lack of Westerns featuring African-Americans in the lead. The image of the Black cowboy or the Black gunslinger as the protagonist is in short supply. Westerns as a genre are in short supply, so that's one reason. Quentin Tarantino tried to rectify with his films Django Unchained (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2015). I wasn't the biggest fan of those films, but, Tarantino did push the boundaries and tackle issues that the genre in its heyday might not have tackled, issues like slavery and racism, as well as misogyny. He also was quite bold in his filmmaking, making even bolder cinematic choices. Director and co-writer Jeymes Samuel also tries to be bold, especially in the beginning, even incorporating big, bold, red letters on screen and flourishes here and there to accentuate the action and violence. The rest of the film rather settles down into what could be considered a conventional Western.

If you've seen Westerns like High Noon (1952), Shane (1953), The Magnificent Seven (1960), True Grit (1969) or Unforgiven (1992), then you've basically seen this film. The only difference is that it's a predominantly African-American cast. All Black actors are in the lead. It's about the lawlessness of the West, the criminals who roam wild, whose victims often seek revenge, the vigilantes that can arise and the rest who will do whatever it is necessary to survive.

Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country and When We Rise) stars as Nat Love, a real-life Black cowboy. However, if one is expecting a biopic or some true depiction of Nat Love, one would be disappointed. The depiction of Nat Love here is highly fictionalized. The real Nat Love wrote an autobiography and what is known of Nat Love's life bears no resemblance to what occurs in this film. For starters, this film makes Nat Love an outlaw, essentially a vigilante who hunts down bad people. He's specifically hunting down members of a gang that killed his parents.

At the start of this film, he's all but done. There's only one person he has left to kill, but that person is currently in prison. He's upset that he can't kill this person. He instead returns to a former flame of his and tries to rekindle a long lost romance, a romance that was presumably abandoned so that Nat Love could embark on his revenge quest.

Delroy Lindo (The Good Fight and Da 5 Bloods) co-stars as Bass Reeves, another real-life person. Bass Reeves was the first black deputy U.S. marshal. He was from Arkansas and worked a lot in Oklahoma. He was hired as a marshal mostly due to his knowledge of Native American languages because he lived on tribal lands. Here, Bass is a U.S. marshal out to capture Nat Love. However, Bass learns that another criminal, an even worse criminal, has been pardoned and is on the warpath for things that he lost while being incarcerated.

It should be noted that this isn't the first time Lindo and Majors have worked together. They previously worked together in Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods. It should also be noted that this isn't the first time that the characters of Nat Love and Bass Reeves have been utilized together and utilized by this very director of Jeymes Samuel. Samuel did a Western called They Die By Dawn (2013), a short film that's also about Black outlaws going after each other. I don't know if there is any information that Nat Love and Bass Reeves ever crossed paths in real life. It's more than likely that either way, the two were probably aware of each other. Being two notable Black gunslingers from history, it was probably easier for Samuel to pair them.

Idris Elba (Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw and Beasts of No Nation) also co-stars as Rufus Buck, another real-life, Black gunslinger. Rufus Buck was an actual outlaw. Even though Rufus is depicted here as being a brutal murderer, this film attempts to have us sympathize with him to some degree. Based on what was known of the real Rufus Buck, he was also a horrible rapist who killed several women. Rufus's gang in real-life was all men, but here, Samuel gives Rufus a Black female member of his gang. Clearly, she's there to signal that Rufus isn't the rapist that was his inspiration. A lot of the actors here are given a monologue for them to imbue their characters with some pathos. Elba delivers his very strongly, but it's not enough to overcome the film mostly casting him as callous.

Regina King (Watchmen and If Beale Street Could Talk) also co-stars as Trudy Smith, a character who is based on a real-life person but her depiction here highly deviates from what is known about the real-life person, which admittedly isn't much. She's very much a cutthroat person who is second-in-command when it comes to Rufus Buck's gang. She ostensibly runs a saloon in the town of Redwood City. Redwood City is a place where Rufus Buck's gang has taken siege and forcing the people there to pay taxes to him, supposedly for protection but Rufus Buck's gang executes anyone who doesn't comply.

Zazie Beetz (Atlanta and Deadpool 2) plays Stagecoach Mary, another real-life person, but again altered here from who she actually was. Here, she runs a saloon, which the real Stagecoach Mary did, but there is a romance here between her and Nat Love. The real Stagecoach Mary never married or had children, despite living to her 80's. There is a moment where she kisses a woman, which might be a nod to Stagecoach Mary being gay, lesbian, bisexual or queer in some fashion.

Danielle Deadwyler (Watchmen and The Haves and Have Nots) plays Cuffee, a character based on the real-life person named Cathay Williams, the first Black woman to enlist in the United States Army in the late 1860's. She was able to do so by posing as a man. She was Mulan from Disney's Mulan (1998). She's the one with whom Mary shares a kiss, implying a relationship or an attraction that doesn't really get explored.

The film includes a bunch of others who were real-life persons who lived extraordinary lives and get upgraded to action-movie type of heroes or villains here. The others include Lakeith Stanfield who plays Cherokee Bill, a real-life outlaw who robbed and murdered. There was also RJ Cyler who plays Jim Beckwourth, a real-life, Black fur trader, and Edi Gathegi who plays Bill Pickett, a real-life, Black cowboy and rodeo star who invented bull-dogging. Given all the conversation about education and how certain racial issues should be taught in schools, it's great how Samuel is bringing Black history to life in fun ways here.

All this is great and enlightening. However, there is some complaint. Despite being created by a Black person and starring mostly Black people, this film does some Native American erasure. Most of the real-life persons in this film have connections to Native Americans, even some by blood. Such was the case with Cherokee Bill, but this film has no depiction of Native Americans at all.

Lastly, I have to say that seeing this film in the wake of the tragedy surrounding Alec Baldwin and the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of their Western called Rust did give me pause. Normally, safety protocols work and films and TV shows with gun violence are done with the utmost care, but, given what happened, I couldn't help but feel put off by all the gun violence here.

Rated R for strong violence and language.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 19 mins.

Available on Netflix.