Cinema: ‘The Harder They Fall’ Finds A New Frontier For The Western Genre
The Harder They Fall is a Western film that can’t decide what type of Western film it is. The film feels as though it pulls from multiple different sources of inspiration and tries to mix it together to make a new thing; a potluck of Western flavor. Some aspects work well, such as the action scenes, which are shot and play out like a B-movie Western, and the witty dialogue with tough guy or girl attitude. Then there are things that do not work, like some of the music choices, the overdramatic romantic scenes and the drawn-out monologues that are used as a form of lazy character building. The films creative success depends solely on what aspect to look at.
The film is written by Boaz Yakin and Jeymes Samuel, with Samuel also being the director and musical director. The film proudly opens with the opening title cards, saying ‘While the events of this story are fictional… These. People. Existed’. The intention is to bring awareness to the real Black Western historical figures that are represented in the film. With this in mind, the story follows Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) on his quest to exact revenge on Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), the man who killed his family. He is supported by his gang, The Nat Love Gang, consisting of Love, Mary Fields (Zazie Beetz), Jim Beckwourth (R.J. Cyler), Bill Picket (Edi Gathegi) and Cuffee (Danielle Deadwyler). Nat receives news that Rufus has been released from federal custody by his gang, The Rufus Buck Gang, consisting of Buck, Trudy Smith (Regina King) and Cherokee Bill (Lakeith Stanfield). Upon hearing this, all members of the Nat Love Gang, accompanied by Marshall Bass Reeves (Delroy Lindo), set out for Redwood City in order to avenge Love’s family.
Looking at the film’s narrative as a whole, it struggles to settle on one specific Western subgenre. The film starts like a Horror film, goes into a B-Movie style Western (with a man literally flying into the air when he is shot in the chest), then to a Western drama with romance and all, switching between these three subgenres throughout the entire film. It is jarring to say the least. Genre blending is nothing new in cinema, but it feels as though director Samuel could not make up his mind on what type of Western he wanted to make. The end result is a film that suffers a permanent identity crisis, with the greatest parts being when it is a B-Movie Western with extravagant action sequences and corny one-liners or comebacks. With the best in mind, the plot itself runs way to long with the use of multiple extraneous slow motion walking scenes and long monologues. The film is much too long at two hours and ten minutes and feels as though the entire story could have fit into an hour and forty-minute-long film after cutting back on overlong scenes. The only positive side to the film being too long was being able to watch a talented cast work with campy, but cool, dialogue.
The film is brimming with acting talent with some of the best Black actors working today. The dialogue is filled with plenty of one-liners and quick comebacks and all of the actors say their lines with confidence. But this dialogue is a cool exterior hiding a poor interior. Unfortunately, these terrific actors and actresses are wasted on characters that are barely fleshed out and are, at best, one dimensional with little depth that is only added during lengthy monologues. Motivations stem from, ‘I want revenge’ to ‘We are all violent individuals’. The only standout character who has this ‘violent individual’ identity is Elba’s Rufus Buck. This character is downright terrifying and really jumps off the screen as somebody that truly should not be messed with. Altogether, it is a shame that all this talent has to back these cardboard cutout characters.
The two strongest aspects to the film are the music and the action sequences. Some of the music does not fit. While I can appreciate the reasoning of having all different types of music made by Black artists, it doesn’t ALL work for a Western, especially the reggae music. The music that does work for the film is the Soul music that is both on the soundtrack and sung by some of the characters in the film. It is amazing how the use of Soul music elevates the gritty Western atmosphere. The action sequences are B-movie pulp to the fullest with bloody gunshot wounds, huge explosions and multiple standoffs. Classic B-movie Westerns used over the top violence to entertain the audience. The Harder They Fall uses bloody action scenes to pay homage to the old B-movie Westerns. The only difference is that the action scenes are shot and edited well, leaving the audience with clear understanding of what is happening on screen. We see this later on in the film as we watch a major gun battle unfold that is perfectly intercut to show action happening between multiple characters, the camera both remaining steady and following the action well.
The Harder They Fall has parts that work really well and parts that do not. The homage to B-movie Westerns shines throughout with the use of extravagant shootouts, quick-witted dialogue and characters being physically blown away by a single bullet. The aspects where the film does not work include the switching between subgenres and the overuse of long monologues in an attempt at character development. What matters is that the film brings different ideas together to try and find what a Black Western can be. The Harder They Fall is an experiment, that shows that an all-Black Western is the new frontier and that the possibilities are endless.