As a boy, Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) watched his parents gunned down in cold blood by the ruthless villain Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), and a second man, with a scorpion tattoo. Now the man with the scorpion tattoo is dead, and Love only has Buck to kill to avenge his family. Love enacts the help of U.S. Marshall Bass Reeves (Delroy Lindo) and the two aim to track down the most wanted criminal alone, before Love’s former partners, Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz), and two tactical gunslingers, Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi) and Jim Beckwourth (RJ Cyler), insist on assisting on the journey. Out in a small town called Redwood is where they’ll find Buck, along with his new partners; the wickedly organised Trudy Smith (Regina King), and lethally passive Cherokee Bill (Lakeith Stanfield). Prepare yourself for an epic western shootout, or director Jeymes Samuel is gonna get you by surprise.
From the very outset, it’s clear that this movie will share a close relation to Django Unchained, with a predominantly black cast, a revenge plot, slick language and style that’s swinging for the fences. For me, the movie certainly excels when the bang-bang starts in the third act, when the view for violence requires less rhyme or reason. Actually, it lifts a little before that, at the satire of a ‘white’ town, that is very white; very white indeed 😂 Just seeing talented favourites of mine, Idris Elba, Regina King and Lakeith Stanfield, work off each other is a treat for me, especially as badduns skulking around town. Then throw in Zazie Beetz, Jonathan Majors and Delroy Lindo, and it’s an ensemble to be reckoned with. I always like to see Edi Gathegi and RJ Cyler onscreen as well, and they start off strongly, robbing the ‘Crimson Hood’ on the road, but they fade into the background as the other characters throw their weight around. I found Cyler’s humour to be hit and miss, and anyone who remembers Leonardo DiCaprio in the The Quick and the Dead can essentially see where his character Jim is heading before he can. There are individual scenes that are enthralling, worth their weight in gold – like, listening to Trudy recount her childhood with her sister, and the train heist scene are just two of them – but as a sum of its parts, The Harder They Fall fails to string them together to produce anything more than a hearty good job.
The Harder They Fall is an enjoyable movie, but I wish it had gone deeper in parts, to help me understand the motivations behind our characters, and connect with their desires. It’s like walking into a situation where there’s a lot of water under the bridge, which can work, but the movie isn’t overly concerned with catching us up to speed. For instance, it seems there is beef between our good guys and Buck beyond Love’s personal revenge – Buck has been caught and sent to jail but we don’t know exactly how wide his crimes go, and I don’t see much characterisation with Buck beyond him being a callous bad man who shoots anyone who disagrees with him. I thought the key to his motivation may’ve come through him owning a town, with the movie tilting towards suggesting that Buck had set up the town so his community could be safe, but then he shoots a citizen on sight, so I guess the town is just a town. It’s also evident that Love and Stagecoach Mary were an item once before, but they were also in a gang together too… I assume; doing what and to what end, I don’t know. We aren’t given much in the way Love’s personality to go on either, other than he carries the burden of the scar on his forehead, and that he’s courteous, shown towards the door woman, Cuffee (Danielle Deadwyler), who is probably the most rounded and best character of the movie. I suppose this problem I’m having with characterisation starts from the very beginning, as the movie asserts that even though this story is fiction, ‘These. People. Existed.’ – there’s the emphasis on prestige over defining who they actually are, and even Shakespeare knew a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and a name is not as important as substance. I guess the movie could be using real names for fictional characters as a means to educate people on notable African-Americans of the Wild West and I can’t criticise that. But moreover, on top of all this, the movie saves addressing why Buck shot Love’s father until the very end, without engaging us in relief as to what Love thinks or knows about the incident as an adult, so it left me wondering throughout the entire movie how Love has reconciled his tragedy and how he’s lived before now.
Stylistically, The Harder They Fall is fantastic; and if this extremely competently shot and scored movie serves as an exercise towards what the future has to offer from Jeymes Samuel, then sign me up; I’ll be looking forward to seeing more. As it stands, I think The Harder They Fall could have tightened some screws and become a masterpiece, but that’s not what we celebrate today. It’s a worthwhile experience nonetheless, toting some of the finest acts in the business.
3.5
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