What Is the Story About?
Nathaniel Love watches his parents get gunned down in front of him by the outlaw, Rufus Buck, when he was just a child. Years later, he finds out that Rufus Buck is being pardoned for his crimes and getting released from the prison in Yuma. Which means, his chance for revenge is finally here. However, with Buck’s gang returning to ride with him – Nathaniel will find that his revenge is going to be hard to achieve. Will Nathaniel finally get vengeance?
Performances?
‘The Harder They Fall’ mainly focuses on two main characters – the protagonist, Nathaniel ‘Nat’ Love and the antagonist, Rufus Buck. The actors who portray them – Jonathan Majors and Idris Elba, respectively, are both cast perfectly. Majors brings raw emotion and rage to the role, while Elba is calculating, yet ruthless. While both actors are, at times, slightly hamstrung by the script they have to work with; they still manage to keep the revenge western thriller entertaining throughout.
Zazie Beetz and Regina King play the token female characters, Mary Fields and Trudie Smith, respectively, both with links to the film leads. They both, obviously, share most of their screen time together – with one either trying to one up or kill the other. While both actresses are brilliant, they are wasted in this film.
Analysis
‘The Harder They Fall’ is a heavily stylized entertaining western revenge thriller with enough songs to call it a musical and enough flaws for the YouTube channel, ‘Cinema Sins’ (It is a channel that focuses on a film’s errors). While the film manages to end well with a decent plot twist – it is filled with enough continuity errors and plot holes that even a Stormtrooper can’t miss ’em.
Speaking of misses, the final half an hour shootout scene makes little to no sense. A five man, excuse us, person gang takes on at least twenty men in a town that is currently being occupied by the larger gang. What’s more, a gang member from the smaller Nat Love gang, who is also the love interest of the smaller’s gang’s leader, is being held hostage – which makes it even harder for the smaller gang to attack. While rigging the money with explosives is a smart move, Jim Beckworth decides to take on Cherokee Bill – which is not needed at that point. Still, he does and gets killed. And that starts the gunfight.
All of the antagonists miss their shots, bar the few that the script doesn’t allow them to, while our protagonist hits their mark every time (except the ones they are scripted to miss). Another gang, the Crimson Hood gang comes in and lands a shot on Nat, our protagonist, but they all quickly get shot and killed. Eventually, the 20 plus Rufus Buck gang is no more, while most of the core members of the Nat Love gang are still alive. And obviously, the film lead and his love interest doesn’t die. ‘The Harder They Fall’ is filled with blatant plot holes such as this one.
Another example is Cuffee and Nat simply riding into a “white town” and robbing it. Even if entering the town and bank is easy, walking away with ten thousand dollars with only one man backing them up is one disastrously huge plot hole. There are also issues with the amount of bullets each gun seems to have as well as editing issues which are quite obvious, Both of these lead to blatant continuity errors and that quickly becomes jarring – especially during some of the slow paced moments of the film.
But, even with these issues, the film is still a decent entertainer. The film has a brilliant cast and most of them are utilized well in ‘The Harder They Fall’. Even though the film’s script writing needs quite a bit of work, ‘The Harder They Fall’ is directed well and has a very distinct cinematic tone and style that stays uniform throughout. But the best part – the music. Like we mentioned earlier, ‘The Harder They Fall’ has enough songs to call itself a musical – with a few characters actually singing on screen, quite well in fact. While it is not exactly a musical, the songs in the series tell a story about a situation that is happening or going to happen, which helps move the film forward since most of the side characters do not get a lot of attention or backstory.
Overall, The Harder They Fall is a good entertainer. While the film is more of a one-time watch, the one watch will be very entertaining, and the final twist will hit the nail in the coffin, well. The final shooting part of the film will become a bit repetitive and boring – but the ending will make the wait worth it.
Other Artists?
While the film has a lot of decent side characters – we mainly focus on five onscreen – Cherokee Bill, Jim Beckworth, Bill Picket, Cuffee and Bass Reeves. Cherokee Bill is the most memorable amongst the five followed by Cuffee, who is supposed to be an openly non-binary character in a western film. Cherokee Bill is portrayed by LaKeith Stanfield, while Cuffee is portrayed by the actress Danielle Deadwyler. Edi Gathegi as Picket and RJ Cyler as Beckworth riff-off against each other and are entertaining. Delroy Lindo gets as much screen time as Regina King and Zazie Beetz and does well in his portrayal of Sheriff Bass Reeves.
Music and Other Departments?
The script has major issues and the editing team has caused some problems on screen. Both these problems have led to some serious continuity problems, some of which are very blatant onscreen. The cinematography team deserves praise for its brilliant style, while the director needs to be mentioned for the final output. But the ones deserving of praise for ‘The Harder They Fall’ are the casting director and the music production team.
Highlights?
Music
The Cinematic Style
Final Plot Twist
Drawbacks?
Continuity Errors
Wasting Good Actors
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes
Will You Recommend It?
Yes. It is a decent entertainer.
The Harder They Fall Review by Binged Bureau