Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Harder They Fall’ on Netflix, a Spirited Neo-Western Starring a Fired-Up Jonathan Majors

Netflix movie The Harder They Fall is what you call a talentsplosion: Musician/filmmaker/Jay-Z associate Jeymes “The Bullitts” Samuel directs a Black Western starring Lovecraft Country breakout Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, LaKeith Stanfield, Delroy Lindo, Idris Elba and Regina King. It’s loosely a BOATS movie (Based On A True Story, of course y’know), plucking real-life outlaws from historical accounts and dropping them into a mashed-up fictional Old West revenge plot. Sounds like a can’t-miss formula for cinematic success, doesn’t it?

THE HARDER THEY FALL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: “These. People. Existed.”, reads an opening title card. Noted! Then, a prologue: A father, of both parentage and heavenly types, his wife and little boy sit down at the table to say grace before dinner and knock knock knock. A man who could very easily carry Samuel L. Jackson’s Pulp Fiction wallet walks across the room, his spurs jinglin’ and janglin’, then pulls out two gold revolvers and blasts the father and the wife into the next life. Then he gets out a razor and the boy howls. Giant subtitle: SALINAS, TX, SOME TIME LATER. That kid is an adult, Nat Love (Majors), a telltale cross-shaped scar on his forehead. He’s expedited all of Two Gold Revolvers’ associates to Hell, leaving only the man himself on the deathlist. Next we meet deadeye rifleman Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi) and quickdraw Jim Beckworth (RJ Cyler) as they rob the Crimson Hood Gang of the money they had previously robbed.

So 12 minutes in, and we’ve already had bloody revenge, a shootout, a standoff duel and outlaws robbing outlaws, spiced with dialogue like “I’m lightning with the blam-blams.” These. People. Are. Fun! We turn up the volume a few notches before we check in with Stagecoach Mary (Beetz), Nat’s on-again-off-again, and he’s ready to be on again, and she’s up for it. She’s heard word on the dusty thoroughfare that Two Gold Revolvers Guy, who the movie refers to as Rufus Buck (Elba), is about to get out of prison, and not because he’s done all his time. Cut to: Trudy Smith (King) — known as Ghastly Gertrude or Treacherous Trudy depending on who you ask — on a horse on the tracks and the train has no choice but to stop and not splatter her. All part of the plan, of course. But this is no robbery. Past some passengers and a railcarful of shithead Confederate Blues is Rufus’ cage, and now he’s a free man.

At this point, two posses are started up: Nat gathers Bill and Jim and Stagecoach Mary and a tough gal named Cuffee (Danielle Deadwyler) and Marshall Bass Reeves (Lindo). And Rufus sidles on up next to Trudy and quickdraw Cherokee Bill (Stanfield) and Horseshoe Horace (OK, I made that one up), scheming to get back the $25k that the Crimson Hoods robbed for him that was robbed by Nat’s pals, which was bait for a big showdown between the grizzled ex-con and the kid he disfigured, I figure. You’ll want to stay in the saddle for this one, but make sure yer bronco doesn’t step in any charisma, because big piles of it are scattered all throughout this movie.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Once upon a time in Mexico, and the West, and Hollywood, there was a man named Quentin Tarantino (and also one named Robert Rodriguez). He spawned a lot of movies like The Harder They Fall, which is heavily indebted to Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained (and El Mariachi). And you can’t mention a movie about outlaw Black cowboys without tipping your Stetson to Mario Van Peebles’ 1993 Western, Posse.

Performance Worth Watching: Not to take away from Majors’ highly persuasive I Am Leading Man Material performance, but King, wearing a black bowler hat, establishes extraordinary villainess screen presence via a laser stare that cuts through the universe at the speed of light.

Memorable Dialogue: Mary and Pickett try to figure out what two guys out of earshot are talking about, and strike a major WELL, DUH note:

Mary: What are they saying?

Pickett: Something about guns, killin’.

Sex and Skin: None: TBSTHCAFDWLTF: Too Busy Spinning The Chamber And Filling Desperados With Lead To F—.

Our Take: So there’s a shot in The Harder They Fall where a cadre of tough folk on horses sidles into town all symmetrical in the frame, and you’ll swear they’re moving in time to the syncopated reggae beat of Samuel’s meticulously curated soundtrack. Such is the type of film we’re watching here, one with a little more style than sense, one where the needle drops are bigger than the plot developments, one that’s having so much fun crafting its story and indulging itself that it can’t maintain such liveliness for its hefty 139-minute run time.

But its flaws are absolutely forgivable. The movie’s a joy to watch for most of its first two acts, and a slight slog through the inevitable and protracted violence of the third, where the climactic gunfire and fisticuffs and speechifying begins with a whopping 45 minutes to go. It stirs enough empathy from a somewhat shallow pool so we can root for the hero, who inevitably takes a nonlethal bullet and slams headlong into past psychotraumas on his way to fulfilling a grim purpose. Along the way, folks smoke cigarillos, dole out death like Halloween candy, cast long shadows in the dust, duck the motes and streaks of the occasional LENS FLARE!, and banter — boy, do they banter, via dialogue that’ll either tickle your Tarantino zones or grate on you, you know who you are. This thing might be DOA without its cast, who’s more than up for the task of jolting the Western from its somnambulant state.

Our Call: STREAM IT. As a modern revival Western, The Harder They Fall is quite enjoyable. It has style from here to way over yonder, and trust me, that’s a long way. Sure, it wears its influences on its Stetson, but it showcases inspired direction and performances.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream The Harder They Fall on Netflix