THE HARDER THEY FALL
Starring: Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz
Directed by: Jeymes Samuel
Rating: R
Running Time: 2 hrs 19 mins
Netflix
Add one part Quentin Tarantino, one part Sergio Leone, and one part Sam Peckinpah and you have the recipe for “The Harder They Fall,” or at least that’s what it initially promises it could be. This violent western, which goes over the top during its crescendo, is a breath of fresh air at first with a great aura of originality, modern hip hop music, and a pair of stellar supporting performances. However, its lead actor in the form of Jonathan Majors (introduced as the next main Marvel super villain in the mini-series “Loki”) does not deliver a commanding performance nor one that contains meaningful depth. Moreover, the story itself devolves from its promising beginnings into a myriad of boring western cliches.
The origin of Nat Love (Majors) as a vengeful, bad-good guy is rooted deep in his past. At the age of 11, Nat watches his father and mother shot to death at the dinner table by an unflinching Rufus Buck (Idris Elba, “The Suicide Squad”) who leaves his mark by carving a cross into the young boy’s forehead. Years later, Nat, who has turned to a life of crime himself, gets revenge on one of Rufus’s associates.
When Nat reunites with his on again, off again lover and saloon owner Mary Fields (Zazie Beetz, “Deadpool 2”), he learns that members of his gang inadvertently stole money intended for Rufus, who has been sitting in prison for several years. About this time, Rufus’s gang, led by the remorseless Trudy Smith (Regina King), free their leader after getting paid to kill the corrupt soldiers who are guarding him on a transport train.
The two men and their respective gangs, which are filled with largely unimaginative characters, are destined to collided, especially after an aging U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves (Delory Lindo) decides to help Nat get his revenge. This results in a long stretch of gunplay that becomes downright silly after a while.
The pluses to “The Harder They Fall” include a diabolical performance by Elba who commands the silver screen in every shot he is in. He exudes a tangible sense of authority that makes it easy to understand why his cohorts follow him without question. Unfortunately, Elba is vastly underused. Kudos also go to King as she skillfully displays a ferocious brutality while maintaining a look of cold steel, something the rest of the cast, besides Elba, fail to do.
The infusion of modern music in a western setting is akin to what was also done in “A Knight’s Tale” as it heightens the overall entertainment value of the film. Director Jeymes Samuel (“They Die by Dawn”) does a fantastic job with grabbing our attention, yet it slips through his fingers as the story becomes painful to endure. Every aspect of “The Harder They Fall” becomes a caricature of everything that’s ever been done in the Western genre. Majors’s performance is lackluster as he comes off completely unbelievable as a man that’s supposed to be filled with traumatic pain and vengeance. He plays it too, happy go lucky and soft.
