'The Harder They Fall' A Review

The Harder They Fall is a western about Nat Love(Jonathan Majors) quest for revenge against Rufus Buck(Idris Elba) after the latter killed the formers parents when he was a child. The movie opens on that scene, then flashes forward to Nat, now with a gang of his own, and the impending jail break of Rufus, with the inevitable confrontation looming.

The large ensemble cast is profoundly stuffed with talent- Elba, Majors, Zazie Beetz, Regina King, Delroy Lindo, Lakeith Stanfield, Edi Gathegi, RJ Cuyler, Danielle Deadwyler- on and on. Unfortunately due to uneven pacing, a lack of narrative focus, and a shockingly encroaching soundtrack none of the actors have much of an opportunity to develop any dimension in the way of character. It is a joy simply to see them all in the same movie but it also underscores the disappointment.

First time writer/director musician Jeymes Samuel has a wonderful, transcendent even, idea but his music video back ground is apparent in every scene and not in a good way. The soundtrack is a bizarre mish-mash of modern styles and genres interspersed with some(quite effective) diegetic songs and some significantly less effective non-diegetic period ones. Of the almost two and half hour runtime there is probably less than ten minutes that doesn't have a blaring song to accompany it rigidly telegraphing and subsequently undercutting anything the narrative is trying to do. It is beyond distracting, at times the mix of the background track is so loud it is impossible to actually hear the dialogue of the characters. This along with Samuel's penchant for numerous involved cuts with little to no motivation- long overhead shots, long zooms, smash cuts- it is again, very distracting. It is clear Samuel has talent, no question, but either his music video background or lack of feature film experience comes across as a lack of restraint and as a result there is too much going on and it overshadows the good work the actors are most certainly doing.

Stellar cast eclipsed by over done post-production.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Stream It.