Delayed Reaction: The Harder They Fall

Premise: The Quick and The Dead, but black.

 

This is a tricky film to talk about and praise. Calling is a black Western feels reductive, yet that’s kind of the point. Nearly everything about this movie is “just another fun Western”. It’s full of gunslingers, shootouts, cops, and criminals. It could’ve come out in nearly any decade. The characters and themes are timeless. This is a Western movie for people who like entertaining Westerns. It’s executed very well. The thing that is special about it is that the cast is almost all black. It’s a loaded cast with Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Regina King, Delroy Lindo, Lakeith Stanfield, RJ Cyler, Deon Cole, Damon Wayans Jr, and others. Basically, anytime in the last 5 years that you saw a black actor in a movie or show who you thought should really be in more things, they show up in this movie.

 

I’ve talked before about how I’m loving this trend of inaccurate casting for historical movies and shows. I think we all logically know that a royal court in Europe in the 1600s was just a bunch of white people. But, if you decide to just cast a bunch of good actors who happen to be diverse, is anyone really going to care? Recent years have proven the answer is “No”. If pure historical accuracy isn’t the point of the project, then accurate historical casting doesn’t matter either. Besides, remember those decades of epics where no one had a problem with Charlton Heston as a Jewish Egyptian? The Harder They Fall is a movie-star movie and they cast movie stars to drip with charisma all over it. And it works. Of course, there’s some mention of the racial disparity at the time, but it’s not the point of the movie. It’s a revisionist Western and a damn entertaining one. If you’ve ever liked a Western, you’ll like this. It’s that simple.

 

Verdict: Strongly Recommend