The Harder They Fall (2021)
Right out of the gate, Jeymes Samuel's Western announces itself as something genuinely different, and I was hooked before the opening titles had finished. The premise alone is enough to sit up and pay attention: an all-Black outlaw gang riding through the Old West, chasing revenge and settling old scores. For a genre that can often feel stuck in its own dusty, wagon-wheeled ruts, this is a massive breath of fresh air. It takes the classic tropes of the cowboy picture and injects them with a vibrant, modern energy that just works.
I've always loved a good Western. I think about a film like Rio Bravo (1959) and what makes it so enduring: great characters, a clear sense of place, and a genre doing exactly what it's supposed to. The Harder They Fall is doing something quite different from that tradition, but it's no less confident about it. It knows precisely what kind of film it wants to be, and it commits to that vision completely.
The cast is brilliant, full stop. Jonathan Majors is magnetic as the relentless Nat Love, all coiled intensity and wounded pride, and going toe-to-toe with Idris Elba, who is properly menacing as his former mentor Rufus Buck. Elba plays villainous with such quiet authority that you almost forget to be frightened by him until it's too late. The supporting players are no slouches either. Everyone on screen is doing real work here, and the action scenes deliver exactly the kind of high-octane shootouts and brawls you want from a Western, staged with style and real kineticism.
That said, I'll be honest about where I had mixed feelings. The characters aren't particularly likeable. They're ruthless, vengeful, and often quite cruel, which makes it genuinely hard to root for them in the traditional sense. You're thoroughly entertained by their exploits, absolutely, but there's a distance there. The film doesn't seem especially bothered about making you care for these people beyond their coolness factor, and for long stretches that's fine, but it does leave a slight hollow feeling when the dust settles. A bit more interiority, a bit more emotional grounding, and this could have been something truly special rather than something very good.
But then the soundtrack kicks in again and I find myself forgiving quite a lot. I'm a huge fan of reggae, so seeing it woven so seamlessly into the DNA of a Western was an absolute treat. The reggae-infused score gives the film a swagger and a rhythm that you simply don't get in your standard Hollywood pictures. It shouldn't work on paper, and yet it absolutely does, lending every scene a propulsive groove that keeps the whole thing moving even when the storytelling loses its footing. It's one of the most distinctive musical choices I've heard in a genre film in years, and it's what I'll probably remember most vividly when I think back on this one.
The Harder They Fall is a stylish, fiercely entertaining ride. It might not give you the warm, fuzzy heroes of more traditional pictures, and it doesn't always dig as deep as its premise promises, but it more than makes up for those shortcomings with its brilliant cast, cracking action, and genuinely phenomenal music. Three and a half stars.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2021 | Watched: 2026-06-19
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon US
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