The Harder They Fall (2021)
The Western is one of Hollywood's oldest and most codified genres, stretching back to the nickelodeon era and carrying with it a set of visual and moral assumptions that have proved remarkably stubborn. For most of that history, the genre's mythology was a white one, despite the fact that Black cowboys, lawmen and outlaws were a genuine and significant presence in the post-Civil War American West. Figures such as Nat Love, Bass Reeves, Mary Fields and Cherokee Bill all lived lives that were more than worthy of the big screen treatment, yet the genre largely looked past them for the better part of a century. By the time The Harder They Fall arrived in 2021, you could count the number of major Hollywood Westerns centred on Black characters on one hand, which tells you something about both the industry's blind spots and the scale of the opportunity that director Jeymes Samuel was walking into. If you want a sense of how the genre has handled moral ambiguity in a more traditional register, our reviews of The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and Rio Bravo (1959) give a useful frame of reference.
Jeymes Samuel, a British-Zimbabwean musician and filmmaker (known in music circles as The Bullitts), made his feature debut here after a handful of acclaimed short films. Produced through Will Smith and James Lassiter's Overbrook Entertainment and backed by Netflix, the film had the resources to look genuinely cinematic, and it does: the production design is polished but unmistakably purposeful, presenting a vivid, heightened version of the Old West rather than a documentary-faithful one. Samuel co-wrote the screenplay with Boaz Yakin, and the pair were quite open about playing fast and loose with the historical record in service of the story, pulling real names from the history books and then giving themselves licence to dramatise freely around them. The result is something closer to mythology than biography, which is entirely fitting for a genre that has always traded in myth.
The cast assembled here is frankly remarkable. Jonathan Majors, then still a relative newcomer building momentum from Lovecraft Country, takes the lead as Nat Love, and opposite him is Idris Elba as the formidable Rufus Buck. Regina King brings a cool, measured authority to the role of Trudy Smith, while Zazie Beetz plays Stagecoach Mary with a confident, loose-limbed charm. Delroy Lindo rounds out the ensemble as Bass Reeves, and the film has the good sense to give all of them room to breathe. It is, by any measure, an ensemble that could carry a far more conventional film on name value alone. What Samuel is after, though, is something with more texture and considerably more swagger.
Right out of the gate, you know you’re in for something different with Jeymes Samuel’s 2021 Western The Harder They Fall. The premise is absolutely awesome: an all-Black outlaw gang riding through the Old West, seeking revenge and settling old scores. For a genre that can often feel stuck in its own dusty, wagon-wheeled ruts, this film 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.
When it comes to the execution, the cast is brilliant and the acting across the board is top-notch. Jonathan Majors is magnetic as the relentless Nat Love, going toe-to-toe with Idris Elba, who is properly menacing as his former mentor Rufus Buck. The action scenes are genuinely good and exciting, delivering the kind of high-octane shootouts and brawls you want from a Western. However, I will say that the characters themselves aren't particularly likeable. They’re ruthless, vengeful, and often quite cruel, which makes it hard to truly root for them in the traditional sense, even if you're thoroughly entertained by their exploits.
But what really sealed the deal for me was the soundtrack. 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 just don't get in your standard Hollywood pictures, elevating every single scene.
Ultimately, The Harder They Fall is a stylish, fiercely entertaining ride. It might not give you the warm, fuzzy heroes of traditional cinema, but it more than makes up for it with its brilliant cast, cracking action, and phenomenal music.
The Harder They Fall lands as one of the more genuinely distinctive genre films of its year, the sort of picture that wears its influences (Spaghetti Westerns, blaxploitation, hip-hop visual culture) without being consumed by them. It will likely sit more comfortably with audiences who come to it as a piece of stylised entertainment rather than a revisionist history lesson, and the reggae-laced soundtrack gives it a personality that no amount of production design could manufacture on its own. The film has a few structural wobbles across its 137-minute running time, and its moral universe is deliberately thorny, but neither of those things significantly blunts its impact. For a genre that can too easily become a museum piece, this is a reminder that the Western still has genuine life in it. Sometimes all it takes is someone willing to ride in from a completely different direction.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2021 | Watched: 2026-06-19
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for The Harder They Fall (2021) on YouTube
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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