The return of the Western genre but not as you know it

A Western revenge story? Yes, that’s how you can describe The Harder They Fall in a nutshell. As a child, Nat Love watched his parents getting murdered by Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), and now, so many years later, he (Jonathan Majors) is looking for the person who killed his parents. Together with his Nat Love Gang, which includes gangmates Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi) and Jim Beckworth (RC Cyler) and love interest, Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz), he’s out for revenge. After hearing that Buck escaped from prison, their thirst for revenge get even bigger.

However, it won’t be that easy to kill one of the most ruthless killers, especially not when he’s surrounded by the Rufus Buck Gang. While Buck was in prison, his gang was led by Trudy Smith (Regina King) and a kind-of-spokesperson Cherokee Bill (Stanfield), and they absolutely ensured that they upheld Buck’s brutal and bloody reputation. Both gangs go head-to-head, but there can only be one victor, right? So which gang is it going to be?

What stunning on-screen and off-screen talent!

Sure, the storyline might seem a bit simple or straightforward, but writers Boaz Yakin (Aviva) and Samuel still make sure that they never fall back into the stereotypical characters. While the story itself might be fictional, the characters aren’t. At the start of the movie, you get a “These. People. Existed” warning, due to which the violence, tough times and bloodshed make an even greater impact.

It doesn’t matter how much of the story is true; when portraying real-life characters, you must work with a cast that can deliver strong, honest, genuinely-looking and captivating performances. Casting director Victoria Thomas (Django Unchained) clearly understood that assignment as she brought a top-notch cast together in this film. First of all, there’s Majors (Lovecraft Country) as Nat Love, who’s an absolute pleasure to watch! His charms, the intensity of his performance during the brutal scenes and the emotional impact he has during the more touching moments make sure that you watch the movie from start to finish.

Elba (Molly’s Game) absolutely excels in this movie as his performance is a tour-de-force in more than one way! Not only the violent and ruthless side of Buck is being heightened, but you also see that, despite having a rough exterior, Buck is also a man with human feelings. Yes, Elba’s performance is top-notch on both physical and emotional levels, and it’s not hard to see why director Samuel wanted to work with him.

It’s not only the men who deliver stunning acting performances. No, also Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) is phenomenal as Smith. She oozes power, and her bad-ass vibe shines through the entire movie. She can absolutely stand her ground in The Harder They Fall. Beetz (Deadpool 2) is also putting on a great performance that will absolutely leave a big impression. It’s just a shame that she doesn’t get enough screen time. That being said, when you put Beetz and King together in the same scene, you get absolute firework!

The openings scene is one of the most impressive scenes of the movie, and that’s not only because of the terrific performances. No, it’s also because of the extremely captivating and stunning cinematography by Mihai Malaimare Jr. (Jojo Rabbit). He leaves those more neutral colours behind and goes straights for eye-popping ones. The violence is right in your face, and so are the blood red and the pitch-black dark colours. Malaimare Jr certainly knows how to create a mesmerizing spectacle. 

Just as in any Western movie, music is of vital importance. However, don’t expect the traditional Western-movie music. In The Harder They Fall, it’s all about “the harder and louder” the better. You get songs from Jay-Z (who’s a producer of this movie), Ms. Lauryn Hill, Kid Cudi and Koffee. Based on those names, you know the music absolutely accompanies the film in the best way possible.

What an outstanding debut

Last month, The Harder They Fall was the openings movie of the BFI Film Festival, and it’s no surprise why. The film is made with such passion for the Western genre and edgy filmmaking, and if you combine that passion with a terrific cast and an extremely creative crew, you know that you’re in for a fantastic ride! The Harder They Fall is available on Netflix, but if you really want to get the action, the adrenaline rush and the powerful acting performance, then try and catch the movie on the big screen.

The Harder They Fall is out now on Netflix and in U.K. cinemas.

Rating: (4 / 5)

Also Read: Inclusion In The Director’s Chair: Are Female Directors Finally Breaking Through?

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In 1964, Cassius Clay (soon to become Muhammad Ali) beat Sonny Liston to become the boxing World Heavyweight Champion despite odds, 7-1, saying he would lose. The win launched Clay into the public eye in a new way and, shortly after, he announced his conversion to Islam and his new name. One Night in Miami takes place over a few hours after that history-making fight and sees Clay (played with flair by Eli Goree, Riverdale) celebrate in a hotel room with his friends revolutionary Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir, High Fidelity), NFL hero turned movie star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge, The Invisible Man), and, the King of Soul, Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr., Hamilton). As the night draws on, tensions rise, and the discussion moves to how positions of power, stages in the public eye, can be used to speak out against the rampant racism and violence of the mid-sixties.

In this sense, it is a clash between Malcolm and Cooke that takes the central focus. Malcolm, already being followed by the FBI, believes in freedom by utilising activism; speaking out, challenging the powers that be, and refusing to play by their rules. While Cooke, who has been pursuing success on the pop charts and playing segregated venues like the Copacabana, believes in winning them over with his music – not music that is politically minded, but music that is soft and gentle which might lead a white audience to realise black people really are just like them. 

This is an issue that has plagued nearly every movement for rights in the past decade; how do we do it? Is it done politely, with the oppressor setting the guidelines for how the discourse can play out? Or is it in the hands of the oppressed to fight against whatever way they see fit be it through boycott, protest, or rioting? Even now, in response to the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, white people and conservatives are still trying to dictate how the oppressed can politely ask for their rights. Peaceful protest is allowed but kneeling during the national anthem is too far. Organised marching is okay but not during COVID and not if it descends into violence – even if that violence is, more often than not, instigated by the police.

King’s timely debut spends a lot of time unpacking this idea, as Malcolm and Sam become more heated the others offer advice too. Brown, sympathetic to Malcolm’s ideas, offers that Cooke is seeking “economic freedom” which is essential within capitalist structures while Clay seems to advocate for unity between the four regardless of opinion. This is part of the immense power One Night in Miami holds; it can jostle with lofty political debate, engage with political theory, and ideological differences yet it remains a downright entertaining, gripping, and riveting drama. The latter is mostly down to the cast, all of whom are incredibly exciting and captivating on-screen while embodying their famous characters. Ben-Adir oozes righteousness with hints of the radical and smatterings of kindness, Hodge offers a stoicism, graceful and straightforward (plus the way his eyes react can tell you more than 100 pages of dialogue), Goree appears enamoured with a naïve confidence and boyish attitude while maintaining maturity in his decisions, and Odom Jr.’s light-hearted exterior gives way to waves of intense internal conflict.

Of course, all of the above would not be possible with King’s deft and subtle direction that creates both a sense of claustrophobia in the small hotel room and also suggests a future far beyond it filled with possibility. King, who has won multiple Emmys for acting in shows like American Crime and Watchmen as well as an Oscar for her portrayal of Sharon Rivers in 2018’s If Beale Street Could Talk, is no stranger to directing despite this being her debut feature. For TV she has directed episodes of HBO’s hit comedy Insecure, NBC’s prized weepy This is Us, and Shondaland’s twisty political drama Scandal amongst others. In One Night in Miami, she isn’t afraid of the intimacy the film (adapted from a stage play of the same name by Kemp Powers) offers, nor is she afraid of the complexity the debate at its centre offers. She only slightly resists its theatrical trappings, by adding an elongated intro and occasional flashbacks, which is a bold step but one that ultimately pays off. Yet, that shouldn’t come as a surprise from an actor who has, in the past decade, defined herself as one of the industry’s best and brightest. 

In Zadie Smith’s recent essay collection, Intimations, she writes about the recent murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers by conceptualising racism as a virus that has infected America, one that arrived long before COVID-19. “I used to think one day there would be a vaccine,” she wrote. “I don’t think that anymore.” This is not defeatism, but it is something that becomes easier and easier to understand as the decades go by, and things don’t seem to change. In one scene, Malcolm passionately cries that black people are being “murdered in the streets” and that it’s not enough to “sit on the fence” anymore (Malcolm himself would be murdered less than a year after Clay’s historic win). This does not seem unlike the sentiment we see today, one that still hopes for change but has decades of stagnation to look back on. In presenting this debate, on how to dissent and when, King offers an artistic, entertaining, and thoroughly impressive comment on our current climate. How do we move forward? We will not get there individually but rather with the help of others, standing collectively, and, like the song the film finishes with, knowing that a change is gonna come.

One Night in Miami is playing at the BFI Southbank 11th & 12th October as part of the London Film Festival 2020.

It will be released nationwide by Amazon Studios in early 2021.

Also Read: Why Watchmen Is One Of The Best TV Shows In Recent Times

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The TV Series

While some characters from the graphic novel/film reappear like Adrian Veidt and Laurie Blake the central character is newcomer Angela Abar (played in a superb performance by Regina King), a detective in the Tulsa police department. Importantly in this world, all cops wear masks after a coordinated attack on police officers at their homes years before so cops became anonymous and detectives adopted costumes – Angela is Sister Night. The show effectively goes through Angela’s entire life over the course of the season (something it does for other characters in less detail) explaining how she became the person she is. The main plot follows the machinations of The 7th Cavalry, an extreme right-wing racist organisation who seem to want to wage an all-out race-war and were behind the “White Night” when police officers were attacked.

Seemingly completely separately a bizarre story of an old man living a lonely if palatial existence on a grand English estate (that maybe doubles as a prison) is played out, his only companions are maddeningly obedient servants. I don’t think it’s meant to be a secret that this is Adrian Veidt (played by Jeremy Irons in the best performance I’ve seen from him in a long time), one of the characters from the graphic novel whose superhero identity is Ozymandias. As well as being incredibly wealthy and the smartest man in the world Veidt takes credit for saving the world whilst killing three million people – but only a handful of people are aware of this.

Why Is It Great?

Characters Are Key

Watchmen is a television show that puts understanding characters first and all the events that transpire are rooted in how these characters would act. It could be said that the whole season is explaining Angela Abar – her childhood, her marriage, her family, her job, her whole life and even events that happened before she was born. All of what happens makes sense, there are no inexplicable character decisions just to make the plot more exciting. And it is not just Angela whose life is analysed, many of the main characters’ lives are examined through flashbacks, such as her costumed cop colleague Wade Tillman/Looking Glass. The single most important thing in any story is you have to care about the characters, love them or hate them, the outcome is important and Watchmen achieved this in spectacular fashion. Rarely have I been as invested in a character as I was with Angela.

Dealing With Loss

Everyone in this show has lost something – whether it be people or sometimes more intangible concepts. Fitting in with a common superhero trope Angela is an orphan, Looking Glass lost his faith and peace of mind, Laurie Blake lost her superhero identity as well as an actual superhero. Much of the plot revolves around a murder that takes place in the first episode. Adrian Veidt rages against his lost power and influence and when someone as talented as him is going through grief there will be consequences.

Relevance Today

The first scene of the TV show is a portrayal of the Tulsa Massacre, a real event where white people essentially destroyed one of the most prosperous black neighbourhoods in all of America. The significance of this event on the rest of the story is not immediately apparent but slowly comes together across the episodes gradually unfolding, making more sense and not only shedding light on the current TV series but origin stories of characters created in the graphic novel. The 7th Cavalry talk about race traitors, look up to the KKK and occasionally complain about how hard it is to be a white man in America – it is difficult viewing.

A lot of time is spent analysing the never-ending struggle between freedom and security, justice and vengeance. The graphic novel did not like the idea of superheroes a great deal and thought about who actually goes out and beats criminals to a pulp (or worse) and the TV show continues that tradition.

There is also the dive into the worlds of the super-rich, mega-billionaires with resources that eclipse nations and what exactly their motivations are.

The Story

The intricate story at the heart of the TV show is expertly delivered to the audience, there are plots, secrets, twists, villains and maybe one or two heroes, all of it is fascinating and told in an original and exciting way.

The End

There are many more reasons to watch this show than just what I’ve been able to list in this article and I am sure it will stand up to repeat viewings. And it may well have to as Damon Lindelof has stated he doesn’t want to do a second season and HBO aren’t going to do it without him, So you have just one practically perfect season to enjoy.

Also Read: Why James Cameron’s Avatar Sequel Has Come At The Right Time

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