NATURAL BORN KILLERS (THE HARDER THEY FALL)

 

It is estimated that about a quarter of cowboys between 1860 and 1880 were African American.

However for many years you wouldn't have known that from Hollywood Westerns.

The first star of a black Western was Herb Jeffries, an actor of Italian, Irish, French and Moorish heritage who used make-up to darken his skin for Westerns like 'Harlem on the Prairie' in 1937, as he passed himself off as the Bronze Buckaroo or the Sepia Singing Cowboy.

One of the first directors, however, to cast an African American in a Western was John Ford who employed college football star Woody Strode in 'Sergeant Rutledge' in 1960 as cavalry sergeant wrongfully accused and tried in a court martial for raping and killing a white woman and also murdering her father.

Strode would appear alongside Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan in Richard Brooks' 'The Professionals' in 1966 and in Sergio Leone's 1968 classic 'Once Upon A Time In The West' with Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson.

Sidney Poitier entered the fray in 1966, joining James Garner, Bibi Andersson and Dennis Weaver in Ralph Nelson's 1966 Western 'Duel at Diabolo,' while the late Yaphet Kotto was cast as a barman in Henry Hathaway's 1968 Western 'Five Card Stud' with Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum, 

Poitier made another significant step forward for Afro Carribbean American filmmakers as the director and star of the 1972 film 'Buck and the Preacher' in which the characters played by him and Harry Belafonte help emancipated slaves flee raiders hired by their white slave owners during a dangerous trek from Louisiana to Kansas.

And while Cleavon Little would make his mark in Mel Brooks' 1974 comedy Western 'Blazing Saddles' and former football star Fred Williamson would star in poor blackspolitation Westerns like 'The Legend of Ni**er Charley' in 1972 and 'Adios Amigo' in 1975, it was Mario Van Peebles in 1993 who had another serious stab at the genre from an African American perspective with  'Posse'.

Over the years, Danny Glover, Morgan Freeman, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L Jackson and Denzel Washington have played leading characters in Westerns by Lawrence Kasdan ('Silverado'), Clint Eastwood ('Unforgiven'), Quentin Tarantino ('Django Unchained' and 'The Hateful Eight') and Antoine Fuqua (his 2016 remake of 'The Magnificent Seven').

However British musician and director Jeymes Samuel has made his own mark with his stylishly violent feature debut 'The Harder They Fall' on Netflix.

The film is striking because it is the first to be dominated by mostly African American characters.

But it also goes about its business with one hell of a swagger.

Samuel's movie begins in classic revenge Western fashion with a prologue.

This shows Chase Dillon's 10 year old Nat Love witnessing his parents being slaughtered at the dinner table by Idris Elba's outlaw Rufus Buck with two gold pistols, while their roast chicken remains uneaten.

Buck spares the boy but brands him by cutting a cross on his forehead - not as a reminder of what happened but just in case their paths cross later in life when Nat becomes a grown man.

Jonathan Majors' adult version of Nat begins his quest for revenge by tracking down a member of Buck's gang, Julio Cesar Cedillo's Jesus Cortez in a chapel and after identifying him by his scorpion tattoo, he guns him down.

In the meantime, his partners Edi Gathegi's Bill Pickett and RJ Cyler's cocky young gunslinger Jim Beckworth ambush the Crimson Hood Gang led by Damon Wayans Jr's Monroe Grimes, taking their haul from a recent bank raid.

However they are warned that the $25,000 they have stolen is destined for Buck who is being sprung out of custody.

We subsequently see Regina King's badass Treacherous Trudy Smith and Lakeith Stanfield's quick on the draw Cherokee Bill hold up and board a train with Buck's gang, threatening passengers and slaughtering a platoon of Yankie soldiers who are guarding their friend.

They head to their home town of Redwood where the newly freed Buck reasserts his control, beating up and ousting his former associate Deon Cole's Wiley Escoe and forcing him to leave.

Nat, meanwhile, goes to visit his former lover, Zazie Beetz's Mary Fields in her saloon and encounters her gun toting ally, Danielle Deadwyler's Cuffee who provides security.

During his visit, Bill Pickett informs him about the raid on the Crimson Hood Gang and the revelation that the stolen money was destined for Buck.

Delroy Lindo's Marshall Bass Reeves turns up to arrest Nat but it transpires the handcuffing of Love is a ruse to enable them both to hunt down Buck without involving Mary, Bill or Jim Beckworth.

All three of them smell a rat, however, and along with Cuffee they pursue Reeves and Nat and insist on being part of the plan.

Along the way, they come across Escoe who informs them that Buck, Treacherous Trudy and Cherokee Bill and their heavies have taken over Redwood.

Nat Love, Reeves, Mary and the Gang head to Redwood to confront Buck and his gang and this inevitably leads to a bitter conflict that will claim the lives of members of their respective gangs in a bloody showdown.

Samuel is obviously a keen student of the Western and over the course of the two hours and 19 minutes, he tips his cowboy hat to John Sturges, Sergio Leone, George Roy Hill, Clint Eastwood and Quentin Tarantino.

Fans of the Western will enjoy the many references to 'The Magnificent Seven,''The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,' 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,''Unforgiven' and 'Django Unchained'.

The biggest influence appears to be Tarantino, with Samuels' film adopting the stylistic bravado of the director's Westerns - to the point where it almost gets irritating.

But just when you think like Tarantino's entries in the genre, Samuel's Western is a lot of style over substance, 'The Harder They Fall' suddenly finds its feet about 30 minutes in and it becomes a much more absorbing and rewarding tale of revenge.

Samuels clearly has a strong cinematic eye and he dreams up some memorable images with the help of Mihai Malaimare Jr's cinematography, Martin Whist's opulent production design, Antoinette Messam's lush costumes, Shutchai Tym Buacharern's striking make-up and Tom Eagles' sharp film editing.

A musician by trade, he also has a great ear and laces his Western with a sassy soundtrack of songs from the likes of Lauryn Hill, Fatoumata Diawara, CeeLo Green, Koffee, Seal, Laura Mvula and Jay-Z.

He also works well with Israeli screenwriter Boaz Yakin, delivering plenty of scene chewing moments for his starry cast.

Majors is a decent lead and he is complemented by Beetz, Cole, Gathegi, Cyler and Wayans Jr.

However they are inevitably upstaged by the cast's more seasoned hands, with Lindo, Stanfield, King and Elba getting moments to really assert themselves.

Deadwyler is unquestionably the find of the film and turns in an impressive performance as a naive but rough, gunslinging woman in a male dominated world.

By the time we get to the big showdown, neither the cast, Samuels or his crew disappoint, delivering outrageous gun battles and a catfight to end all catfights with great audacity and aplomb.

'The Harder They Fall' is one of those Westerns where the principal characters take out a lot of their attackers with just one shot with little thought about their own safety.

As the bullets whizz around them, they  expose themselves to grave danger wandering through the town aiming at gunman after gunman.

The film isn't interested in realism.

It just gets away with it all, knowing its tongue is bursting through its cheek

And while it is refreshing to experience a Western that is dominated by African American characters, it is also good to also see rich roles for women.

It is to Samuels' huge credit that he has also given the genre a contemporary twist and not just in his choice of soundtrack.

Eagle eyed observers will notice a nice nod to the late Chadwick Boseman.

But they will also enjoy the confidence with which Samuel tackles his story.

Thankfully that confidence is based on substance.

'The Harder They Fall' may not be the finest Western committed to the big screen but it is certainly crowd pleasing and a lot of fun.

Sometimes that's all you need.

If it opens the door to the genre for a 21st Century audience and encourages them to discover its classics, then bravo.

('The Harder They Fall' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on October 22, 2021 before being made available for streaming on Netflix on November 3, 2021)

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