We don’t see an awful lot of Westerns these days, with Hollywood having largely left sprawling tales of cowboys and bandits doing battle on the dusty plains in the past. There have been a few notable examples, most recently Quentin Tarantino’s critical and commercial hit Django Unchained, but for the most part the genre is a shadow of its former self.
However, Netflix’s upcoming release The Harder They Fall could be set to change all of that, with the project boasting a ton of top talent on either side of the camera. Co-written and directed by Jeymes Samuel, the movie features Jay-Z and Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment on the producorial team, while the stacked ensemble features Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, LaKeith Stanfield, Regina King, Delroy Lindo, Damon Wayans Jr., Edi Gathegi and more.
Early reviews have been almost universally positive, and The Harder They Fall is guaranteed to draw in a huge audience when it hits Netflix on the 22nd of this month. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Elba stated his belief that the film will help redefine the genre.
“The scope they showed those stories through was very narrow. They didn’t really leave a way either side for any other interpretation. Women were always subservient. And if you were a person of color, you were less than human. It will help redefine the genre, which is definitely special.”
Looking at the names involved, there’s little chance of The Harder They Fall being anything other than spectacular. The trailer promised a violent revenge thriller set against the backdrop the Old West, and while the oater isn’t as ubiquitous as it once was, when done right it remains incredibly entertaining cinema.