Synopsis
Gunning for revenge, outlaw Nat Love saddles up with his gang to take down enemy Rufus Buck, a ruthless crime boss who just got sprung from prison.
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Cast
- Jonathan MajorsNat Love
- Idris ElbaRufus Buck
- Regina KingTrudy Smith
- Zazie BeetzStagecoach Mary
- Delroy LindoBass Reeves
- Danielle DeadwylerCuffee
- LaKeith StanfieldCherokee Bill
- Edi GathegiBill Pickett
- RJ CylerJim Beckwourth
- Deon ColeWiley Escoe
Recommendations
- 80
Empire
Packed with style, charm and a barrel-full of shrapnel for good measure, The Harder They Fall will still be standing when the smoke clears. The Bullitts doesn’t miss. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
The cast has chemistry in all directions, between the romantic matchups but just as much among the menfolk as they bicker, bond and berate one another. - 80
Screen Daily
Big, bombastic and full-blooded, Jeymes Samuel’s neo-Western might tick off plenty of the tropes of the genre, but the outlaw energy he brings to the picture makes it feel, if not fresh exactly, then certainly a whole lot of fun. - 80
Variety
As much fun as Majors, Elba, Beetz and King are to watch in roles that allow for plenty of scenery chewing (and oh what scenery!), it’s Stanfield who steals the show here as the part-Indian, part-Black Cherokee Bill. - 75
IndieWire
This tense, propulsive, and ultra-glossy Netflix oater might lay a thick new Jay-Z track over the opening credits (of a film that he also produced) and assemble an Avengers-worthy team of obscure Black icons from across the entire 19th century into a single explosive shootout, but Samuel has little interest in letting his film be ascribed to fantasy or lumped in with the rest of its genre’s revisionist streak. - 75
The Playlist
When it rides off into the sunset, what you’re left with is a diverse, reimagined fable of iniquity, holy retribution, and comeuppance that is as entertaining as it is surprisingly soulful. - 60
The Guardian
Every shot, every scene, every exchange from The Harder They Fall is combat-ready and garishly tensed for violence – and Samuel certainly brings the freaky mayhem, with gruesome relish and high energy. My feeling, though, is that there is a diminishing return on it, and the big reveal at the end is slightly silly and somehow retrospectively discloses that we haven’t really found out enough about Rufus Buck’s backstory. - 50
TheWrap
As a representative display of historical-but-reimagined players on well-worn ground, The Harder They Fall has undeniable pop, but as a movie needing character, narrative, and pacing beyond revitalized nostalgia, it’s all too often a bloody, showy mishmash that rarely holds its clichés and archetypes together with any lasting resonance.
