The Harder They Fall Gave us something we’ve been in dire need of in Black Filmmaking.

I want to start with a quote from a 2014 interview with Chris Rock from The Hollywood Reporter ; “I think they’ve been better in the last few years, too — a little more daring, a little funnier. But look, most movies suck. Absolutely suck. They just do. Most TV shows suck. Most books suck. If most things were good, I’d make $15 an hour. I don’t live the way I live because most things are even remotely good. But when you have a system where you probably only see three movies with African-American leads in them a year, they’re going to be judged more harshly, and you’re really rooting for them to be good a little more so than the 140 movies starring white people every year.”. I start with this quote because it shaped my feelings around the latest Netflix offering from newcomer Jeymes Samuel “The Harder They Fall”. For about maybe the first fifteen minutes of the movie I found myself grading it by the standard of its peers, “Moonlight”, “Get Out”, “Widows” , “Miss Juneteenth” …Thing is those movies arent this movies peers. Its peers are films like Tombstone, The Quick and the Dead, and Posse, and Django Unchained. I bring this up because I believe its important that black movies be free of the shackles of having to be great. That they be allowed to be irreverent, experimental, and anything from pretty good to only decent to just dumb fun. The Harder They Fall, wasn’t about much, it featured some elements about black capitalistic behavior that could be easily construed as critique. There is a bit more potent conversation about generational trauma, the fruits of past sins, and true accountability, but none of those are strong enough, last long enough or are repeated enough to stick. What does stick when it comes to Jeymes Samuel's western are its images, it's music, it's performances, it's stylized action. The point of this movie is not necessarily in any political thrust, it's in the ability of its imagery in and of itself to conjure a certain power that revels in its blackness and the love of its predecessors in a genre that could use a good comeback into the mainstream, and this is what people who lean towards needing some sense of poignancy or political ideology, always end up tending not to like in certain directors, this stylized emptiness for them is too much, and that particular lack of connection to these kinds of stores I understand . I also do think there are certain kinds of movies that don't in any way seem to connect with him to any particular aspect or philosophical principle in any fully realized way, that still maintain a primal and visceral power in their constant and consistent use of imagery and language that appears on the surface to be superficial but finds a rather deep power in the beauty of “Cool”….See Tarantino.

Two movies immediately shot to my mind or rather one immediately sprang forth and the other one came more as an after thought. The first is of course 1993's “Tombstone”. George P. Cosmotos violent re-telling of the events that led up to and came after the Shootout of OK Corral, had as its kickstand a story of deep friendship and some interesting revisions around classical ideas of good and evil and righteousness, but Much like “The Harder They Fall, this isn't why you think of that movie, this isn't why we love that movie, that mostly extends from its ability to be a riveting, visually powerful yarn about the good guys and the bad guys, and that done through potent characterization and acting. The thing you connect with most in both of these movies is not story but character. It’s Ike Clanton ( Stephen Lang) Johnny Ringo (a bit of a wonderful departure for Michael Biehn) its Trudy Smith ( Regina King ) and Bass Reeves, (Delroy Lindo) these characters and the actors who breathe life into them are the driving force of the story along with its visual language. There are some very interesting parallels here as well, they are not one for one but they are nonetheless pieces of unconscious connections and bits that make you feel like one movie stood as a sort of antecedent for the other. There is not only the fact that between the sides the most interesting characters, the deepest bench per se comes from the bad guys ..That's somewhat par the course, but there's also how these bad guys act, and what they represent. Though Idris Elba's Rufus Buck has a lot more of a motivational impetus then Powers Boothe's William Brocious who is much more of a sort of agent of chaos flying by the seat of his pants - both of them bring a similar sort of sly charisma to some extremely dark deeds that calls back again other people that preceeded even them like Jack Palance in “Shane”. The gun slinging rivalry between RJ Cyler's Jim Beckworth and LaKeith Stansfield's Cherokee Bill bares some commonalities with that of Doc Holiday and Johnny Ringo. Though executed differently there is for instance a similar sort of setup and method for both Beckworth and Ringo in the not necessarily non confrontational, but non combative reaction they get from their rival upon first meeting. Ringo in the infamous “tin-cup” scene, Beckworth in the middle of town, when Cherokee Bill walks away. Though tombstone was obviously more factual in that it does stick to and keep to the events as they unfolded, it does take a lot of dramatic license and plays a little fast and loose with the facts. Buy, it was the usage of real historical figures to non historical ends that reminded me so much of Tarantino's “Inglorious Bastards” . It's not only the use of an incredible dramatic license to unjail the story of real players in history, from their actual history and push it to a more satisfying bloody and wildly violent end, There were stories and visual parallels there. For instance you have the marking of the forehead, and inversion of the normally accepted connotation of the symbology. In this case the swastika becomes righteous, the cross vile. Story-wise you have two stories that begin with a childhood trauma, both openings a bit of a slow burn before we get to wanton violence, which set up a tale of revenge. The build up of certain moments whether in the opening, or later on with the “bear jew” or Rufus Bucks town beating of Wiley Escoe (Deon Cole) show similar taste for for power of anticipation and stern faced violence. Ultimately though, what stands out on all these movies is the way they make style substance. Still images hold power, they commute messages, and speak to us unconsciously. So too for moving images, and great performances, they hold power, commute messages, and speak to us unconsciously, and it’s perfectly okay for those images to be smuggled in a vehicle that is more than anything else a good time.

This is my main take away from the film. In an era and especially a year now where we have seen in multiple films featuring mainly if not all black cast the failure and in some cases catastrophic ( Two Distant Strangers anyone?) of some of these films to get across what they wanted to get across because of an insistence on a thrust especially in this particular time and Zeitgeist - of messaging towards racial politics from Queen and Slim to the most recent re-telling of Candyman, I think it's important to acknowledge a feeling and experience that “The Harder They Fall has given us exactly what we've been asking for and needed in this time as these stories have worn and grated on us with consequences I think beyond just disappointment. The Harder They Fall is a welcome reprieve from that, it's ultimately more than anything else a popcorn movie where we can sit back and just watch a bunch of talented people from the director to the musicians involved in some of the music, to the actors, spin us a good old fashioned yarn involving some historical figures that many of us knew very little about but not tied to telling that deep dark and sometimes difficult history. Rather, just taking them and giving us a wild good time. Its allowing us to enjoy that freedom of just seeing great black characters on screen interacting with each other on screen for no other reason then propel a tried and true story about good and evil, the guys in the white hats and the guys and the black hats, in one of the most popular and in recent years underused genres of film. We may very well be in our 4th iteration of a sort of black Renaissance on film, and hopefully this is one that actually sticks, but something that its frequently lost in these Renaissance's most especially from a historical perspective is all of the movies that were made in these times that were just meant to be a good time that we're just meant to be potent forms of entertainment not lazily constructed bits of profiteering, but good times. Sure there was “Coolie High” and “The Learning Tree” in Blaxploitation, but there was also “Let’s do it Again” and “Three the Hard Way”. Sure there was “Menace to Society” and “Boyz in the Hood”, but there was also “The Inkwell” and “Friday”. Black people could use a “Neverending Story” or “The Goonies”, every bit as much as a “Daughters of the Dust” or “To Sleep with Anger” . It's not important we all like these movies but it is important that we don't get into the trap of value hierarchy's and creating genre ghettos, where certain types of films that provide certain experiences are dismissed off hand in favor of others. That to me is the importance of the harder they fall and subsequently the importance of so far the good cheer and love the film has received from our community. It leads me back to the Chris Rock quote. it's very important that we continue to make space for those movies even even if we don't necessarily celebrate them all. That we allow and continue to push Hollywood to believe that there are wider spaces for black entertainment than just that that relies upon our socio realities and it is for that, that I’m grateful to see a film like Jeymes Samuel's and hope it’s a beacon for others to create experiences similar to it.