Netflix’s The Harder They Fall has its own take on the historical Old West. Jeymes Samuel’s feature directorial debut was announced in 2019 -- however, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, its production was pushed back. On November 3, the film premiered on Netflix, and with The Harder They Fall’s star-studded cast and unique premise, the producers opted for a straight-to-streaming release over the typical release models of other studios.
An unusual cowboy flick, The Harder They Fall follows notorious outlaw Nat Love’s (Jonathan Majors) pursuit of revenge. As he searches for the man who murdered his parents when he was a child, his gang continues to rob other outlaws. However, after a series of missteps and miscalculated risks, they are forced to come face-to-face with yet another group of outlaws, led by Love’s rival, the infamous Rufus Buck (Idris Elba). This bloody, action-packed encounter ends with a shocking, emotional revelation.
The Harder They Fall opens with an interesting disclaimer: “While the events in this story are fictional, These. People. Existed.” The film is a product of scouring history, putting together real figures from the American Old West, and creatively depicting a relatively unexplored version of American history. Although Samuel has taken the liberty to redefine these characters’ true history to suit The Harder They Fall and its quite contemporary take on the Western genre, he has still taken into consideration the actual stories behind the names that serve as inspiration for the fictional film's characters. As a lifelong fan of cowboy films, he deems it important to have his characters named after the historic cowboy and outlaw legends in the mid-1800s, since they are not fully represented and fleshed out in mainstream media.
For instance, while Nat Love was never known as an outlaw per se (instead, he was an expert marksman and cowboy), Bass Reeves was actually in law enforcement. He had a long and impressive career, having arrested more than 3,000 criminals without ever getting wounded. Historian Art Burton even argued that Reeves might have been the real-life inspiration of the iconic Lone Ranger, the fictional masked vigilante who fought outlaws with his partner Tonto. In reality, Reeves’ impeccable shooting skills not only rivaled those of the fictional icon, but they also cemented his place as the first black deputy US marshal. This perhaps justifies Delroy Lindo’s Reeves claiming, “I am the law,” in The Harder They Fall’s twist ending, given the character’s actual power and influence as a law enforcer. (via HISTORY)
Audiences might be surprised at how different The Harder They Fall’s characters are from their real-life counterparts. However, this increased interest in researching these figures is perhaps exactly what Samuel intends with the disclaimer that "These. People. Existed." While the film does not exactly seek to revise history, The Harder They Fall provides an avenue to correct the misconception that people of color and women did not participate -- let alone exist -- in the Old West.