By Hollywood Hernandez
THE HARDER THEY FALL is an updated version of an old school western. The characters, the dialogue, and the hip hop soundtrack produced by Shawn Carter aka Jay Z make for a very cool Western. Cool could be the one word that best describes the movie.
There’s an excellent cast of Black Cowboys that include Idris Elba, as the legendary wild west outlaw Rufus Buck who in real history was known for his brutality and long list of dead bodies: Regina King, Delroy Lindo and comic actor Deon Cole.
THE HARDER THEY FALL is a very enjoyable modern Western with plenty of good guys and bad guys and cowboys out looking for vengeance. The characters in the movie were real Black cowboys but the entire story is a fictitious tale and not actually based on any truth. But Nate Love was a real Black cowboy who wrote his autobiography. It remains to be seen if THE HARDER THEY FALL will produce some more good Black Westerns based on true stories but this one is a heck of an enjoyable movie.
THE HARDER THEY FALL is rated R for harsh violence and runs 2 hours and 10 minutes. On my “Hollywood Popcorn Scale” I rate the movie a JUMBO. It’s currently showing on NETFLIX.