Jeymes Samuel, director of long-awaited new Netflix feature The more they fall, grew up watching and loving westerns. However, he still felt like something was missing, rather someone. Many people. “Traditionally in Hollywood westerns, blacks, Chinese, other people of color and women have always been portrayed as servants,” Samuel said, as part of Netflix press material for his new film for the streamer who marks his debut as a director. And who was born from real characters from the Wild West. Characters that include black men and women that genre stories have too often overlooked.
A review of USA today calls this a “stylish western shoot-’em-up to remember.” And it was definitely one of the most anticipated Netflix releases in October. It debuted in select theaters towards the end of the month and Netflix made it available to stream from today.
The more they fall – now streaming on Netflix
The basic plot here is pretty straightforward. The central character – outlaw Nat Love, played by Jonathan Majors – learns that his nemesis Rufus Buck (played by Idris Elba) is released from prison. Love sets out to assemble his gang, find Buck and get revenge.
Those accompanying him in this confident and fair new-school western include his former sweetheart Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz), his right and left arms – the hot-tempered Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi) and the fast-paced cartoonist Jim Beckwourth (RJ Cyler ) – and a surprising adversary who has become an ally, ”explains Netflix. Rufus Buck, meanwhile, has his own terrifying crew.
They include “Treacherous” Trudy Smith (Regina King) and Cherokee Bill (LaKeith Stanfield). “I loved westerns so much growing up that when they invented Google I started looking for all of these great characters that we never learned through the movies,” Samuel told Netflix.
When the title sequence looks like this, you know it’s about to go downhill
THE HARDER THEY FALL is now streaming pic.twitter.com/B0bcPMu6wW
– NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) November 3, 2021
The real Lone Ranger
Fun fact about this movie: In this movie, Delroy Lindo plays a Black US Marshal named Bass Reeves. You’ve probably never heard of this name before. But you’ve almost certainly heard the name of the Reeves-based pop culture figure: The Lone Ranger.
At Rotten Tomatoes, meanwhile, the film has some pretty stellar scores right off the bat. It currently has an Audience Score of 93%, based on over 50 user reviews. And the Critics Score stands at 88%, based on 117 reviews. Like this 4/5 rating from Screen Rant: “The more they fall is a crowd-pleasing addition worthy of the Western canon who knows how to have a good time with a familiar story.
