"Complete Fantasy": Netflix's 2021 Western Movie Brutally Assessed By Historian

Summary Old West Historian Michael Grauer analyzed the Netflix Western The Harder They Fall.

Grauer rated The Harder They Fall a 3/10 for accuracy, criticizing portrayal of U.S. Army involvement in legal disputes.

The film received positive reviews upon its release.

Netflix's 2021 film The Harder They Fall gets assessed by a historian. The Harder They Fall is a Western about a man who rallies his gang in order to seek revenge on his enemy, who is being released from prison. The Harder They Fall is directed by Jeymes Samuel and features a leading cast including Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, Idris Elba, LaKieth Stanfield, Regina King, RJ Cyler, Edi Gathegi, Chase Dillon, DeWanda Wise, Danielle Deadwyler, Torrey B. Lawrence, Damon Wayans J., Julio Cesar Cedillo, and Manny Rubio.

Speaking with Insider, Old West historian Michael Grauer rates the accuracy of The Harder They Fall. Grauer broke down a scene wherein the character Cherokee Bill is seen on a prison train.

One of the historian's main qualms with the scene was seeing the U.S. Army "get involved in legal disputes," something they rarely got involved with. This created issues with the scene's portrayal of the "transport of prisoners." Overall, he characterized The Harder They Fall as a "complete fantasy" and gave it a 3 out of 10 accuracy rating. Check out the full explanation from Grauer below:

"Complete fantasy. Rufus Buck and Cherokee Bill were notorious outlaws. But I'm not sure, in this kind of presentation, that serves that particular movement, agenda, philosophy. As I mentioned before, outlaws fled to Indian territory in huge numbers. But it also included displaced people from the eastern or southeastern United States who brought their enslaved people with them in the 1830s and 40s. And ultimately you have mixed-race people there who are part Native American and part African-American. And so, both Rufus Buck and Cherokee Bill come from that demographic. And so the zeal to track them down and bring them to justice did not just fall to federal lawmen, it also fell to tribal lawmen. And to create this fantasy story here, with the Cherokee Bill story, just tell, tell the truth! And it will make for a better movie anyway. This is a specially designed prisoner train, evidently. Well the U.S. army did not get involved in legal disputes, their job was to keep people safe from depredations, but they almost never got involved with outlaws. Almost never. They had Federal marshals that did that kind of transport of prisoners. And they had special jail cars. Usually by wagon, rarely by train. And so the fact that you've got a mythical, fictional group of soliders, assigned to this specially designed prisoner cage, built inside of a train car, I mean it's like the Will Smith movie The Wild Wild West. I would say the rating of this is 3."

The Harder They Fall Is Still Overlooked (Despite Inaccuracies)

The Harder They Fall Has A Great Cast

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Upon its release in 2021, The Harder They Fall's reviews were overall extremely positive. The film holds a Certified Fresh 88% with 200 reviews, and a 93% approval rating among audiences. Critics raved about the strong ensemble and the Western film's infusion of anachronistic songs with reggae beats and more. The New York Times' A.O. Scott, for example, said that "Samuel makes the most of his formidable cast." IndieWire said the film had a "modern energy" that kept it feeling fresh.

Even with this praise, The Harder They Fall went relatively under-the-radar and did not receive awards attention. The film's underratedness was a disservice to its talented cast, which included a powerhouse like Elba along with lesser known but potent stars such as Stanfield and Deadwyler. Using a majority Black cast for Western films is also a fascinating disruption of genre conventions, giving The Harder They Fall an edge over the other modern Westerns.

Related 10 Movies & TV Shows Where You've Seen The Harder They Fall Cast The cast of The Harder They Fall is full of familiar actors, many of whom have played iconic roles in movies and TV shows over the years.

Given these strong qualities, it is a shame that The Harder They Fall seems not to have committed to accuracy as much as it potentially could have done. The film is based on a fascinating story that reveals a cultural interaction that led to a group of "mixed-race people" with identities that gave them a unique experience during the time in which they lived. If The Harder They Fall had better stuck to the truth, it could have elevated the film beyond its already positive qualities, making it truly one to look out for on Netflix.

Source: Insider / YouTube