The Harder They Fall
Short description
The Harder They Fall is a Western about Nat Love, an outlaw who learns that the man who killed his father has been released from prison after two decades. Nat reassembles his old gang and sets out on horseback to track down his enemy, Rufus Buck, a brutal crime boss. The pursuit drives the film's central conflict as Nat's group closes in on Buck and his own crew.
The film is directed by Jeymes Samuel, who also wrote the screenplay with Boaz Yakin. It is his second feature, following They Die by Dawn in 2013 and preceding The Book of Clarence in 2024. The cast includes Jonathan Majors as Nat Love, Idris Elba as Rufus Buck, Regina King as Trudy Smith, Zazie Beetz as Stagecoach Mary, Delroy Lindo as Bass Reeves and Danielle Deadwyler as Cuffee, with 62 credited cast and 108 credited crew. Lawrence Bender, James Lassiter and Jay-Z produced the film for Overbrook Entertainment, and it runs 137 minutes.
Released in October 2021, the film holds a rating of 6.6 out of 10 on IMDb from around 77,000 votes, and the same score on TMDB from roughly 1,200 votes. A film critics' rating of 7.6 out of 10 from 197 reviews is noticeably higher than the audience scores, suggesting reviewers responded more favorably to the film than general viewers did.
What's left behind the scenes
- Shortly before the start of filming, Idris Elba (who played Rufus Buck) fell ill with coronavirus. Director and screenwriter James Samuel had been discussing this project with Elba for many years, and upon learning of his illness, flatly refused to even consider casting anyone else in the role of Buck, stating that he would wait for Elba to recover. Eventually, the actor did recover, but by that time the coronavirus pandemic had spread throughout the world.
- Zazie Beetz (who played Marie Fields) is fluent in German, so she dubbed her own character for release in German-speaking countries.
- Initially, the film's cast included Cynthia Erivo, Wesley Snipes, and Sterling K. Brown, however, due to the coronavirus pandemic, filming began six months later than planned, and they all left due to commitments to other projects.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
