Jeymes Samuel’s gonzo revenge western, with a cast including Elba, Regina King, and Zazie Beetz is enjoyable, if face-splatteringly brutal
The London film festival saddles up for a gonzo revenge western which aims to reclaim the often erased African American side of this genre and history. It stars Regina King, Idris Elba and LaKeith Stanfield, and is created by the impressive hyphenate Jeymes Samuel, also known as singer-songwriter and film-maker The Bullitts, who also co-produces along with Tarantino veteran Lawrence Bender.
Samuel has brought out short movies alongside his music releases in the past and now makes this headbangingly, face-splatteringly violent feature debut, featuring the gun-toting gangsters of the old west wearing old-timey hats of all shapes and sizes. This is a really cine-literate piece of work, with echoes of Sergio Leone, John Sturges and perhaps also Mario Van Peebles’s Posse. There are some terrific moments, although the pace and the drumbeat of violence, confrontation and standoff is maybe a bit uniform, and I would have liked a bit more witty or tender dialogue to go into the mix. But if it’s more style than substance, well it really is tremendous style, and the four-note punch that hammers out the title on the screen at the beginning – THE-HARDER-THEY-FALL – is inspired.