The Harder They Fall: Netflix's Entirely Black West In "Hell Rises."

Netflix's new western film, The Harder They Fall, begins with an interesting disclaimer: "Even though the events in this film are fictional… This. Person. They exist."

Without them, audiences might think the film is an imaginary story, one of the few cases of Hollywood changing eras and historical events with more ethnic minority characters than they are.

Except, in this case, the opposite is true. Many cowboys are black, but the film industry has traditionally selected white men to lead western films, with black actors usually playing respectable roles.

Director James Samuel, who fell in love with westerns as a child in West London, wanted to provoke audience perceptions of the genre without implying that the film wasn't his - a delicate balance.

"I hate the terms black film and black film," he told News. "Because if you have a Steven Spielberg film with Audrey Hepburn and Richard Dreyfus [Always since 1989], then it's not a white film. So if there is no white cinema, there is no black cinema. A cinema is a cinema.

"So it's not a black film, it's a film that everyone can enjoy, but mostly black actors who tell their life stories."

Of course, there were attempts to diversify the previous genre. Peter Debruge of Variety commented, "Oscar Misho did black western films a century ago, and there are essential examples on the big screen through Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte in Buck and the Preacher and Mario Van Peebles.

"What remains, however, is the idea that the West has been colonized by white cowboys who confront criminals in black (as well as white) hats as they clear Indian territory."

Samuel's love of the genre stems from his parents, who regularly release films in the family home. "I think they pulled me in because they looked so real," she said.

"Looks like they were in that time and place with no special effects - real horses, real people. Okay, that was hundreds of years ago, but somehow we had cameras there. The West was the easiest for me to accept."... I feel connected to them."

The Harder They Fall follows two rival bands - led by Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) and Rufus Buck (Idris Elba). The film begins with a retrospective of love as a child whose parents were murdered by Buck at the dinner table before his very eyes.

Later in life, obsessed with revenge, Leo hears Buck's crew pulling him out of prison and chasing him. The result is two hours of highly entertaining but very cruel cinema; Both gangs know how to fight.

For Oscar-winning actress Regina King, who played Buck's partner in the evil and dangerous Trudy, the lack of information about the character in real life meant she could exercise some artistic freedom.

"When I did a Google dive for Gertrude Smith, I tried to write it in a lot of different ways, but nothing came out. So it was a bit more liberating because I didn't have to commit to anyone's type of concept," he says.

"But when you think of James and his vision of the film as a whole, it never occurs to him that everyone should be doing exactly what people might have read or researched… It's more of an extrapolation of people thinking that way. more stylish, more fun."

So, where does Samuel draw the line between how much to stick to the story and how much to create? "No line!" he answered. "I just followed my crazy and had fun. I save extra, and the bad stay bad. Besides, I just got a pure creative license and waved, as my mother told me as a child. "Go and raise hell!"