‘The Harder They Fall’ Director Jeymes Samuel Didn’t Invent The West — He Liberated It
It is often said that to love something is to criticize its flaws. That always happens to the director James Samuel, His innovative new film was born out of both his admiration and frustration with the Western genre. “I want, with The harder it is for them to fall, to use all the scams of the West and then change everything about them,” he said Katey Rich this week Little Golden Men audio file.
Samuel’s Vision is available now on Netflix and boasts a brilliant cast, including Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, LaKeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz, and Delroy Lindo. In a wide-ranging interview, Samuel said VF about his mantra “follow your madness” and why Western stereotypes “ruin the way we see each other”. The latest episode of LGM also includes analysis of best screenplay Oscar races, discussion of Netflix’s Mark, mark… Boom !, and an interview with The power of the dog star Kodi Smit-McPhee.
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Read a partial transcript of the Jeymes Samuel interview below.
Vanity Fair: In another interview, you said that you always think about The harder it is for them to fall as a tripartite. Is that still in your head now that it’s out in the world?
James Samuel: Yes, 100%. I always imagine The harder it is for them to fall as [going with] always a prequel and a sequel. I always sketch the stories of both and, later, of the Old West. If you take out the narrow, male-centred stories we’ve been given, it means you have a whole story universe with women dominating reality, with people of color, all all races. You have a whole category. You basically have a genre that’s 90% unexplored. So I will always go back to the Old West. I love it too much. People think they don’t like the West, or many will say, “Ah, man, The harder it is, the more they fall, such a dope movie, and I don’t even like the West. “It shows that you do like the West. You just don’t get what you need. And then God created Jeymes Samuel.
I didn’t grow up loving the West and then learning to love them. I love what you said about growing up and you really enjoyed them, but I can’t imagine there are so many kids growing up around you who also love the West. Are you always alone trying to convince people to join?
The older I get, the better. But not when I was a kid. They’re just on TV all the time, so you’ll just watch them with everything else. Literally, they were on television all the time. Now, they’re played over and over again, because Britain is just obsessed with anything American. Britain is haunted by two cultures, American and Australian. You’ll watch English TV first thing in the morning, and around 3:30, 4pm, it’s just Australian TV—Home and Far, Neighbors, all these soap operas. High heartache, I remember I used to watch just after NS The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Is crazy. Little House on the Prairie—It’s a Westerner. Even The Waltons It’s a bit western, but it’s just more family oriented.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/11/the-harder-they-fall-director-jeymes-samuel-little-gold-men-interview-awards-insider ‘The Harder They Fall’ Director Jeymes Samuel Didn’t Invent The West — He Liberated It
