The Harder They Fall Director Jeymes Samuel on Crafting the Big 3rd Act Shootout

With The Harder They Fall now streaming on Netflix, I recently spoke to writer-director Jeymes Samuel about making the revenge-soaked Western. During the interview, Samuel talked about what it was like filming the 3rd act shootout, his favorite westerns, what were some of the big things he learned about the old west when researching the film, the challenges he had to overcome in the editing room, what he learned making They Die by Dawn that helped him with the feature, and more. If you haven’t seen the trailers, the all-Black Western follows outlaw Nat Love (Jonathan Majors), who rounds up his old gang to help him seek revenge when he discovers that the man (Idris Elba) who killed his parents two decades ago, is being released from prison. What’s cool and unique about the film is Samuel has gathered real people (like Rufus Buck, Cherokee Bill, Stagecoach Mary, and Jim Beckwourth) who lived in different times in the 19th century and brought them all together to tell his story. In addition, he got Shawn