These are not true events. People. Existed.
This is the title card for The Harder They Fall, a Netflix-released Western that was inspired by a variety of Black cowpokes. Jeymes Samuel, co-director, gathers a stellar ensemble of Black stars to give these historic figures lots of bravado. This movie does not reveal the truth of their lives, despite their boldness and names being used.
What is fact and fiction?
Here's a rundown of the true story of The Harder They Fall's heroes and villains.
Nat Love (Played By Jonathan Majors).
Jonathan Majors portrays Nat Love in "The Harder They Fall". Credit: DAVID LEEE/NETFLIX 2021
This cowboy was not like his father-slain counterpart in The Harder They Fall.
Nat Love was born to enslaved Tennessee slavecroppers in 1854. He then went West following the American Civil War. Encyclopedia.com says he was one among 5,000 Black cowboys that drove cattle along the dangerous Chisolm Trail. Love was a shooter and roper in the 1876 competition held in Deadwood City in South Dakota. He was nicknamed Deadwood Dick for his victories, which he would carry throughout his life.
Love was able to read and write so he didn't want to let his story be told. He published his autobiography, The Life and Adventures Of Nat Love: Better Known In the Cattle Country As Deadwood Dic k in 1907.
Love recounted 20 years of living in the Wild West. He wrote: Horses were shot from under me, and men were killed around me. But I always escaped with only a minor wound. I rejoiced in the danger.
Rufus Buck (Played By Idris Elba
Jonathan Majors and IdrisElba are Nat Love and Rufus Buck, respectively in "The Harder They Fall." Credit: DAVID LEEE/NETFLIX
The real Rufus Buck was an outlaw. As is shown in the movie, his violent crimes were underpinned by a revolutionary ideology that sought to expel white colonizers. He was younger than the movie portrays and his father was not a Black preacher.
Harvard Magazine reports that Rufus Buck (18 years old) was the son of a Creek father and Black mother. He dreamed that his gangs would spark an Indian uprising and expel the illegal white majority.
Buck failed. His gang was captured after a brutal rampage of murder and rape. They were executed for their crimes on July 1, 1896, according to the National Park Service's series "Fort Smith Minutes".
In "The Harder they Fall," Stagecoach Mary Fields is Zazie Beetz. Credit: DAVID LEE/NETFLIX 2020
Stagecoach Mary Fields (Played By Zazie Beetz
Some major liberties taken in the reimagining Stagecoach Mary have been criticized as colorism. In the movie, Mary Fields is depicted as a saloon-owner/showgirl who is young, light-skinned, and favors flashy womens clothing. In reality, she was darker-skinned and preferred menswear. She was in her 60s when the West was first to welcome African American women to the continent.
Mary was born into slavery in 1832. She worked her way up the ranks after the Civil War by taking odd jobs on riverboats, and as a servant or laundress. She eventually became a groundskeeper at Toledo's Ursuline Convent, Sacred Heart, Ohio.
History.com points out that her penchant to curse, smoke cigars and drink did not make her a favorite among the nuns. Mary was loved for her shooting skills and penchant for cursing when she set off for the West. Stagecoach Mary carried a rifle and revolver and rode through terrible weather and rough roads to deliver the post. She was protected from vicious bandits as well as ravenous wolves. It was said that many people paid Stagecoach Mary a respectable farewell by buying her a meal at a local restaurant or buying her a drink at the local tavern.
Gertrude Treacherous Truedy Smith (Played By Regina King).
Regina King portrays Treacherous Trudy, Smith in "The Harder They Falls" Credit: DAVID LEE/NETFLIX 2021
Treacherous Trudy, Buck's right hand and a determined badass, is featured in The Harder They Fall. Many details about her life are lost, unfortunately. Samuel stated that she knew little about her except for Treacherous Trudy Smith in an interview with Indiewire. We do know that she was from San Francisco's Barbary Coast. She then left, which means she was well-traveled.
Cuffee (Played By Danielle Deadwyler).
Cuffee is Stagecoach Marys no-nonsense bouncer for much of the movie. Her inspiration is Cathay Williams, however.
Williams, like her character on screen, wore men's clothes and was prepared for war. The 22-year old enlisted in U.S. Regular Army under William Cathay because women were forbidden from fighting. Later she joined the all-Black Buffalo Soldiers regiment and became the first woman to be documented as serving in the U.S. Army.
Williams was born into slavery in Missouri in 1844. Her first encounter with the military was when the Union army invaded Jefferson City. They claimed all Jefferson City residents as contraband. She volunteered to do this work at age 17 before pretending to be a man to become a soldier.
Williams left the military after her service and moved to Colorado with a man she later called "no account" because he robbed Williams of money, horses, and a wagon. She became a seamstress. A roving reporter recorded her life's highs and lows, which she shared in the St. Louis Daily Times Jan. 2, 1876.
She spoke of her time in the army and said that only two people, a cousin, and a friend, were aware that she was a woman. They didn't 'blow' on me. They were partly responsible for me joining the army. Another reason I joined the army was to be independent and not rely on my friends or family.
Sadly, despite her many years of service and fame, Williams, who suffered from health issues such as diabetes and neuralgia, was denied a disability pension. Although her exact date of death is not known, the National Park Service suggests that it was shortly after she made her last plea for help.
A monumental bust in uniform of Williams is now in Leavenworth Texas.
LaKeith Stanfield (far left) as Cherokee Bill, "The Harder They Fall" Credit to DAVID LEE/NETFLIX 2020
Cherokee Bill (Played By LaKeith Stanfield)
In real life, Bill and Buck were not in a gang. They had enough in common to make it a sensible revision of The Harder They Fall.
Cherokee Bill was born Crawford Goldsby, February 8, 1876. He was the son of a Buffalo Soldier and was raised by his Cherokee mother. True West Magazine states that he was just 12 years old when he killed his first time and that by 18 he was running with a group of young Black men of Indian descent. They started small by selling whiskey and stealing horses, then they moved to robbery, embarking on a wild rampage that included robbery as well as murder.
Cherokee Bill, like Rufus Buck, lived fast and died young. However, he is not seen in the movie in a gunfight. He was 20 years old when he was sentenced to death for his crimes. When Bill was asked what his last words were, he sighed, "I didn't come to speak, I came to hang."
Credit: Delroy Lindo (center) and Bass Reeves, "The Harder They Falls" Credit:
Bass Reeves (Played By Delroy Lindo
Like in The Harder They Fall Bass Reeves, a lawman who was known for his courage and ability to take down outlaws. Bass Reeves was born into slavery in Arkansas and forced to fight for Confederacy. He was forced to fight for the Confederacy until he fled to "Indian Territory", where he learned the languages and customs of the Native Chickasaw, Creek Cherokee, Choctaw and Seminole tribes.
Reeves was the first Black deputy U.S. Marshal after the 13th Amendment in 1865 abolished slavery. Reeves was one of the first Black deputy U.S. Marshals. His knowledge of the Indian Territory, as well as his connections with the communities, served him well in this role. He also had a sharp eye, sharp mind and a skill for shooting. The Washington Post recalls the legendary lawman as a tall, muscular man with a boisterous demeanour who could handle a.44 Winchester rifle in such a way that he could kill an individual from a quarter mile away. He also brought many outlaws to justice including several white ones.
It is no surprise then, that Reeves' reputation was said to have inspired the legendary Western hero, The Lone Ranger.
Bill Pickett (Played By Edi Gathegi).
Pickett and Jim Beckwourth are paired together in the film to form a comedy duo. He plays the straight man to Jim Beckwourth's cocky stooge. Pickett was actually a rodeo star, not a wise-cracking outlaw.
Pickett was born in Texas on Dec. 5, 1870. He began his rodeo career as a ranchhand. Pickett began to break horses and started performing trick rides on weekends. He was a well-known name by 1905 and signed to the 101 Ranch Wild West Show. Legends of America notes included such iconic characters as Buffalo Bill Cody and Will Rogers.
Pickett faced racism as the show traveled. Pickett was Cherokee and refused to be allowed to perform at rodeos. To gain admission, he claimed he was a full-blooded Indian. Pickett created bull-dogging, a sport where a horse-rider chases down a steer, then pulls on its horns to bring it to the ground.
Pickett was then cast in The Bull-Dogger (1921), and later inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame (71). This was his first award as a Black cowboy.
RJ Cyler portrays Jim Beckwourth in The Harder They Fall Credit: DAVID LEE/NETFLIX
Jim Beckwourth (Played By RJ Cyler).
Jim Beckwourth, the fictional Jim Beckwourth, is an arrogant quickdrawer with a mouth that moves faster than his hand. He also has a very young death. Beckwith, in real life, lived to his 60s. He was an explorer, mountain man, and lady man.
Beckwourth was born in Virginia on April 26, 1798, 72 years before Pickett. He was the son of a black mother and a slave-owner father. Beckwourth, aged 12, went to St. Louis along with his father. He freed him from slavery. Bewourth was a fur trader and horse-riding expedition leader across the Rocky Mountains in his 20s. He spent six years in the Crow tribe out West and grew up close to them. He claimed that he had married several indigenous women.
Britannica says that Beckwourth is known for telling tall stories and sharing his sincere memories. Many of these stories made it into The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth (1856), Mountaineer Scout, Pioneer, Chief of Crow Nation of Indians.
Beckwourth's life was a storied one. He had returned to the Crows in the late 1860s. It is not clear how he died. It was either a mishap on a hunting trip or a woman he cheated.
Netflix now has The Harder They Falls.
