#The Harder They Fall Took Inspiration From The Godfather Part II [Exclusive]

It was while consolidating material and reducing cross-cutting that Eagles looked to “The Godfather Part II.” He continued:

“As we were doing that, I was watching ‘The Godfather II’ DVD and Walter Murch was talking about how they tested the film, that movie, with a lot more inter-cutting between the past and the present, the Pacino and the De Niro storylines. And they found the same thing, that they really needed to consolidate and allow people to settle into each story and follow that for a while before cutting back across to the other gang.”

Certain directors, like Christopher Nolan, thrive on cross-cutting, with “Inception” being one example of a film that gets crazy with it across multiple dream levels. However, by giving each of the two parallel gang narratives in “The Harder They Fall” room to breathe across several scenes before cutting away from them, Eagles and Samuels are able to get the audience fully invested in both sets of characters before pitting them against each other.

“The Harder They Fall” stars Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Regina King, LaKeith Stanfield, Delroy Lindo, and Danielle Deadwyler, and is streaming on Netflix now.