2016 | Dir. David Mackenzie | 102 Minutes
"To watch you pay those bastards with their own money, if that ain't Texan I don’t know what is."
To pay off the reverse mortgage on their late mother's
ranch, brothers Toby and Tanner rob branches of the local Texas bank that
provided the predatory loan. Toby is desperate but level-headed, carefully planning each
robbery and devising a method to launder the money, while Tanner is brash and
impulsive. Hot on their trail are Texas Rangers Marcus Hamilton and Alberto
Parker, the final case for Hamilton before retirement.
Hell or High Water is a captivating contemporary take on the
movie western made more relevant by weaving in the damage to the American
housing market and overall economy inflicted by the greed of the banking
industry. David Mackenzie's film features a desolate Texan landscape of failing
farms and struggling businesses populated with nuanced, well-rounded, and
downright eccentric characters. Although they are on the wrong side of the law,
the audience is led to sympathize with the brothers on some levels (at least
until Tanner's penchant for violence crosses over into outright murder),
painting the faceless institutions that failed them as the true villains of the
narrative. Perfectly setting the tone, the picture's soundtrack by Nick Cave
and Warren Ellis is fittingly Texan and grim.
Chris Pine makes for a solid leading man as the reasonable
brother Toby. However, Pine's performance is outshined by Ben Foster's Tanner.
Foster completely owns the part of a self-proclaimed Comanche, an enemy to
all, even to himself, providing pathos and dimension to a character that could have been played as a straight-forward psychopath. Jeff Bridges effortlessly fits the part of grizzled Texas
Ranger Hamilton, casually trading racist jabs with Gil Birmingham's Alberto,
the duo exhibiting an amusing and very natural chemistry.
Hell or High Water is an impactful and thrilling Texas crime
drama unfolding in the present post-mortgage crisis landscape. In the same vein
as films like the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men, it's the kind of
neo-western in which all that remains of the frontier is a wasteland and the
old gunslinger archetypes are a dying breed.
FRAGMENTS
- Chris Pine and Ben Foster previously appeared together in The Finest
Hours
- The film's writer Taylor Sheridan makes a cameo appearance
as a cowboy
- The screenplay was voted the best Black List script in 2012 (The Black List is an annual survey of the most-liked Hollywood movie scripts not yet produced)
- Though set in Texas, the film was shot in New Mexico
- Dale Dickey (Mrs. Davis in Iron Man 3)
