Westerns have been a decidedly mixed bag at the box office. For every recent success (The Revenant, Django Unchained, True Grit, No Country for Old Men), there seems to be a disappointment or outright failure (A Million Ways to Die in the West, The Lone Ranger, Cowboys & Aliens, Jonah Hex). This year, in contrast to The Magnificent Seven, Hell or High Water takes the character driven, low budget approach. The result is an excellent film, filled with solid character moments, heist sequences, dry humor, and social commentary.
The premise is fairly simple. The Howard brothers, Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster), commit a string of bank robberies with Texas Rangers Marcus (Jeff Bridges) and Alberto (Gil Birmingham) on their trail. Hell or High Water‘s strengths are numerous, but if forced to pick one I’d choose its lead performances. Pine and Foster portray a strong family bond despite their opposite personalities. The reserved Toby masterminds the robberies with the goal of saving his family ranch from foreclosure and insuring the future for his estranged sons, while the brash ex-con Tanner seems to be taking part for the kicks almost as much as the money. On the side of the law, Bridges shines as a wisecracking veteran officer whose career is near its end. Never shy to bust his partner’s balls, Marcus isn’t as jaded as Tommy Lee Jones’ disillusioned sheriff in No Country for Old Men, though he has a looming sense of uncertainty regarding his imminent retirement. He and the younger, Comanche / Mexican Alberto constantly trade jabs about race and age, but not without having mutual respect for each other. These two relationships form the heart of the movie, resulting in an intense payoff when their paths inevitably cross.
Chris Sheridan intended his script to be a tribute to his native Texas and it shows in various vignettes that are unrelated to the main plot, but informative and interesting nonetheless. Marcus and Alberto are briefly interrupted by a prairie fire and a large group of cattle moving across the highway, as a rancher laments to them about his profession’s dying state. There’s a hilarious scene at a diner where the waitress asks what you don’t want to order. These little insights into small town Texas life are aided by the camera’s focus on the beautiful scenery. It could be said that the setting effectively functions as a fifth main character.
Although the year in which Hell or High Water takes place isn’t explicitly stated, the total lack of love shown by its characters for the banking industry, and several shots of foreclosure signs and rundown neighborhoods suggest that it’s some time after the recent subprime mortgage crisis. Toby and Tanner are certainly criminals, but they may be stealing from something worse. “[I was here] long enough to watch the bank gettin’ robbed, it’s been robbin’ me for 30 years,” a witness comments. Another parallel is drawn on how the Comanche and other Native Americans were displaced 150 years ago, and now the grandchildren of their aggressors are suffering the same fate at the hands of banks. These themes of the poverty cycle and Texan culture flow organically within the narrative, without coming across as preachy.
Hell or High Water doesn’t quite belong in the action category, but it’s intense when bullets do go flying, particularly during the third act due to all the effective buildup. Throughout the film, director David Mackenzie favors long, steady shots of the Texan landscape and communities; the same applies to the impressive heist / shootout sequences. Hell or High Water ends on an ambiguous note filled with simultaneous relief and apprehension. Credit goes to the filmmakers for making us care about the characters’ fates and hesitate on who to root for when the cops and robbers finally clash. The Western is in a precarious state in Hollywood, but entries like Hell or High Water may be exactly what the genre needs.
Dogomon 