Review of Hell or High Water (2016) by Cameron A — 27 Jan 2017

"3 Tours in Iraq and No Bailout for People Like Us." These words, spray painted along the side of a stained brick wall, tell the audience who the villain of Hell or High Water is and where the motivation for two brothers to tear through West Texas towns that are all but deserted. Boarded up storefronts, abandoned gas stations, debt relief and fast cash signs peppered with bullets, sand blasted homes for sale; the vast and sepia toned landscape that is West Texas seems all but abandoned save for these two outlaws, the lawmen that chase them, and the citizens who are protecting whatever they have left.

Hell or High Water tells the tale of Toby and Tanner Howard (Chris Pine and Ben Foster, respectively), two brothers that go on a bank robbing spree across the plains of West Texas to save their family's land from being seized by the very banks they are robbing. The lawmen charged with hunting the Howard brothers down are a pair of Texas Rangers, Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham). Chris Pine's Toby Howard takes no joy in the path he's chosen in this time of desperation. It's a choice he struggles with and feels guilty for up until the final moments of the film, but the position he's in doesn't provide an easy out to his problems. With the burden of providing for his family and keeping his brother Tanner from going off the reservation, Toby understands that if he falls apart so does the plan to ensure his families safety. Even if it means sacrificing his own. Ben Foster shines as Tanner Howard, the unstable wild card to Chris Pine's careful but calculating Toby. Foster has always excelled as a character actor and his portrayal of the life long West Texas cowboy convict is done so with excellent emotional range and comedic wit that steals the movie away from his little brother, the just as voracious yet cliched character of Marcus Hamilton that Jeff Bridges plays, and the emotionally grounded punching bag that is Gil Birmingham's Alberto Parker.

The biggest success of the film comes from the comedic back and forth between the competing duos; it provides some much needed levity as you are beaten over the head with the environmental and orchestral storytelling of how desperate the wild plains of West Texas have become in a post-recession world. Foster and Pine's big brother/little brother relationship is believable and relatable through excellent shared storytelling and good natured ribbing. On the right side of the law, Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham provide the perfect yang to the bank robbing brothers yin; their particular brand of good natured ribbing is steeped in Marcus's desire to stay attached to the life he's about to retire from and Alberto's desire to show respect to this ranger that he doesn't feel comfortable with but respects and needs to finish this job. Writer Taylor Sheridan (Sicario, Sons of Anarchy) figured out how to weave comedy back into an old west style cop & robbers film that takes place in modern day. The banter in Hell or High Water provides the audience with a movie that feels like something old given new life.

Nowadays, in most crime films, directors and writers are too quick to lay out the story and motivations of the characters. Leaving little to the imagination of the audience, causing disinterest by the third act as the audience impatiently waits for the conclusion they see coming a mile away. The film is methodical in its storytelling, and a reminder of films from a different time. Each scene in Hell or High Water adds a new wrinkle to the main story and to the character(s) of this part of the United States, which much like this type of cops & robbers tale, is being left behind. By the end of Hell or High Water, you understand the motivations and personality of each character and of those of the towns that are visited throughout.

The characters on screen entice the audience to not take a side, to root for good to triumph over evil and for evil to escape the good. Similar to playing cops & robbers when you were a kid, the audience can easily switch sides after the first act, the second, and the third. To walk away from the experience understanding and appreciating the effort of the filmmakers to make you feel satisfied with the outcome, regardless of who your favorite was.

The film also takes care to make the Howard Brothers into West Texas Robin Hoods; a point made clear halfway through the film when the attorney handling the money the brothers steal stating "to see you boys pay those bastards back with their own money? Well if that ain't Texan I don't know what is." Even Alberto, the half-Native American, half-Mexican ranger points out to Marcus at one point, while the pair stake out a bank, that "a long time ago your ancestors was the Indians. Until someone came along and killed em. Broke em down, made you into one of them. 150 years ago, all this was my ancestors land. Everything you could see, everything you saw yesterday. Til' the grandparents of these folks took it. And now its been taken from them. Except it ain't no army doing it. It's those sons of bitches right there" as he points to the very bank they are protecting.

That's the charm of Hell or High Water. The moments of contemplating the right and wrong of the two outlaw brothers actions. Two other examples of this occur early on in the film; a working mom name Jenny Ann (Katy Mixon) protects the handsome stranger who gave her a $200 tip that's half her mortgage while at the same an old timer (Paul Howard Smith) is trying to make sense of the actions of these outlaws. "Seems foolish, days of robbing banks, trying to live and spend the money? Long gone, long gone for sure." Most modern cat and mouse, cops & robbers movies have gone too high tech. Robbing a bank in modern movies involves elaborate over planning, augmented reality floor and security layouts, degrees and experience in technical wizardry. "Only assholes drink Mr. Pibb" is an apt line from Tanner Howard that best describes this. In this film, it's back to basics. Two men, two guns, some getaway cars, and a simple plan.

It's that back to basics approach, along with a fantastic original score and soundtrack provided by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, that keeps the tension level high for the entire 102 minutes of the film. This prevailing sense of tension is encapsulated during the same scene where Alberto pontificates on the state of life in West Texas; Marcus says something that at first seems like a throwaway line. However, taken into the context of modern cops & robbers tales that allow the outlaws to have multiple small mistakes that don't fuck up the grand plan or prevent them from getting to the final score, Marcus says "we're just waiting for them to make a mistake. They haven't made one yet, but they will." That's what makes this movie thrilling. The stakes are always high; especially since it was established in the first 15 minutes of the film that each bank they enter has the chance that someone in that bank is packing heat and is more than happy to dispense vigilante justice.

Hell or High Water is a thrilling, western crime story about the desperation of the outlaws to save what's theirs and the duty bound lawmen trying to hunt them down. For all the ambiguity and slow pacing of the story, the film ends with a clear winner and loser and leaves you wanting another old west tale. Perhaps this movie will reinvigorate writers and filmmakers to realize that sometimes the most compelling cat and mouse game is the one that occurs in a box. Less Mr. Pibb, more Dr. Pepper.