Review of Hell or High Water (2016) by Axgrinder — 09 Sep 2016

More a character study than action film, Hell or High Water is not your classic Western. Set in current day rural west Texas, the movie paints a bleak landscape of small towns with vacant store fronts and ranch lands dotted with For Sale signs.

Average citizens struggle to make ends meet, and not a single character in the movie has a future to look forward to. Their lives twist slowly in the wind, and the slow pace of director David Mackensie’s movie left me feeling much the same way.

The economic disparity between the Haves (banks and the oil companies) and the Have Nots has become so burdensome that Toby (Chris Pine) and his ex-convict brother Tanner (Ben Foster) have nothing to left lose by going desperado.

Jeff Bridges plays a deft and skillful sheriff on the verge of a retirement that he’s not looking forward to. He jokes to his partner about going out in a blaze of glory. His fatal flaw is a lack of cultural sensitivity which, when combined with an unalterable sense of right and wrong, make it impossible for him to comprehend the cultural and moral schism that is occurring.

The story embodies the kind of social injustice message that Hollywood loves. Yet, this movie can’t be dismissed so easily. The message is delivered with more subtleness than blunt force, and the ending is not what you would expect.

The acting is solid on all fronts, and there are some guilty pleasures to be had in watching the vigilantes take in on the chin. Plus, you can psychoanalyze your female friends by asking them if they would do what the waitress did.